In 1966, the BBC play Cathy Come Home was a key moment in public perceptions about the reality of homelessness. This week, we have seen the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office have a similarly seismic public impact.
Its a moving and inspiring ‘David v Goliath’ story of a group of ordinary people’s fight against overwhelming corporate injustice. And its exposure of the greed and malevolence of a trusted state institution as The Post Office makes it all the more shocking.
Also, I cannot remember watching a programme which so convincingly portrays the struggles of everyday people to run businesses, serve their communities and make ends meet.
Compassion
Whilst Toby Jones is brilliant in the title role, I felt Monica Dolan’s portrayal of sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton was the most powerful.
She runs her village post office with compassion and kindness but struggles with the centralised computer accounts system. We see her working late, increasingly desperate as the faulty system creates false deficits on her account.
She then makes up shortfalls with her own money and has to re-mortgage her house twice. In the end, as deficits build, she is sacked by the Post Office and taken to court accused of stealing £36,000.
Religion and truth
In court, many from her community attend to offer moral support and positive character references. These include her parish vicar who takes the stand and tells the Judge about the role Jo plays in the community. ‘In many ways, she is more of a priest than me.’
It’s a generous editorial decision by the producers to include this positive portrayal of a vicar because the key character the campaigners are fighting against is also an ordained church minister. Paula Vennells, the CEO of the Post Office was a non-stipendiary minister (NSM) in the Church of England at the time.
Stranger than fiction
The public controversy which has unfolded this week has led to Ms. Vennells step back from her ministry role, hand back her CBE, resign from the boards of Morrisons and Dunelm, and face calls to give back the £2.93m of bonuses she was paid during this period.
In a further twist, it was leaked that she was on the short-list to become Bishop of London, the third most senior role in the Church of England. Just imagine the crisis if she had of been given this role. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
The programme avoids any simplistic connection between Vennells’ religious commitments and her handling of the scandal. But the story poses a deep, implicit challenge about the role faith should play in exposing truth, resisting greed and taking risks to seek justice.
Setting expectations
In one of the best scenes, Alan Bates speaks to all the campaigners gathered in a village hall at the start of the litigation process:
“Win or lose it costs a fortune and there’s no guarantee we’ll see a penny. And I want to make it clear that there are a few other things that this group litigation is not going to do for us. I am sorry Jo, I am sorry Noel, but it’s not going to overturn any criminal convictions. Its not going to discharge anyone bankruptcies, its not going to get back anyone’s house-repossessions and its not going to repair anyone’s shattered health.”
The truth
He is talking to a group of people who have lost so much and do not hold much hope for the legal process they are embarking on. But Bates goes on:
“Well, I have told you all the things the law is not going to do for us. But I want you to think about what brought us together, all those things we’ve been fighting for ever since.
‘Compensation?’
‘Bigger than that’
‘Justice?’
‘Bigger’
‘The truth?’
“Exactly. Yes, compensation. Yes, justice. But without the truth we can’t do either of those. Going to law will force the Post Office to open their files. So finally we’ll get to know everything the Post Office knows. The truth. The whole truth.”
Human need
Being properly compensated financially and seeing justice done are both vitally important. But this scene and story illustrate that humans have deeper needs than what finances or legal processes can give. We have a deep desire for truth.
Both on and off screen, Mr Bates v. The Post Office has had a dramatic impact. Its a great story, brilliantly acted. But the key to its powerful impact it because it exposes truth. And truth always sets people free.
- Sign petition: Give Alan Bates an honour for exposing Post Office scandal
- Related post: Tell the truth
Grace + Truth 
A few years ago, I would have been shocked to discover that the person most culpable in this appalling miscarriage of justice was a Church of England minister who almost became a bishop. Now I am totally unsurprised with so many parallels to the way the Post Office and Church of England and those most invested in these institutions behave. The video of Paula Vennells addressing London Diocese (available, I think, on Vimeo) and reading the passage about Solomon asking God for a discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong (used in the drama with her reading the passage in church) is chilling.
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It takes real courage and sacrifice to uphold truth in the face of pressure to uphold ‘the brand’. It’s so much easier to look away, to deliberately fail to be curious and to conform to expectations. She gave a talk to schoolchildren about how she had become successful at turning round the Post Office because she had been ‘curious’ about the way it was run, but she showed no ‘curiosity’ about what was happening to the subpostmasters, probably because that would have meant personal sacrifice in fighting vested interests. While she is by no means the onlyh guilty person, her ordained role exposes her to the charge of hypocrisy. After her fall from grace, my prayer is that she will rediscover her low position in Christ (James 1v10), not try to hold on to her wealth and whatever status she has left, but will return to this country, confess honestly to the inquiry and make the kind of restitution that Zacchaeus did. Repentance and humiliation is her only route to salvation but it is still open to her.
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