The bar for campaigning British TV is ridiculously high. Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Adolescence were stunningly acted and scripted programmes that sent shockwaves around the world. Like those series (and Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home, the 1966 drama that arguably set the mould for such rabble-rousing gems), Dirty Business identifies something rotten in our society – in this case, the behaviour of privately owned water companies who for at least two decades have made a fortune while knowingly pumping untreated sewage into England’s rivers and seas. Faeces! Sanitary towels! Condoms! Can the rot be stopped? The filmmaker Joseph Bullman makes us part of the answer to that question. Over the course of three episodes that combine acutely distressing scenes with cosy banter and pitch-black satire, we’re basically offered an instruction manual on how to hold the powers-that-be to account and ensure that s*** hits the fan.
Jason Watkins and David Thewlis are warm and nuanced as Peter and Ash, two middle-aged neighbours in the Cotswolds who, from 2019 onwards, pool their knowledge, optimism and tenacity (Peter’s a biologist, Ash is an ex-copper) in hopes of solving the mystery of why the EA (Environment Agency), a supposedly regulatory body, isn’t doing its job when it comes to Thames Water and South West Water. Though these characters have big houses and lots of time on their hands, they are entirely plausible as everymen. Thewlis, in particular, does a fine job with his micro-expressions. He twitches, in a variety of different ways, as the witty, free-jazz-loathing Ash is forced to endure double-speak, pontification and general fobbing off from various execs.
