The series unveils uncomfortable truths about youth alienation and online radicalisation — but the real crisis lies in austerity and the absence of class consciousness in addressing young people’s disillusionment, says teacher ROBERT POOLE
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‘Apres moi, le deluge’ — a televised carnival of ruling-class avarice
After the Horizon Post Office affair, STEPHEN ARNELL looks at Tory (and other) disasters worthy of being dramatised for the small screen
Post office
ITV has rightly been taking a victory lap over the success of Mr Bates and The Post Office, the miniseries depicting the Horizon scandal and the Javert-like persecution of subpostmasters.
Reportedly, ITV wasn’t sure the show would find an audience, although it is now claiming to possess super-strategic scheduling skills… in retrospect.
Mr Bates and The Post Office has gone some way to whitewash its pre-Christmas £1.5 million hiring of Nigel Farage for I’m a Celebrity, but its boasting about the drama’s effect should be balanced with knowledge of the network’s own relatively recent troubles (within the time frame of the Post Office affair) regarding the TV phone-in scams that fleeced the public.
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