MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE: CONSOLIDATED RATINGS FOR ALL FOUR EPISODES REVEALED

Mr Bates vs. the Post Office is ITV’s biggest new drama in over a decade, even beating the launch of Downton Abbey in 2010.

The series, including the documentary, has had 16.6m streams so far on ITVX. It is the biggest drama across all channels since Line of Duty series 6 on BBC One in 2021.

Episode 1 - 9,200,000

Episode 2 - 9,482,000

Episode 3 - 9,991,000

Episode 4 - 10,317,000

The Real Story - 3,782,000

It is the biggest new drama across all channels since Bodyguard on BBC One in 2018. And it is ITV's biggest drama since Broadchurch in 2017. The four episodes are the most watched programmes on any channel so far this year. 

Toby Jones plays Alan Bates while Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alex Jennings, Ian Hart, Lia Williams, Will Mellor, Clare Calbraith, Shaun Dooley, Amit Shah, Lesley Nicol, Adam James and Katherine Kelly are also in the cast.

Between 2000 and 2013, the Post Office held thousands of its own sub postmasters and postmistresses liable for financial discrepancies thrown up by Horizon, its hugely expensive but unreliable computerised accounting system.

Despite warnings that the system was flawed, the Post Office relentlessly pursued the sub postmasters and postmistresses, telling many of them that they were the only ones having problems with Horizon.

Of those affected by the faulty IT system, 736 were prosecuted and hundreds more lost livelihoods, homes and life savings because they paid back money that the Post Office claimed was missing.

Mr Bates Vs The Post Office is available to stream on ITVX now.