Corby, Northamptonshire, 1995: the disused steelworks that were once the heartbeat of the town are to be redeveloped into housing and a theme park. As the land is cleared, a crimson dust that will later be shown to contain cadmium and other highly toxic substances is stirred up; open-topped trucks full of the stuff career past unknowing residents to a messy landfill. And so the scene is set for Toxic Town, a true-story drama about a very British scandal.
Susan McIntyre’s partner works at the site, while Tracey Taylor is an accountant there who has to sluice thick red sludge off her car every evening when she goes home. Susan (Jodie Whittaker) and Tracey (Aimee Lou Wood) meet on a maternity ward, before both give birth to children with disabilities. When Susan realises other women nearby have had similar outcomes, she starts a campaign for justice. Meanwhile, concerns raised within the council about poisonous soil are silenced with bribes and bullying by senior figures who won’t allow anything to jeopardise the construction project, which had a dodgy tendering process. It’s not until 2009 that Susan and co are able to demonstrate council negligence and achieve a landmark court victory.
