Toby Jones will be leading the cast of the Post Office drama (Picture: Getty)
Filming has officially started on Mr Bates vs. The Post Office, the star-studded drama that will bring a real-life Post Office scandal to TV.
The four-part series, which will be coming to ITV in the near future, will focus on how an IT error at the Post Office saw many of its workers wrongly accused of fraud.
550 postmasters and postmistresses were charged with theft, too, after faulty computer software threw up several incorrect accounting shortfalls.
The legal case was fought over more than a decade, with some of the wrongly accused even being sent to prison, and was only resolved in March 2019.
To tell the story, ITV has assembled an all-star cast including Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Will Mellor, and several other famous faces.
Jones, 56, most recently starred alongside Olivia Colman in Empire of Light and is set to appear in the upcoming Indiana Jones film The Dial of Destiny.
Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh will be joining the show (Picture: Getty)
Hesmondhalgh, 53, who played Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014, also featured in Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe.
Mellor, 47, is fresh off finishing fifth in the most recent series of Strictly Come Dancing, will be returning to acting after a short run on Coronation Street.
Also joining the cast will be Bafta-winning actress Monica Dolan, It’s a Sin actor Shaun Dooley, Happy Valley’s Amit Shah, and Downton Abbey’s Lesly Nicol.
Will Mellor will be swapping the ballroom for courtroom in the legal drama (Picture: PA)
Alan Bates, who led the case against the Post Office and will be played by Toby Jones, explained the importance of the legal decision to exonerate his colleagues.
He explained: ‘This is one of the most egregious scandals the country has ever seen and a major corporation has managed to keep it covered up for years.’
‘Thankfully this has now been exposed and the victims are finally on their way to finding the justice they deserve,’ he added.
Actor Jones said of the series: ‘I am proud to be a part of this shocking and unsettling but ultimately inspirational drama.’
