Bates spearheaded the persistent battle to bring hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted of theft and false accounting due to an IT system known as Horizon.
The event, which has been dubbed the biggest injustice in British legal history, was taken to the big screen in January with the release of the four-part drama Mr. Bates Vs. The Post Office.
At the Hay Festival, Jones,57, said, “I get to play a hero. Really, a person I hold in high regard. Someone in the society who doesn’t appear to be influenced by the same influence.
He is not able to be purchased. They want him to open Glastonbury. “No, I’m grateful.” He doesn’t want to do any of the things that are being asked of him. “I have work to do,” he says, referring to finishing those tasks.
“He’s a hero, and he won’t accept any honors until the task is done. And while I won’t claim to have grown up with these ideals, I do sort of recall receiving lectures about them. about responsibility and seeing things through.
“These are very, very unfashionable things that maybe stand in stark contrast with what we’ve been living with in government for some time.”
