First look at Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story examines tragic impact
Jess details the life-changing effects the scandal still has on her.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story explores even further the impact of the Post Office scandal, which is considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Told through intimate interviews with key figures, clips from the ITV drama and archival footage from the time, the documentary pieces together the impact the events had on the subpostmasters and mistresses themselves.
Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of Post Office subpostmasters and mistresses were falsely accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a faulty IT system.
The accusations led to many of those accused declaring bankruptcy, while some died without seeing justice before the legal process was taken to the High Court.
One of those subpostmistresses affected was Jess, who speaks candidly about the effects the scandal had on her and her family life, and how she still suffers today.
In an exclusive clip shared with RadioTimes.com, Jess can be seen speaking to the camera about what she lived through.
"Family members actually went round to the shops and gathered as many papers as they could," she said. "It was also in one of the Punjabi papers, as well, so basically everybody read that story and pointed their fingers."
Speaking about backlash from members of the public, she continued: "We had somebody come in and spit on the floor. We had the car windows broken. They did try and traumatise us, really. I would get this feeling that everybody else is thinking that 'she's a thief'.
"The stress that we've been through, the trauma that we've been through, lied to, bullied. It all mounted up and I ended up in hospital."
Explaining her ordeal in hospital, she described having 14 treatments, which resulted in her losing all of her memory.
"I don't remember anything from my childhood," she said. "[The doctors] put me on numerous medication, which I'm still on today – and it's all down to the Post Office."
In 2020, Tim Parker, then-chairman of the Post Office, said he was "sincerely sorry" on behalf of the company for its "historical failings".
"Post Office is resetting its relationship with postmasters with reforms that prevent such past events ever happening again," he added.
You can watch the full video above.
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Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real Story is on ITV1 and ITVX tonight at 10:45pm
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Entertainment and Factual Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
