Latest news with #GwynethHughes
Telegraph
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Head of ITV hits out at compensation delay for Horizon victims
The head of ITV demanded faster compensation for Post Office scandal victims after the drama that brought the scandal to national attention received a Bafta. Mr Bates vs the Post Office was named best limited drama at the Bafta Television Awards on Sunday night, and ITV received the Special Award for commissioning it. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted after bugs in the Post Office's faulty Horizon system led to shortfalls in their branch accounts. Victims are still fighting for compensation almost 18 months after the drama led to a national outcry. Kevin Lygo, ITV's director of television, said: 'It has been successful in every way except one – which is that they still, many of them, have not got their compensation. 'So I say to whoever is in charge of sorting out the compensation: will you hurry up and pay these people what they are due?' Gwyneth Hughes, who wrote the drama, said: 'It's not over yet. It's a complicated situation. There are several different compensation schemes going on and they are all mired in different parts of the Government. Nobody seems to know what's happening. 'Our main characters have not been paid, they haven't got their compensation. It's been going for 25 years.' Hughes said she hoped the Bafta wins would refocus attention, adding: 'If we're on front pages tomorrow waving our statuettes, then that's bound to get it back in people's consciousness and get people to make an effort.' Lygo said public service television had a long tradition of shining a light on miscarriages of justice, 'but nothing, I think, has had quite the effect Mr Bates has had'. Wins for Mr Bates aside, the Baftas were dominated by the BBC, while Netflix picked up just one award. Blue Lights, the Northern Ireland police drama, won best drama series, while Mr Loverman, an adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo's novel about late-life gay love, won two acting awards – leading actor for Lennie James and supporting actor for Ariyon Bakare. Marisa Abela won the leading actress prize for her performance in Industry. Netflix won best supporting actress for Baby Reindeer's Jessica Gunning, while Adolescence, which has become the nation's most talked-about show and a critical hit for Netflix, missed the cut-off for entry, but is eligible for next year's awards. The gong for television's most memorable moment of 2024, the only category chosen by the public, went to Strictly Come Dancing for Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell's dance to You'll Never Walk Alone. Best entertainment programme was Would I Lie To You?, while Clive Myrie's Caribbean Adventure won best daytime programme and Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour won the award for factual entertainment. Disney's remake of Shogun won the international category. Two documentaries covering the Israel-Gaza conflict, Life and Death in Gaza (BBC) and State of Rage (Channel 4) received prizes. Gavin and Stacey's final instalment was controversially snubbed by Bafta and omitted from the comedy category, but Ruth Jones won for female comedy performer. She accepted the award in the voice of her character, Nessa, saying: 'This is crackin'.' The BBC also won best live event coverage for Glastonbury 2024, a first Bafta for coverage of the music festival in three decades. The Traitors lost out in all of its categories, beaten in the best reality category by The Jury: Murder Trial, a Channel 4 programme that re-enacted a real-life murder case and invited participants to reach their own verdict. Accepting their award, The Jury's producers said it 'proved that reality TV can actually be about something'. Alan Cumming, the Scottish actor and presenter of the US version of The Traitors, hosted the ceremony from London's Royal Festival Hall, joking that being asked to do so was 'the 12th biggest honour of my life'. Kirsty Wark, the presenter of Newsnight for 30 years until her retirement from the show last summer, received the Bafta Fellowship. She reminisced about starting her career in the days of shoulder pads and the office drinks trolley, and thanked a sisterhood of female colleagues, including one who helpfully pointed out moments before Wark went on air that she had her Vivienne Westwood skirt tucked into her pants.
Daily Mirror
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Mr Bates vs the Post Office writer 'apologising' over TV series and 'monster' scene
Gwyneth Hughes, who penned Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, has been "apologising ever since" to all the people she was unable to include in the show but admitted they "still felt represented" The creative minds behind ITV's gripping retelling of the harrowing Post Office saga have confessed that it was a monumental challenge to translate the intricate real-life events onto the small screen. In an exclusive chat with Daily Express, Mr Bates vs the Post Office writer Gwyneth Hughes revealed: "This was a huge story, running over 20 years and ruining the lives of many hundreds of people the length and breadth of the UK." She went on to explain her approach, saying: "I had to find a way to fit as many of them in as I could, into a narrative that would make sense, without the programmes feeling rushed or over-stuffed." Ultimately, Hughes opted to focus on eight compelling individual stories out of the array of Post Office staff caught up in one of the most egregious wrongful conviction cases in UK history. Hughes engaged with numerous victims to truly understand the "complexity and the hideous scale" of the ordeal they faced. Moreover, this maestro behind both The Tom Jones and Honour sagas disclosed her continued remorse for those she couldn't portray in the series, despite them expressing that they "still felt represented". Deciding what aspects to incorporate and which to exclude constituted the "hardest part" of the process, conceded the esteemed television scriptwriter. Although keen to elaborate on the role of the controversial Post Office executive Paula Vennells, played by Lia Williams, Hughes remarked that the CEO declined an interview, compelling her to depend on emails, board meeting records, and news pieces to shape the narrative. Mr Bates vs the Post Office aired the previous year on ITV, earning considerable praise from viewers and critics alike. The gripping four-part drama series lays bare the horrific toll on the lives of everyday subpostmasters caught up in the notorious Fujitsu Horizon IT system debacle, which led to unjust accusations, jail time, ruined careers, and even suicide. Director Hughes faced a monumental task recreating scenes of the scandal, highlighting one particularly challenging moment where actress Monica Dolan's character, postmaster Jo Hamilton, watches in horror as her supposed losses suddenly double, dubbing it a "monster" scene. To nail the technical accuracy, the production team buried themselves in the "enormous and incomprehensible" Horizon manual, obsessing over jargon and ensuring the on-screen depiction mirrored the actual systems used by Post Office workers. Hughes candidly acknowledges relying extensively on the expertise of Alan Bates, portrayed by Toby Jones in the show, who established the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance and was instrumental in pushing for redress for those affected. The commitment to getting the financial and technological script elements spot-on meant tapping into Bates' profound knowledge, an area Hughes admits isn't her strongest suit. Despite concerns that the theme might come across as dull, Hughes succeeded in putting a human face to the calamity, illustrating the emotional wreckage inflicted by the scandal. Her portrayal and the meticulous editing work by Mike Jones have not gone unnoticed. They've been tipped with nominations for prestigious BAFTA Craft Awards — Hughes for Writer Drama and Jones for Editing Fiction — solidifying their achievements in bringing this distressing tale to the small screen. Jones mirrored Hughes' thoughts on the effort to make the vast narrative "simple and understandable", while conveying a "heartbreaking human story of the devastation". Reflecting on why the ITV drama struck a chord with so many, Jones suggested it "tapped into the psyche" of Brits and exposed the full "horror', while others were ", while others were "simply shocked" to have been oblivious about the scandal and indeed how it could have occurred in the first place. Furthermore, Jones noted that Mr Bates Vs The Post Office rapidly became "water-cooler TV", gaining momentum in the media and being discussed at the "very highest level in Parliament", leading MPs to commend the drama.
