THE POWER OF TV 100
LET’S HEAR IT FOR TV’S MOVERS & SHAKERS
Every year, RadioTimes.com shines a light on the entertainment industry with its TV 100 list celebrating the most influential figures in television. Previous winners, selected by a panel of TV executives and RadioTimes.com staff, include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Michaela Coel, Russell T Davies and Ncuti Gatwa.
This year, however, the name at the top of the list isn’t a rising star or a powerful TV executive, but the team behind Mr Bates vs the Post Office, ITV’s four-part dramatisation of the Post Office Horizon scandal in which subpostmasters across the UK were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting due to a faulty computer system. The remainder of the top ten can be seen on the right and the full 100 can be found at RadioTimes.com/TV100.
Featuring an ensemble cast including Toby Jones, Monica Dolan, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Lia Williams, Mr Bates vs the Post Office made an extraordinary impact. Only a few weeks after airing in January, the law was being changed, ensuring that subpostmasters who had been wrongly convicted would have their names cleared and be repaid the money they lost.
There’s still a long way to go, but the drama shows the power of TV. And while the team who pulled together the story have won plaudits, they don’t consider themselves to be the sole reason that justice is now being done.
“I don’t think this TV programme changed the law, I think the people of Great Britain changed the law,” says the drama’s executive producer Patrick Spence. “But I do think seeing dr
