In 1999, the Post Office introduced a brand-new way of cataloguing payments: the Horizon IT system. It was intended to be a way to modernise the organisation, moving it from paper-based records into the upcoming 21st century.What unfolded instead was a disaster. The Horizon IT system was faulty, prone to glitches which incorrectly exhibited shortfalls of cash that were blamed on the subpostmasters in charge of their branches, leading to twenty years of legal disputes, hundreds of wrongful convictions and untold lives destroyed.Now the whole sorry affair is being turned into an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, airing on January 1.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 The computer system the Post Office spent an arm and a leg on is faulty.
00:05 No one else has ever reported any problems with Horizon. No one.
00:10 You're responsible for the loss.
00:11 I haven't got that money and I don't know where it's gone.
00:15 These deficits were most likely caused by you. That is the Post Office case.
00:22 All our hopes, all our savings down the pan.
00:25 That was a lie, actually.
00:28 We are fighting a war against an enemy owned by the British government.
00:33 While we're just skint little people.
00:37 This is about the reputation of the Post Office.
00:40 It's not, it's about people's lives, you moron.
00:43 Finally, 555 of us now, ready to tell our stories.
00:53 Mr Bates vs the Post Office, coming soon on ITV1 and ITVX.
00:58 ITVX.
01:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]