Mr Bates vs the Post Office

It feels at times like being pounded by gigantic dialogue boulders of information. Even so, this is a staunch David and Goliath homage to quiet fortitude triumphing over corporate chicanery, and well worth anyone’s time.

The sweet-faced Jones — if you loved him in “Detectorists” you should love him here, in a part not a million miles away — stars as Alan, the quietly stubborn leader of the resistance, and the hub that connects the series’ several stories. .... Above all, “Mr. Bates vs The Post Office” is an indictment of bureaucratic arrogance and the familiar reluctance of institutions to admit, and when admitted, to rectify, mistakes.

The hero here, as one can assume from the title, is Alan Bates, played by a wonderfully measured Toby Jones. .... Righteous indignation is the central mission of "Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office," and one can become anxious despising characters as much as one will during this four-part procedural.

Jones, all cheer and steel, is simply perfect as the little man who proves undefeatable. Indeed, the many familiar faces all feel ideally cast, from Monica Dolan as Jo Hamilton, whose plain-as-a-pikestaff decency was weaponised against her, to Lia Williams as Post Office Ltd’s Paula Vennells.

Perhaps Hughes's main achievement is in making it so discomfiting to watch. It is still scarcely believable that this happened in modern Britain, that good people actually went to prison for things they hadn't done.

The Post Office scandal has been so long-running that it can feel as if the staggering injustice at the heart of it all has been lost in the dense forest of the details. This makes it human again, and simplifies the case for outrage that this was done to so many innocent people.