Will Mellor talks about his new documentary
On Monday’s instalment of BBC Breakfast, hosts Sally Nugent and Ben Thompson spoke to Will Mellor about his upcoming documentary.
Earlier this year, the former Coronation Street star played real-life sub-postmaster Lee Castleton in the ITV drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
The four-part series sparked outrage with people across the nation, after finding out many were wrongly prosecuted for theft and fraud which was down to a faulty computer system called Horizon.
Since then, the Government has vowed to pay compensation to every person who was wrongfully convicted, however, many are claiming they’re still waiting.
One victim called Stephanie Gibson, shares her story with Will in the documentary as she confessed not having any inkling something was wrong until the police knocked on her door.
Questioning what he hopes this new BBC documentary will do, Will replied: “Keep people talking. The one thing I don’t want to happen because the drama came out in January, we don’t want this to be brushed under the carpet again.
“People have waited long enough, people aren’t getting any younger. People have lost loved ones, we can’t get them back, we can’t replace them. What we can do, it try and get some admission, some blame maybe, some justice.
“Compensation is definitely one of them things but at the same time, acknowledge that you’ve ruined people’s lives, not just the people that were accused but their families.”
Will shared that in the documentary, people who are seriously ill believe the stress over what happened with the Post Office is to blame.
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Will shared that in the documentary, people who are seriously ill believe the stress over what happened with the Post Office is to blame.
He added: “Listen, we know there’s a huge picture here, but we can’t let it go away, we have to make sure something is done and now. Stop kicking the can down the road.
“I know how strong we can be when we come together in this country so, let’s rise up for these people. They deserve it and they need the support.”
During their chat, Stephanie was asked whether or not she’d received any help or support, as she confessed it’s been put to the back of her mind for 16 years.
However, when she was encouraged to speak up and do something about it which spurred her into the first steps of getting her compensation
Speaking about her future, she confessed: “I don’t know, I’ve said a million times before, you don't get a sorry. You don’t get an apology. I class myself as one of the lucky ones because I was found not guilty. I should have been able to walk away from that and get on with my life. It wasn’t like that.”
Surviving the Post Office is available to watch on iPlayer from 22 July and on BBC One at 20.30pm.
