Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster leading the fight against the Post Office, has reportedly turned down an offer to open the Glastonbury Festival.
The offer was revealed by Toby Jones, who played Bates in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system, in what has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
Mr Bates continues to campaign on their behalf and has no interest in becoming a celebrity, Jones said.
“He is someone in the culture who just doesn’t seem to be subject to the same forces that we all are. He can’t be bought.
“He was asked to open Glastonbury. ‘No, thank you.’ He’s asked to do these things and he doesn’t want to do any of that. He says, ‘I’ve got work to do,’ which is to get that stuff done,” the actor told an audience at the Hay Festival.
Glastonbury has a history of inviting public figures to address the festival. Sir David Attenborough and Jeremy Corbyn are among those who have appeared in previous years.
Bates has also turned down an OBE. Jones said: “He’s a hero and he doesn’t want any honours until he’s finished the job.
“And these values that I’m not going to say I grew up with, but I sort of remember being lectured about – about duty and about following 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.”
Asked why the drama had hit a nerve, Jones reflected: “I think that there’s something in the country at the moment. There’s a feeling of disempowerment. There’s a feeling of outrage, justly.”
Jones recalled the first time that the subpostmasters saw the drama, at a Bafta screening.
He said: “It became clear after about 10 minutes that people were sobbing in the screening.”
Jones paid tribute to them, saying: “They have this extraordinary dignity, considering 20 years of living in a Hitchcockian nightmare. They have this incredible humility.”
While the Post Office drama has had a huge impact, Jones said it was his role as the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films which continues to fill his postbag.
“Harry Potter trumps everything. If I’m lucky enough to get fan mail through the post, it is four to one about Harry Potter,” he said.
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2024-06-02 15:28:00Z
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