It is not really the place of a critic to offer advice. But sometimes the urge is overwhelming, so here goes. If you are the director of communications for a huge, hated utilities company seen by the public to be responsible for endless discharges of sewage into major watercourses whenever its plants are overwhelmed, do not invite a documentary team in until you have your house in order. If you do, do not say: “The impression given is that the Thames is dirtier than five, 10, 15 years ago. I don’t believe that’s true! But I don’t have the evidence.”
Thames Water: Inside the Crisis is a two-part documentary by Barnaby Peel. He was granted access for six – let’s call them tricky – months, with the company facing an ever-shortening “liquidity runway”, as the CEO, Chris Weston, insists on calling it. This means that, with an operating profit of about £140m a year and debts of £15bn, largely accrued during the happy days of 2006-17, when £2.7bn was paid out in dividends while debt tripled, the company will run out of cash by June 2025 unless a quick way is found to turn all that red black. We follow Weston and his team as they try to persuade the regulatory body, Ofwat, that the best means of doing this is to raise customer bills by up to 53%.
