You cant get away from the Post Office scandal at the moment, the story has exploded into our lives after the ITV drama ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ which for most of us gave the first real insight of how the lives of hundreds of innocent people who have fought to clear their names after being pursued by the Post Office through the criminal courts.
Turn the TV on right now and the scandal is being covered in every news broadcast across all channels as well as regularly making the front pages of all our national and local news papers. This truly is a national and a local story, hitting right at the heart of our communities.
Proud pillars of their communities were stripped of their jobs and livelihoods. Many were forced into bankruptcy or borrowed from friends and family to give the Post Office thousands they did not owe. The really unlucky ones were sent to prison!
Following the astounding and rightful public outrage, (brought to the fore by ITV’s ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office series) Nick Wallis – series consultant on the ITV Drama) – now expertly chronicles the very latest twists and turns of the whole affair on this one-of-a-kind tour.
In just two short hours, this show takes you on a highly emotional and thoroughly informant journey – unveiling even more shocking details and stories around this gripping, unbelievable and outrageous scandal.
“We only made the drama because of Nick Wallis…he is key in bringing this story to light.” – Patrick Spence, Executive Producer ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office‘
“An extraordinary journalistic expose of a huge miscarriage of justice.” – Ian Hislop, Editor, Private Eye.
“A tale brilliantly told by Nick Wallis, who has dedicated years of work to establishing what happened, why it happened and calling those responsible to account.” – Rev Richard Coles, presenter and author.
Following the astounding and rightful public outrage, (brought to the fore by ITV’s ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office series) Nick Wallis – series consultant on the ITV Drama) – now expertly chronicles the very latest twists and turns of the whole affair on this one-of-a-kind tour.
In just two short hours, this show takes you on a highly emotional and thoroughly informant journey – unveiling even more shocking details and stories around this gripping, unbelievable and outrageous scandal.
Join us as Nick masterfully takes us through the shambolic commissioning of the disastrous Post Office Horizon IT system and examines the punitive methods employed by the Post Office – bypassing the police and the Crown Prosecution Service – to create the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK legal history. Nick will then narrow in on the subsequent heinous cover-up and the staggering legal battles fought and won by campaigning Sub-postmasters, against all the odds.
As the public inquiry into the scandal reveals yet more horrors, plus also the Government fast-tracking new laws and implementing new resources to resolve compensation, Nick will be able to explain the very latest developments and their significance.
Journalist/broadcaster Nick Wallis (BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Great Post Office Trial’, current TalkTV host, Private Eye’s ‘Justice Lost in the Post’, BBC1’s Panorama ‘Scandal at the Post Office’, The One Show and Channel 5’s ‘Criminals Caught on Camera’) has drawn on fourteen years of covering the story to write a best-selling book (‘The Great Post Office Scandal’ – serialised by the Daily Mail and featured by the Sunday Times), and it is this book and this experience which forms the basis of this new in-depth event.
Nick will be talking about his time meeting with the Sub Postmasters, collating evidence and testimony from top secret sources within both Fujitsu and The Post Office and also reading from his best-selling book, followed by a Q&A session, giving the audience an opportunity to explore areas in more detail.
There will also be a special guest or two affected by the scandal who will join Nick on stage to answer questions and provide first-hand testimony.
Nicki Arch will be joining Nick Wallis on stage. Nicki was a branch manager at Chalford Hill post office in Stroud, Gloucestershire. In November 2000 she was suspended by the Post Office for an alleged £24,000 discrepancy. She says the Post Office tried to pin fraud, theft and false accounting charges on her. Nicki lost everything.
This unmissable event gives you the very shocking story of how innocent people fought back to clear their names against a background of institutional arrogance and obfuscation, a fight dragged out by the Post Office’s refusal to accept responsibility for its failings.
THE BACKGROUND TO THIS STORY:
On 23rd April 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 former Sub-postmasters and ruled their prosecutions were an affront to the public conscience. It is a scandal that has been described as one of the most widespread and significant miscarriages of justice in UK legal history. The 39 were a fraction of the 700 people who, between 2000 and 2013, had been prosecuted by the Post Office for criminal offences on the basis of IT evidence.
The evidence came from Horizon, the Post Office’s deeply flawed accounting system which threw up duplicate entries, lost transactions and made erroneous calculations. If these errors resulted in apparent losses in individual branch accounts, Subpostmasters were forced to settle the discrepancies from their own pockets, sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands or tens of thousands of pounds. Those who could not pay were sacked and taken to court. Proud pillars of the community were stripped of their jobs and livelihoods. Many were forced into bankruptcy or borrowed from friends and family to give the Post Office money they had not taken under threat of losing their business investments and jobs. The really unlucky ones were sent to prison.
Nick Wallis, an award-winning freelance journalist and broadcaster, has been pursuing this story since 2010 when he met a taxi driver who told him his pregnant wife had been sent to prison for a crime she did not commit. Since then, he has recorded interviews with dozens of victims, insiders and experts, uncovering hundreds of documents to build up an unparalleled understanding of the story. Using these sources, Nick has been instrumental in bringing the scandal into the public eye.
Nick broadcast his first investigation for the BBC in 2011. In the same year he took the story to Private Eye. He has subsequently made three Panoramas, a Radio 4 series, and raised thousands of pounds to crowdfund his own court reporting for the Post Office Trial website. Nick has now written the first definitive account of the scandal which he will be touring to UK Theatres throughout 2024.
Nick takes us from the ill-fated deal that brought Horizon into existence, through years of half-truths and obstruction, the tearful scenes at the Court of Appeal in 2021 and the ongoing Public Inquiry. He exposes the secrecy and mistrust at the heart of the story, and the impact that had on the victims. He also chronicles how this story’s hero, Alan Bates, started as a lone public voice of dissent but went on to beat the Post Office – against overwhelming odds – at two of the highest courts in the land, and secure some redress for the victims.
Since the ITV drama aired, this whole scandal is now moving at apace. The story is constantly developing, the landscape shifting and more and more shocking details emerging.
Nick, as ever, is there to report.
“The definitive account of the scandal – from the journalist who pursued every twist and turn.” – Mishal Husain, Broadcaster.
“Nick has come to understand the ultimately destructive management culture which pervaded the Post Office from the top down.” – Tom Hedges, former Subpostmaster.
“Nick’s narrative has the power of a great thriller as he lays bare the lies and deceit that has ruined so many lives.” Dame Joan Bakewell, Journalist.
Running time 60 minutes followed by an interval, plus 30 minutes Q&A and interview of guest – followed by a book signing.
Date:
13 May – Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, Wiltshire, 7:30pm. Special guest: Nicki Arch. Buy tickets here.
Please see the link below for more details on this:
Entertainment Swindon 
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