Netflix's Toxic Town: A True-Life Drama About Environmental Scandal and Justice
Image credits: Courtesy of Netflix
Netflix has just added a new true-life drama that will have you gripped from the very first episode. Toxic Town, which landed on Netflix worldwide, is a four-part drama following the true-life story of one of the UK's biggest environmental scandals. It tells the story of three mothers, Susan, Tracey, and Maggie, played by Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker, The White Lotus season 3 star Aimee Lou Wood, and Bridgerton's Claudia Jessie, as they battle to prove birth defects in local babies born in the 1990s are down to toxic waste spillages in the Northamptonshire town of Corby.
Between 1984 and 1999, the Corby Borough Council undertook the demolition and excavation of the former steelworks site that closed down after the recession in the 1970s - but the redevelopment work saw toxic sludge split over the roads and huge amounts of toxic dust polluted into the air. The first episode opens with Susan, Tracey, and Maggie all discovering they are pregnant, but their joy soon turns to devastation when their pregnancies and births don't go as planned. When dozens of babies in Corby are born with disabilities, the mothers embark on a battle to hold those responsible to account - however, with the local council doing its best to cover up any wrongdoings, they soon find they have a battle on their hands which will have you on the edge of your seat.
Toxic Town is thoroughly British and brings that sense of a local community getting together to battle a miscarriage of justice - think Mr Bates Vs The Post Office set in Northern England and with a group of strong women all looking for answers as they protect their families and children. The show is based on a real incident, when people in the English town of Corby inhaled toxic dust that was later linked to birth defects in a cluster of children. The 2009 ruling against Corby represented the first time a civil court in England made the connection between birth defects and the negligent management of toxic waste in the air.
The real mothers who experienced this and were later part of the class-action suit consulted on the show. The series follows mothers living their daily lives under clouds of orange dust, winding up with one another in hospitals as their children are in and out of surgeries and doctor’s appointments after they are born. The show's writer, Jack Thorne, is careful to mine this dire situation for nuggets of precious humanity, and the emotional journey undergone by parents of disabled children, as they fight the instinct to believe that they are at fault and try to improve their children’s lives without treating them as a problem, is sensitively sketched. Some of the key events and releases related to Toxic Town include:
- The release of all four episodes of Toxic Town on Netflix
- The 2009 ruling against Corby Borough Council
- The settlement reached by the Corby borough council with the families in 2010
Toxic Town feels fresh, arriving only a year after Mr Bates vs the Post Office turned an against-the-odds fight for justice into the biggest drama on TV, and lands in a political moment where leaders of various stripes are pretending that slashing regulations is an urgent public concern. The show is moral about not letting greed trample community, and despite this being illustrated by a struggle that concluded a decade and a half ago, Toxic Town feels like a timely reminder of the importance of fighting for justice and holding those in power accountable. With its talented cast, powerful storyline, and timely themes, Toxic Town is a must-watch for anyone interested in true-life dramas and environmental justice.
toxic town environmental scandal netflix true corby drama justice life
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