Bafta has announced ITV will receive its top award for releasing Mr Bates vs the Post Office, the drama that sparked change in governmental legislation.
The four-part drama, starring Toby Jones, has racked up an audience of 15 million viewers to date. It tells the story of the impact on hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting due to a series of software errors.
Bafta’s Special Award will honour ITV’s for commissioning the groundbreaking series, with the awards body calling it “public service television at its best”.
Bafta television committee chair Hilary Rosen said that the series, which was released in January 2024, “shows the power of television to change hearts and minds”.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV’s media and entertainment division, praised “the team who made it” as well as “all the people who entrusted us with their story”.
“ITV has a proud tradition of covering important stories and we all knew this needed to be told,” lygo said. “The public reaction showed how very British stories of human injustice can unite all walks of life, and affect real world change.”
The real-life story follows sub-postmaster Alan Bates (Jones) as he leads a determined fightback for justice on behalf of those wronged by the Post Office, ultimately winning a legal battle that overturned dozens of wrongful convictions.
Despite breaking records as ITV’s most-watched drama in the UK, it was revealed that the real-life series made a loss of £1m due to “international appeal”.
“Of course, some things are very profitable on the channel, and some things aren’t. But it’s a challenge to be able to fund some of the things,” Lygo previously said.
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“If you’re in Lithuania, four hours on the British Post Office? Not really, thank you very much. So you can see the challenges here,” he added.
The cost and risk of creating UK-specific dramas with limited international appeal is increasingly challenging, yet this award “champions ITV’s brave commission and honours the social and public impact television can have”, Rosen said.
“As Mr Bates vs the Post Office has proved, audiences want and need to hear these important British stories,” she continued.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office has been nominated for six Baftas, including Leading Actor for Toby Jones and Leading Actress for Monica Dolan. The ceremony takes place on 11 May.
The Special Award is one of Baftas highest honours. Previous winners include Horrible Histories, Downton Abbey and historian and author David Olusoga, who is set to appear on the forthcoming Celebrity Traitors.
