Toby Jones: NTA gong opportunity to renew pressure to compensate subpostmasters

Toby Jones has said the win at the National Television Awards for his role in Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a “great opportunity to renew pressure” on the new Government to compensate subpostmasters before the end of the year.

He secured the best drama performance gong at Wednesday evening’s annual awards ceremony at The O2 in London for his part in the ITV drama that helped revive attention on the subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted during the Horizon IT scandal.

Jones portrayed former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates – one of more than 550 claimants who have brought legal action against the Post Office – who the actor said “won’t rest” until people are compensated.

“It’s a great opportunity to renew the pressure on the Government, the new Government, to recompense the postmasters before the end of the year,” the actor said.

“We’re still waiting for the Government to make a commitment to pay the compensation before the end of the year,” he added.

“I’m sure one of the reasons that the show had been so popular is because there’s popular will that that should happen sooner rather than later.”

Jones said that the show was “without a doubt” one of the most important dramas he has ever been a part of.

He told reporters: “I’ve had so many messages in the last eight months from actors saying, ‘Oh, that’s what you dream of is to have an impact with a drama like this’, and it’s the first time for a lot of people that it’s led directly to parliamentary action.

“Hopefully it’ll lead to more dramas having a direct impact on policy.”

Jones said Sir Alan was initially “sceptical” about what a drama would be able to do but grew to be excited over what the show was able to help achieve.

“Anytime something like this happens, and we’ve had a lot of awards attention so far this year, the first person I email is Alan,” Jones said.

Collecting his gong during the ceremony, Jones congratulated Sir Alan on his recent marriage to his partner Suzanne Sercombe.

Actress Monica Dolan, who played Jo Hamilton in the show, collected the award alongside the rest of the cast and several former subpostmasters.

She said it was “absolutely incredible” to win the prize, adding: “I want to finish by saying a very, very big thank you to all the subpostmasters.

“Their trust in us to tell their story has been the privilege of our lives.”

It was announced last week that the ITV drama had been awarded the NTA Impact Award for creating a “huge cultural shift”.

Former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton called out the Government for the lack of action on the scandal as she collected the award surrounded by fellow victims of the scandal, saying: “I went to Westminster a couple of weeks back and saw the new minister and trust me, nothing has changed.

“Almost all of these people behind me haven’t been paid yet. And out of the group of 555, more than 300 haven’t been paid yet.”