Actor Toby Jones says the reaction to new hit drama 'speaks volumes

The star of ITV's new drama about the Horizon scandal has said the public's reaction has 'been quite unlike anything else' which 'speaks volumes of the injustice'.

Actor Toby Jones, who plays subpostmaster Alan Bates in the four-part series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, said that historically 'drama has been at the centre of political change'.

Mr Jones, 57, told Radio 4's PM: 'It's been quite unlike anything else.

'I was out of the country until about three days ago and a couple of the actors on the show rang me to warn me that when I came back things wouldn't be quite the same. And it has proved to be the case.

'This drama has reached people in a way that drama rarely does, but that speak volumes of the suject matter and the injustice that is portrayed.

'What's going on at the moment is hugely heartening at the beginning of the year when drama is downgraded as a subject of importance yet it's historically always been a place where people, even if they don't believe it, can deliver change.'

He added: 'It cannot be ignored in most of the political upheavals in history that drama has been at the centre of political change.

'People have used it to humanise, dramatise and bring forth change.'

His co-star Julie Hesmondhalgh, 53, who plays Mr Bates's wife Suzanne Sercommbe, said the drama had put 'real people into people's living rooms'.

'We're all thrilled beyond anything that we can properly express because I think what drama can do is cut through the facts and figures and the data,' she told BBC Breakfast.

'And that's what drama can do. And I've seen it happen so many times, from my years in continuing drama, and I think that it can really cut past all that.

'There's been really amazing people trying to keep that going for years, but it's never quite grabbed the public imagination in the way that it has.

'So now we've got to grab this momentum and keep rolling with it because, you know, it's big news this week. But we've got to make sure that it stays in people's hearts and minds in the weeks that follow.'

Former sub-postmaster Mr Castleton, who is played by Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps star Will Mellor, 47, in the drama, said there is still a way to go.

He said: 'All of us fought so long, and tried to be heard and tried and tried and tried just to allow everything to come out and allow people to finally listen to where you've been and what's happened and and why that happened. And even now we're not really at the full truth.

'It has been probably 20 years that I would never like to repeat, and I would never wish on anyone else.

'But on the other side of that, let's hope however long we all have left in our lives that we can put this behind us and move on.'

The Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs on Monday the Government was urgently pursuing options to fast track a process which has so far seen just 93 of more than 700 postmasters able to clear their names.

He praised the drama for bringing the scandal to a 'much broader audience' and for highlighting the 'brutal approach' taken by the Post Office.

• Mr Bates vs the Post Office is ITV's most watched drama in three years, with the first episode of the four-part series watched by 9.2million viewers