Netflix's gripping limited series Toxic Town brings to light a devastating real-life event that shook a small town in the UK. The story follows three mothers - played by Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, and Claudia Jessie - as they fight for justice after discovering the cause of their children's birth defects and has left viewers wondering what really happened.
The answer lies in the real-life Corby Toxic Waste Case, a deeply troubling chapter in the history of environmental pollution and its devastating effects on the community of Corby in Northamptonshire.
Is Toxic Town based on a true story?
Yes, the drama Toxic Town is based on the Corby poisonings which happened during the 1980s to 1990s. After the closure of the 680-acre steelworks, buildings were demolished and waste was improperly disposed of by the local council, with hazardous materials being transported to nearby quarries on the back of uncovered lorries.
The harmful substances didn't stay confined to the steelworks. Toxic materials were carried by wind, settling in the nearby areas, including homes, schools, and parks. As a result, many residents unknowingly inhaled or came into contact with these dangerous pollutants, leading to a range of health problems, particularly for pregnant women.
Susan McIntyre's story
Doctor Who and Broadchurch actor Jodie Whittaker plays Susan McIntyre in Toxic Town. She gives birth to a son called Connor with a deformed hand. Initially blaming herself, she sees other mothers with children who have limb differences in her local area. One day, she gets a call from a journalist who tells her that there are other parents in the same situation and that something big may be amiss.
In a special Netflix film, Jodie and Susan meet to discuss the drama and Susan says, "Connor was born with no fingers on his left hand… At the beginning, when he was first born, I couldn’t bear to look at his hand, and it was really hard. But the more I looked, the more I didn’t have to look at that; I had to look at him because I loved him so much".
A journalist named Graham Hind received a tip about wrongdoings with the decontamination of a former steelworks site and how shortly afterwards, babies had been born around the local area with limb differences. He, along with his co-writer Stephen Bevan, had managed to gain access to a report that revealed that the area still contained dangerous levels of arsenic, boron, nickel, and zinc despite having been "cleaned up."
They contacted several mothers of these children and Susan McIntyre received a call from Graham when Connor was 18 months old.
“It was a journalist and he said to me, ‘This could be a big problem in Corby. We think there’s some sort of damage that’s causing this to your babies.' Nobody knew what it was, just that there were a lot of babies that had this.”
Then, in April 1999, he exposed the scandal in the Sunday Times.
Tracey Taylor's story
One of the heartbreaking stories told in the drama is of Tracey Taylor (played by White Lotus and Film Club actor Aimee Lou Wood in the show), who sadly lost her baby Shelby Anne at just 4 days old. The baby's death is believed to have been a result of the toxic waste Tracey was exposed to in Corby.
While pregnant, Tracey lived in the nearby town of Kettering, but frequently commuted to Corby for work. She recalls noticing “a fine dust that got everywhere“ like "the Sahara desert had just done a great big whoosh over". Despite her attempts to clean her desk at work, dust always seemed to return, thick and pervasive.
“You could clean your desk, and by the time you picked up your coffee cup, it was thick with dust again.”
After going into labour at home, Tracey was admitted to hospital, where she noticed that another woman had given birth to a baby with missing toes, but she did not think much of it until her own daughter was born with a deformed ear. She couldn't say anything at the time as she had started haemorrhaging so badly that doctors thought she would not make it and had told her husband to say his goodbyes.
Fortunately, the new mum pulled through, but this relief was short-lived when Tracey noticed that Shelby wasn't feeding. Medical staff told her that her worries were nothing to be concerned about and were just the anxieties of being a first-time parent.
Eventually, little Shelby was looked at and had to be sent to the special care unit, and the next morning, she was put in an incubator and transferred to Oxford, where it was discovered that she had underdeveloped lungs and only had two heart chambers instead of four. She was offered surgery, but her chances of survival were very low, so Tracey and Mark would only allow doctors to go ahead if their daughter was strong enough to breathe without assistance. Sadly she did not survive for long.
Pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place when she commented that she had to use her inhaler for her asthma every time she was in Corby, as the air would burn the back of her throat. Tracey showed solicitor Des Collins her journey to and from work. He told her that if the toxins were spreading the way he suspected, then she was definitely being exposed to toxic air during her commute. This revelation confirmed what many had feared: Corby’s environment was deadly, and it was affecting the health of its residents in devastating ways.
In a shocking turn of events, Tracey was not allowed to be one of the claimants because her child didn't survive, however, in a true act of dedication and true selflessness she still took to the stand to tell Shelby's story and helped the other mothers to win the case.
Maggie Mahon's story
Maggie Mahon, portrayed by Claudia Jessie (Bridgerton and Line of Duty), is a mother whose son Sam was born on July 10, 1987, with a clubfoot. As depicted in the miniseries, her husband Derek—played by Get Millie Black actor Joe Dempsie—worked at the reclamation site.
Maggie would brush the dust out of Derek's clothes each evening, but it wasn't until she saw a newspaper article that she connected the dots between her son's condition and husband's job at the site. She initially questioned this coincidence but came around to joining the lawsuit.
What happened in the Toxic Town court case
Like Maggie, local solicitor Des Collins (played by Rory Kinnear from The Bank of Dave and Years and Years) had read about the scandal in the newspaper and wanted to help these women from his local community.
For more than a decade, he fought for justice on behalf of families whose children were impacted, holding the local town council accountable for what was described as "environmental negligence on a grand scale."
Crucial evidence that helped to win the case came from one of the whistle-blowers, former council worker and council deputy leader Sam Hagen (played by Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty and COBRA star), who handed it to Des.
Sam first raised concerns to other council members about the shortcuts being taken to clear the site in the early 1990s, but was ignored.
The mothers also took the stand, which Susan McIntyre said was "a really scary moment, going to court and facing it all. "At the end of the day I went to tell the God’s honest truth," she said.
"When we got the verdict, it was just like wow, we’ve actually won. My pride was, the way we fought it. We fought it to the end."
The barrister who represented Corby County Council has spoken to the BBC about his involvement in the trial and admitted that the "worst aspect was having to cross-examine mothers of the children - women who suffered deeply."
"In some instances, I had to suggest to them that their memories about the dust or what the lorries were doing - things like that - were wrong."
He added, "When one knows very well that the witness you have is an honest person who's had a terrible time; whose child is injured; whose whole family's had a terrible time."
Finally, in 2009, after years of fighting the case and enduring the bullying and mockery of their children, it was proven that the children's birth defects were linked to mishandled toxic waste near their homes and the court ruled in their favour, recognising the impact of the toxic exposure on their families. After being dismissed for so long, 19 families received compensation and the exact amount of money is undisclosed.
At the time, Corby council's chief executive, Chris Mallender said: "The council recognises that it made mistakes in its clean-up of the former British Steel site years ago and extends its deepest sympathy to the children and their families.
"Although I accept that money cannot properly compensate these young people for their disabilities and for all that they have suffered to date and their problems in the future, the council sincerely hopes that this apology coupled with [the] agreement will mean they can now put their legal battle behind them and proceed with their lives with a greater degree of financial certainty."
Arabella Horspool is a Commercial Content Writer for Yours at Bauer Media. She's a bookworm who is passionate about TV, film and theatre. She enjoys cooking, scrapbooking, playing board games and walking her three dogs.