Lessons weren't learnt
Writer Jack Thorne and the star of his new drama, Jodie Whittaker, shine a light on the battle won by mothers who fought the Corby toxic waste case
Netflix
- Gabriel Tate
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Is the smoke OK for baby?” asks Jodie Whittaker, cradling a mithering two-week old. It’s an innocent question, but considering we’re on the set of Jack Thorne’s four-part drama Toxic Town, which is dressed to look like a council house in the Northamptonshire town of Corby, it feels inadvertently loaded with significance. Yes, she’s reassured, the smoke used for special effect is also used at National Trust properties and completely harmless.
The same couldn’t be said of the air that was actually inhaled by Susan McIntyre, played by Whittaker on screen, who led a group of local mothers in a decade-long campaign to expose the biggest case of child poisoning since thalidomide. With the help of Corby-born solicitor Des Collins (played by Rory Kinnear), they proved the link between toxic dust created by the Labour council’s reclamation of a shuttered steelworks site between 1984 and 1999, and the disproportionately high numbers of children born with limb difference over that period. In doing so, 19 settlements were reached and legal history was made. The landmark decision was the first in the world to establish a link between atmospheric toxic waste and the impact on babies carried by women breathing it in.
If you’ve never heard of it, you’re in good company. Neither had Thorne, Whittaker nor anyone else in the cast. A low-key 2020 Horizon documentary aside, it has been largely forgotten since the verdict in 2009; even at the time, with the exception of the Sunday Times reports that brought several of the mothers together in the first place, it made remarkably few headlines.
“A friend of mine from Corby told me about the case, and I was outraged and embarrassed that I hadn’t heard about it,” says executive producer Annabel Jones, who – alongside Charlie Brooker – is half the brains behind Black Mirror and whose idea this series was. “We met the mums of all 19 families. Because it had taken them so long to win the case and the council had put out a lot of propaganda against these women in terms of cost to taxpayers, quite a few families didn’t want that scrutiny again. We focused on who we thought would show the tapestry of the town, because the fact the toxic waste was airborne meant it was democratic and affected everyone.”
There's a lingering sense that no one paid attention
Jack Thorne
“Susan was the natural leader,” says Thorne, who was instantly intrigued by a story of mostly working-class women taking control of the narrative. “I loved everything I read about her, then I met her and loved her even more – she’s a complicated, wonderful person, joyous to write.”
Despite the pain and trauma of their experiences, Thorne says Susan and her fellow plaintiffs were remarkably generous with their time and insights. “The trouble you can get into is when people say, ‘There’s a version of me I want to tell’. But they didn’t. They told us everything, even stuff they found deeply moving and very difficult to talk about. The responsibility as a writer is huge, but I love shows that are prepared to do the hard yards and find the drama within complication.”
Toxic Town is full of complication, embodied by council leader Roy Thomas. A composite character out of necessity, as no one was convicted in the case, he’s played by Corby-born Brendan Coyle. “My cousins and brother knew some of the people involved,” says Coyle. “They tell me this drama is the talk of the town. British Steel provided a sense of identity, and when the works closed in 1980, about 11,000 people in a town of 50,000 lost their jobs. It was a desperately bleak place through the 1980s, but the council didn’t want Corby to become a sink town like some that were left to rot after the coal mines closed. Growth was all important, and for me the crucial moment comes when Roy is asked: ‘What’s more important – the progress or the mess?’”
Aside from a few establishing shots, the fact that little was filmed in Corby itself speaks volumes about the superficial success of the council’s stated mission to regenerate the town. Such matters are right in Thorne’s wheelhouse.
How the story was reported in the press. Daily Mail
“I’ve always been obsessed with community politics,” he laughs. “I grew up in Newbury during the bypass protests and in the shadow of Aldermaston. I became the Young Labour officer for the Newbury constituency at 16, so I learnt to love getting inside civic responsibility and talking about these vital things.
“But waste is also an obsession, and as a country we need to have a conversation about it. They [the Government] are talking about building modular power stations to fuel an AI revolution, and cutting back on planning laws to fuel growth. Are we considering the true cost of that?”
Thorne also hopes that a little of the impact made by Mr Bates vs the Post Office will rub off on Toxic Town. “I think every writer in the social realism realm took a breath when that came out, particularly when everyone said: ‘This is what TV drama can do!’ We’ve been trying to do that for years… B*****ds! But it was amazing seeing how far it reached and that’s the dream, because there’s a lingering sense that no one paid attention.
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“I don’t think it’s about the mothers going after more people, and they certainly weren’t in it for the money. They’re worried for where our country is at, worried that what they and others went through has been forgotten and, when the Government is talking about slashing regulations and red tape, concerned about how we protect ourselves and our children.”
Authors
Gabriel Tate
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