Mr Bates vs The Post Office to get special award at NTAs 2024
Mr Bates vs The Post Office will be honoured with a special award at the 2024 National Television Awards next week.
Ahead of the ceremony on Wednesday, September 11, it has been announced that the ITV drama will receive the Impact Award. The four-part series followed the story of Royal Mail subpostmasters wrongly accused of fraud and theft due to a faulty computer system, and following its broadcast, the government set out to exonerate and compensate those affected.
"It's not often that a drama comes along and creates a huge cultural shift," NTAs host Joel Dommett said (via Radio Times). "The fact that Mr Bates vs the Post Office got politicians talking and changed legislation is huge.
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"It's a reminder of the power of television. Every now and then a programme comes along and reminds you how important it is that these shows exist."
The real-life subpostmasters, as well as the series' actors such as Toby Jones, will take to the stage to collect the award.
As well as the Impact Award, Jones is up for the Drama Performance prize, while the programme itself is up for the New Drama award.
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Just two days before the NTAs, ITV will air a new documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Impact –, which will show what has happened to the subpostmasters following the airing of the drama earlier this year.
Although the series became ITV's biggest drama for over a decade, ITV boss Kevin Lygo said that the network lost about ￡1 million on it due to the lack of overseas interest.
The 2024 National Television Awards airs on Wednesday, September 11 on ITV. Made in Chelsea's Sam Thompson and The Only Way is Essex's Pete Wicks will be presenting live from the red carpet for the NTAs social media channels, while Digital Spy will have plenty of celebrity interviews from backstage as well.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office can be streamed on ITVX, while The Impact documentary airs on ITV on Monday, September 9.
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