A television drama about one of the UK's biggest miscarriages of justice has prompted more than a million people to sign a petition and the government to announce new legislation, all within a week of its broadcast.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a four-part ITV series aired from 1 January, dramatises the Horizon scandal, in which faulty accounting software led to hundreds of post office branch managers being wrongly accused of theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2015. More than 700 people were prosecuted, with many losing their jobs, homes, and livelihoods, and some even being sent to prison.
The show, starring Toby Jones as campaigner Alan Bates, drew 9.2 million viewers and has been credited with humanising the scandal. Writer Gwyneth Hughes said she aimed to create a 'direct visceral appeal' to make the public care about the victims. Within days of the finale on 4 January, over a million people signed a petition demanding that former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells return her CBE, which she did on 9 January.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak then announced that the government would introduce a new law to quash convictions and provide compensation. BBC political editor Chris Mason described the speed of the government's response as 'extraordinary', highlighting the power of drama to shift public opinion and galvanise political action.
