You may scoff at celebrity-fronted documentaries, but there’s no need to moan about Buried With Michael Sheen, an investigation into how toxic “forever chemicals” were dumped in Welsh quarries in the middle of the 20th century. Much of our knowledge of the subject comes from a filmed interview given nearly 10 years ago by the environmental campaigner Douglas Gowan, who, after decades of trying to raise awareness, had only weeks to live and wanted to divulge all he had learned. The person behind the camera and asking the questions? Sheen.
The actor and director is a little coy about how or why he came to spend two days – two days! – grilling a stranger to create the most valuable document we have about an underappreciated injustice. He says something about stumbling across Gowan online during a career lull and wanting to know more. But however it happened, the fact is that the best qualified person to present this two-parter is the award-winning Hollywood star, so here he is.
