Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a show which will feel all too real for many.

The new ITV series tells the story of the mass miscarriage of justice that engulfed hundreds of innocent Post Office staff as a result of a faulty IT system and subsequent cover up. 

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on incorrect information from the Horizon system.  

Former postmaster Alan Bates led and won a legal battle after himself falling victim to the faults. His victory paved the way for dozens of convictions to be overturned.

He is portrayed on screen by Toby Jones, whilst his supportive wife Susanne Sercombe is depicted by Julie Hesmondhalgh.

The show depicts several other innocent former Post Office staff who were wrongly convicted, including Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolan) and Lee and Lisa Castleton (Will Mellor and Amy Nuttall).

Also portrayed is much-criticised former Post Office CEO Paul Vennells, who stepped down from her role in February 2019 and has faced calls to give back her CBE. 

Below, MailOnline delves into the lives of each of the key players depicted in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Alan Bates 

Mr Bates, now 69, and Ms Sercombe used their life savings to buy a Post Office Branch in Llandudno, North Wales, in 1998.

The businessman, who was a meticulous record keeper, started seeing unexplained losses in the branch’s accounts by the end of 2000.

He had his contract as a subpostmaster terminated by the Post Office in 2003 after he refused to accept liability for £1,200 worth of recorded losses.

He contended the money never existed and was due to a software glitch.

Mr Bates and his partner kept the shop, but the termination of the Post Office contract meant they lost an investment of around £60,000.

In 2009, he set up the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JSFA), as the Post Office was in the process of pursuing the prosecutions of 736 former postmasters and postmistresses. 

In 2019 a judge ruled that the Horizon IT system had ‘bug, errors and defects’ and the Post Office agreed to settle with all 555 claimants who joined in the legal action.

Mr Bates revealed in December last year that he had turned down the OBE for his campaigning in disgust at Mrs Vennells retaining her honour.

The 69-year-old told the Mirror: ‘The first thing that sprang to my mind while reading the letter was Paula Vennells still had a CBE.

‘I felt so deeply insulted. She presided over a policy of harassing hundreds of innocent people. It’s not just that the Government hasn’t asked her to return it.

‘What’s even worse is that despite knowing the strength of feeling about it, how people have suffered and some cases died on her watch – she doesn’t feel inclined to give it back.’

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Mr Bates praised the new drama, saying: ‘I think the actors have done a wonderful job in it and they’ve really portrayed a lot of the suffering that people have gone through so well.’  

Suzanne Sercombe 

Broadchurch star Hesmondhalgh portrays Ms Sercombe, who supported her husband throughout his legal fight. 

Speaking of her portrayal of Ms Sercombe, Hesmondhalgh told the Lancashire Telegraph: ‘Suzanne has, in lots and lots of ways, put her own life on hold and sacrificed huge amounts to this cause. 

‘She’s no walkover, not a little wifey at home by any stretch of the imagination. 

‘I get the impression that sometimes it’s been hard because she’s quite a strong personality.’ 

Paula Vennells 

Mrs Vennells was in charge of the Post Office from 2012 until 2019, when the firm was still carrying out prosecutions of more than 700 subpostmasters.

The former CEO, who is an ordained priest and married mother of two, left the Post Office with a CBE for services to the organisation as well as to charity – and a £389,000 bonus. 

She had secured work as an adviser to the Cabinet Office and as chairman of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London.

Mrs Vennells has repeatedly apologised over the scandal, first in 2019 upon the conclusion of the group action against the Post Office.

And last summer she said: ‘I remain truly sorry for the suffering caused to wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters and their families.’

This week, Postal Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake said she should give back her CBE. 

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that as chief executive she ‘ultimately [had] responsibility for what happened’.

‘If I was Paula Vennells, I would seriously consider handing that CBE back voluntarily’, he added. 

She is portrayed in Mr Bates vs the Post Office by Lia Williams, who starred as Wallis Simpson in Netflix series The Crown. 

Mrs Vennells had served as a minister at a church in St Albans but stepped back from her duties in 2021.  

Angela van den Bogerd

Ms van den Bogerd worked her way up from behind the counter at a Post Office branch to become a director at the firm.

She worked closely with Mrs Vennells and stepped down from her role in 2020.

She is portrayed in the new ITV drama by former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly.

Ms van den Bogerd defended the Post Office when the accuracy of the Horizon system came into question.

Former subpostmaster Parmod Kalia had asked the Post Office for an apology after he was wrongly convicted.

Ms van den Bogard replied to him, saying that the Post Office had ‘exhaustively investigated’ Horizon and had not identified ‘any transaction caused by a technical fault with Horizon which resulted in a postmaster wrongly being held responsible for a loss of money’.

She added that there was no evidence of transactions recorded by branches ‘being altered through “remote access” to the system. 

‘Horizon does not have functionality that allows the Post Office or Fujitsu [the manufacturer of the system] to edit or delete the transactions recorded by branches.’

Just over a year later, the Post Office admitted in court that remote access was possible. 

According to the BBC, it was claimed during her time at the Post Office that she ‘bullied’ staff into signing confessions that they had committed fraud.

In December 2020 it was ruled that she had ‘obfuscated’ and ‘misled’ the court with her testimony. 

The Rt Hon Justice Fraser said: ‘There were two specific matters where [Angela van den Bogerd] did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters and mislead me.’

In 2020, she was appointed as the Head of People at the Football Association of Wales. She left the role in 2021. 

Jo Hamilton 

Jo Hamilton, a mother-of-two, ran a post office in South Warnborough, Hampshire, with her landscape gardener husband David.

She was forced to plead guilty to a £36,000 shortfall after Post Office bullying left her ‘terrified’ of going to jail.

More than 70 villagers supported her at court, and the local vicar vouched for her good character.

The judge put her on probation for a year, where she was forced to attend rehabilitation meetings with hardened criminals.

Her criminal record meant she could find work only as a cleaner for cash, and she was barred from attending her grandchildren’s school.

She is portrayed in the ITV drama by Monica Dolan. 

Ms Hamilton said in 2021: ‘They told me I was the only one. But after my case went to court others came forward to say it had happened to them too.’ 

She was left furious in 2022 at the paltry offer of compensation offered by the Post Office.

She said: They’re just giving me my money back, there’s nothing for what they did to me. 

‘I’m not going to accept it. I will go back to court if I need to. I’m just furious about it.’

Lee and Lisa Castleton

Husband and wife Lee and Lee Castleton bought a Post Office branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, 2003.

Both thought that the business would provide for their family and set them up for the rest of their lives. 

However, within a few months, the Castletons faced accusations of fraud that eventually cost them their livelihood, home, reputation and health.

It would be years before they discovered that they were just two of hundreds of people in similar positions.

The Post Office’s auditor, Helen Rose, said they owed £25,000. When Mr Castleton refused to pay the money back, he was dismissed and taken to court by the Post Office.

A case at the High Court found against them and the Post Office then pursued them for £321,000 in legal costs.

The Castletons then took part in Mr Bates’ legal action against the Post Office. 

After their bankruptcy and other debts were taken into account, they received just £30,000.

The couple are portrayed in the new ITV drama by Will Mellor and Amy Nuttall. 

Mr Castleton now works night shifts in a factory to make ends meet, whilst his wife has a job in a small supermarket owned by her family.

The couple were once mortgage-free aged 35 but now have a new mortgage that they will not pay off until they are 70. 

In the depths of their despair, they feared that their two children, now 28 and 26, would be taken away from them. 

Mr Castleton told the Mail this week: ‘We haven’t got to the end of this; I’m still fighting, we’re still victims.

‘But I look forward to the day when it is not the last thing I think about at night and the first thing I think about when I wake up.’ 

Noel Thomas 

Noel Thomas, now 76, was jailed for nine months in 2006 after he was accused of stealing £48,000 while he was working for the Post Office in Gaerwen on Anglesey. 

In the hope of avoiding imprisonment, he had pled guilty to false accounting over the money ‘missing’ from his tiny post office.

However, he ended up turning 60 while in prison. 

Speaking to the BBC after he had his conviction quashed in 2021, he said: ‘I want everyone to have their name cleared and to get to the bottom of what has happened and where the money has gone to.

‘Thirteen years after jail, I must admit it was hard but I gradually got my confidence back through family, friends and work colleagues.

‘Yes, I do feel bitter, and not just for myself – the Post Office have been coming and telling people that they have taken money, that they are a thief.’

He is portrayed by Ifan Huw Dafydd in the new ITV drama. 

In December 2022, Mr Thomas was honoured by his local council, who gave him ‘a long delayed vote of thanks for his service’.

He had served as a councillor for decades before being disqualified from the role when he went to prison.  

Michael Rudkin

Michael Rudkin, who is portrayed in the drama by Shaun Dooley, was a subpostmaster who was pursued to the brink of ruin by the Post Office.

He believes that action was taken against him after he allegedly discovered that data in branches could be altered remotely.

The day after Mr Rudkin expressed concern at the revelation, a Post Office auditor turned up at his shop in Ibstock, Leicestershire, to tell him £44,000 was unaccounted for. 

‘My world was turned upside down,’ he said in 2015, adding: ‘I became like a drowning man with no life raft.’

Despite insisting he never saw a penny of the ‘missing’ funds, Mr Rudkin was forced to repay the money and his wife Susan, who did most of the day-to-day running of the branch, was prosecuted and given a suspended prison sentence.

Mr Rudkin, now 66, had his contract terminated while his wife was left ‘contemplating suicide’ after her conviction.

In September last year, Mr Rudkin said the £600,000 he and his wife were offered in compensation was ‘obscene’.

‘When you take into account that we have been out of the business for 15 years – that is 5,475 days,’ he told the BBC. 

To make ends meet after they lost their positions at the Post Office, the couple turned their home into a Bed and Breakfast.  

Pamela Stubbs

Pamela Stubbs was suspended and stripped of her post office after glitches in the new Horizon IT system claimed she had ‘lost’ £27,000. 

She was never told bosses privately suspected losses at Barkham Post Office in Berkshire were ‘related’ to problems with the computer software.

When Mrs Stubbs refused to pay the money, she was kicked out of the business she had run for 23 years – including ten by herself after her husband died. 

The pensioner, from Wokingham, was sent a bill every month for her ‘debt’, and the Post Office even said it would take a cut of her earnings from any future jobs.

A criminal investigator came round to interview her, but despite being unable to prove she had taken the money, the business was never returned to her.

She is portrayed in the new drama by Lesley Nicol.