S01.E01: Episode 1

[DanaK]

First episode. Premieres Sunday, April 7 at 9pm EDT
 

We are introduced to the various characters, who are subpostmasters and are accused of shortfalls in the money from the running of their Post Office branch

Edited April 8 by DanaK

[DanaK]

I copied this from the General Discussion thread:

I was software developer before I retired 5 years ago, so I know software has bugs that don’t get found and fixed before it gets released; I and teams I was on certainly wrote programs that had bugs that went out in releases that the customers had to deal with before I or we fixed it. Fujitsu and the Post Office really screwed the pooch on this denying the software had any bugs with all the issues subpostmasters were having. Even worse, the Post Office claimed to each person they accused that they were the only one having issues. That’s pretty horrifying

[dancingdreamer]

Those poor people,  they must have been so worried. Horizon  kept telling  them, they were the only ones.  I'm so glad I recorded  this show.

[nx74defiant]

13 hours ago, dancingdreamer said:

  kept telling  them, they were the only ones.

I know, at work it makes me feel better when I find out someone else is having the same problem. 

Instead the Horizon was blaming the poor postmaster Instead of fixing the problem. 

The arrogance of not being willing to accept that their brand new system was not perfect!

[NeenerNeener]

I used to test other people's software before I retired; this show is making me itch. It's so obvious that there's a bug or twelve in the Horizon system.

[cinsays]

On 4/8/2024 at 1:32 PM, nx74defiant said:

I know, at work it makes me feel better when I find out someone else is having the same problem. 

Instead the Horizon was blaming the poor postmaster Instead of fixing the problem. 

The arrogance of not being willing to accept that their brand new system was not perfect!

yup, very disturbing

i was a programmer for many years, starting back in the dark ages, and pretty much all system releases had some problems, most of them very minor, thanfully.  

 

[Driad]

PBS article: Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Inside Episode 1 

[Daff]

Took me forever to find this forum. It doesn’t turn up when you search. The insidious thing about this is how loooong it has been allowed to go on. So many lives affected and essentially ruined. It’s not even over yet. No amount of compensation or apology is going to make the victims (workers or customers) whole again.

[DanaK]

2 hours ago, Daff said:

Took me forever to find this forum. It doesn’t turn up when you search. The insidious thing about this is how loooong it has been allowed to go on. So many lives affected and essentially ruined. It’s not even over yet. No amount of compensation or apology is going to make the victims (workers or customers) whole again.

I had no trouble searching for it just now but could it be you were using Mr. instead of Mr without the period? Unfortunately, that’s how the UK spells the show and the forum seems to be punctuation dependent. Glad that you found it though!

Edited April 10 by DanaK

[Daff]

I really couldn’t imagine no one was watching this, thanks.

[merylinkid]

On 4/8/2024 at 1:32 PM, nx74defiant said:

I know, at work it makes me feel better when I find out someone else is having the same problem. 

Instead the Horizon was blaming the poor postmaster Instead of fixing the problem. 

The arrogance of not being willing to accept that their brand new system was not perfect!

It wasn't so much Horizon wouldn't admit it.    It's that the government spent millions of pounds, so they couldn't admit that even though they spent all that money, there were still problems.   Which as noted here, any competent software engineer could have told them that its normal and not a waste of the money they spent to have to debug it.

[12catcrazy]

My blood was boiling while watching this episode.  The one poor guy being put in jail really had me enraged.  I'm hoping that these people whose lives and finances were destroyed by the post office and their software get some kind of justice by the end of this show.  

[ichbin]

The lies!  The deceit!  The unnecessary and life changing debt suffered by so many for no good reason!  If someone is feeling particularly grumpy this series is an excellent way to redirect anger.

3 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

I'm hoping that these people whose lives and finances were destroyed by the post office and their software get some kind of justice by the end of this show.  

Just as bad as the monetary debt is the destruction of character and reputations which many held just as, if not more valuable.

[merylinkid]

20 hours ago, 12catcrazy said:

I'm hoping that these people whose lives and finances were destroyed by the post office and their software get some kind of justice by the end of this show.

Spoiler

For some its too late.   One lady lost her family and her home, she wound up drinking herself to death - literally.   There were other cases like that.