Media is so important in our lives: from contacting friends on Facebook, to catching up on the latest edition of 'Eastenders'. Wherever you go, you will see people glued to their phone screens—even in our chapel, as we gather for community prayer, many pray the Daily Office from a Breviary application on their phone. Some will freely admit that they would rather lose a limb than give up their smart phone. Everything from reading newspapers to booking your summer holiday, can be done from the comfort of your own home, holding a tiny device. This handheld miracle helps you to connect to the whole world.

On New Year's Day 2024, ITV studios began a four-night series that has made a huge impact on the life of the nation. 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' dramatically retold the sad case of Mr Alan Bates and hundreds of fellow sub post officers. The British Post Office is a national institution founded by King Charles II in 1660, although the present nationalised 'Post Office Limited' was set up in 1987, with the British Government as its only shareholder. Through its charter, a post office can be found in every town and village in the nation offering a service that is equal in central London as well as the Outer Hebrides. This was made possible by the network of Sub-Post Offices where local entrepreneurs could set up a full post office business attached to, for example, a local corner shop. This offered the convenience of full post office facilities for every local community in the land. This meant that everything from selling a stamp, sending a parcel, banking, and pension distribution could be obtained locally.

From 1999, the Post Office began taking legal action against over 700 sub post masters and mistresses being charged with fraud. On the basis of findings from the 'Horizon' information technology systems, it was alleged that these men and women were guilty of embezzlement and fraud. It was claimed that thousands of pounds were unaccounted for. Based on a national trust in the Post Office and the perceived integrity of 'Horizon's' founding company, Fujitsu, there was no doubt that these people were guilty. If they were innocent, then this would have to be the greatest miscarriage of justice in national history!

For the past 20 years, a group have been working hard to reverse these judgements. A Llandudno sub postmaster, Alan Bates lost everything on the basis of the faulty IT system. Like everyone else, he was told that his was the only case, and he would have to make good the loss. A man of utmost honesty and well respected in his community, Bates decided to take on the system which he found to be corrupt. He discovered that there was a strength in standing together against the power of this national institution. He discovered the wickedness and evil in human stories: people imprisoned, people shunned, death, and suicide. In the basis of their 'evidence' the Post Office allowed thousands of lives to be destroyed. They refused to allow the thought that this IT system, costing billions of pounds, could be wrong. For these past twenty years, an alliance of the falsely accused, lawyers, investigative journalists, and supporters have brought their cause to the High Court. Sentences have been quashed for some, while others still carry the stigma and trauma of being found guilty of a crime that they did not commit.

For twenty years, BBC's flagship documentary series 'Panorama', 'Private Eye' magazine, and BBC Radio 4 have been working hard to overturn this national shame. It only took four nights of prime-time TV drama to ensure that justice is, at last, being seen to be given to these innocent women and men who have endured decades of pain, shame, and financial ruin. A TV re-enactment, amounting to 180 minutes of screen time forced the government to make a massive U-turn as PM Rishi Sunak made a public promise, in Parliament, to overturn these convictions. Such is the power of popular TV drama! For 20 years campaigners have been working hard to bring this issue into the public eye. However, most people do not watch 'Panorama', just as most people do not listen to Radio 4 or read 'Private Eye'. However, millions will tune in to be entertained by high quality drama with leading actors such as Toby Jones; soap favourites, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Katherine Kelly, and drama royalty from 'Downton Abbey', Lesley Nicol. An ensemble cast, working with a first-rate script helped to achieve in just one week what campaigners had spent years working on—the power of popular media.

I was lucky enough to be awarded the Farmington Fellowship in Religious Education in 1995. This involved working full time at Manchester College, Oxford with the Trust covering my supply teaching costs, with accommodation and board at the University. My chosen area of research was popular media and its impact on the lives of teenagers. This was time before popular mobile phone usage and the explosion of various, new TV platforms. It was the age of 'Grange Hill', 'Mr Blobby', and 'Brookside'. The prestige of the fellowship and the research project gave me access to places that I could never go to as an RE teacher in Bolton. I interviewed actors on the 'Grange Hill' set and producers in the 'Queen Vic'. However, my favourite interview was in a cramped office in the House of Commons with the then MP for Sunderland South, Chris Mullins. In a former life, this enterprising MP was a journalist working on the ITV's own flagship documentary series, 'World In Action'. He discovered that a small group of innocent Irish men were languishing in British prisons, enduring life sentences for murder. On 21st November 1974, in the height of the IRA bombing campaign, two bombs exploded in two popular Birmingham pubs killing 21 and injuring 182. Six working men were on their way to a funeral in Belfast on that same night when they were arrested at Heysham port. After a night of vicious interrogation by the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, the men made confessions. In their 1975 trial, the six were found guilty and given 21 life sentences. Public opinion at the time was very strong with many populist media outlets such as the 'Daily Mail' and 'The Sun' calling for a return of the death penalty. As an investigative journalist, Mullin went against the tide of public opinion and found the claims of the six men credible: they had been tortured and forced to sign confessions. He wrote tirelessly to support the innocence of the men, but nothing came of his campaign. Even at Court of Appeal in 1988, the Chair, Lord Lane could not accept 'the appalling vista' that the British legal system could be corrupt, allowing suspects to be beaten up in custody, and confessions signed under duress. Mullin could see beyond the perjury of corrupt police officers and lazy forensic "experts". According to the popular tabloid, 'The Sun' Mullins and his supporters like Cardinal Hulme were all 'looney' for their support of the Six.

While he wrote an excellent book and contributed to the 'World In Action' documentaries, the nation demanded action after the drama 'Who Bombed Birmingham' went out in prime time in March 1990. With top stars like John Hurt and Martin Shaw, the programme attracted attention, and by March 1991 the Six walked free. In a delicious piece of judicial irony, they successfully sued both 'The Sun' and the 'Daily Telegraph' for defamation. Police officers were charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert justice. The late David Evans MP was also successfully sued by the Six for his claim that they had probably murdered hundreds of people.

In our Westminster meeting, Mullins accepted that the popular TV drama had a bigger impact on the British public than the more analytical observations in the documentaries and the academic assessment in his book and articles. Indeed it was this deep research into the poor forensic 'evidence' and the perjury of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad that led to the successful appeal in 1991.

Innocent Birmingham men are now joined with these hundreds of former sub post masters and mistresses, as victims of their injustice perpetrated by those whose trust should be unimpeachable. They have all been let down by those who we need to trust. Their case has been highlighted by 'docudramas' which is a technical term to describe dramas that seek to relate historical events. 'Who Bombed Birmingham' and 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' show how injustice can be highlighted in a way that is accessible to a wide audience. Both programmes helped to move these cases forward, helping right incredible miscarriages of justice. While we might condemn the daily output of our TV programmes, these rare gems help us to see the basic goodness of people in the face of massive evil.

We can only hope and pray that the vicious lies of those who want to promote their own selfish agenda can be exposed, and that people receive the truth that is their right. Thousands have suffered because of these lies that are not 'alternative facts'. We hope and pray that justice will be served and those responsible are shown to be accountable in ways that will bring some sort of closure. The Prime Minister was able to say to the Commons, only five days after the final episode of the drama:

This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history. People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation. (10/01/2024)

Author: Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash [The image is a stock image, and not related to the Royal Mail scandal]