An executive producer on ITV’s new phone hacking drama said he dreams of the idea that the show could have “a similar effect” to Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
The award-winning series, also co-produced by ITV Studios, prompted public outrage after drawing renewed attention to the Horizon IT scandal and the hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.
Seven-part series The Hack, which also spotlights a public scandal, follows investigative journalist Nick Davies, played by David Tennant, who uncovered evidence of phone hacking at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Of The World.
Executive producer Patrick Spence told the PA news agency: “When we started the story, we thought we knew it.
“We realised we didn’t know the half of it and that’s part of what makes it exciting is to be able to tell an audience that there is a reason they need to watch it, because it’s not over, not by a long run.”
He continued: “I’ve worked on Mr Bates and I dream of the idea that it’ll have a similar effect.
“It’s hard to replicate that because it had such a particular situation about it.
“I think one of the interesting challenges for the media will be which parts of the media have the courage to write about it and which parts don’t, because it’s easy to write about it if you’re not having fingers pointed at you, but for some of the News UK press, I’ll be fascinated to see whether they write about it or not, because it’s a love letter to great journalism.”
The scandal led to the News Of The World’s closure in 2011 and was followed by the Leveson Inquiry, a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practises and ethics of the British press.
News Group Newspapers (NGN) has since settled a number of damages claims from high-profile figures concerning unlawful information gathering.
Earlier this year, the Duke of Sussex settled his legal action against the publisher of The Sun and received an apology from NGN.
Set between 2002 and 2012, The Hack interweaves two real-life stories – the work of Davies and the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.
The investigation was led by former Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent Dave Cook, who is played by Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.
Reflecting on the importance of advancing the truth, he told PA: “Truth is under attack, it’s very difficult now for people to believe, I genuinely do feel sorry for good journalists that are out there, six months, a year, something like that, this stuff suddenly hits the paper and people go ‘Ah, it’s fake’.
“That’s horrible. If we can’t believe what we’ve been told from good journalists, then what are we?”
The Hack starts on Wednesday September 24 at 9pm on ITV1, with the full boxset available via ITVX on the same day.
