Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle to Lead an All-Star Cast In Netflix's 'Toxic Town'

Netflix has officially announced the start of production on Toxic Town, a four-part limited series that aims to shine a spotlight on the Corby poisonings, a scandalous series of toxic waste spillages in the East Midlands during the mid-1980s which led to a tragic spike in birth defects in the years that followed and is considered one of the U.K.'s worst environmental disasters.

The Northamptonshire town of Corby was once home to one of the largest steelworks in Europe. That facility was closed in the early '80s, but not before a substantial amount of toxic waste had been dumped there. A few years later, the Corby Bourough Council demolished site as part of a program of urban renewal, a clean-up that involved transporting waste through populated areas using open lorries. 

In the years that followed, the rates of babies born in Corby with upper limb defects skyrocketed, and was ultimately found to be three times higher than those of children born in the surrounding areas. Eighteen families subsequently filed a lawsuit that went all the way to the U.K.'s High Court in 2009. 

The Netflix adaptation of events will focus on three mothers who take on a "David and Goliath fight for justice" and the yearslong legal battle that followed. (The Council was ultimately found negligent, in one of the first cases to prove a link between toxic pollution in the local environment and children born with birth defects.)

Penned by His Dark Materials scribe Jack Thorne, the four-part series hails from Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ Black Mirror producer Broke & Bones, with Jones set to EP alongside Thorne and director Minkie Spiro (Better Call Saul). 

"The Corby Toxic Waste Case is one of those moments in history that is defining. It showed our ability to close our eyes and ears to the safety of our people. It also showed the remarkable way that people will fight for what's right," Thorne said in a statement.  "Toxic Town tells the story of these funny, brave, incredible women and the way they scrapped for their children. It has been a true privilege working with Annabel, Minkie, Delyth, and the whole Broke & Bones family on this incredible story, and we are so grateful to Netflix for giving us the opportunity and support in telling it." 

The series boasts an all-star cast, led by Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who), Robert Carlyle (COBRA), and Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education). with Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey) and Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat) also set to star. 

Production will commence later this month in the U.K., under an Equity contract, meaning the show will not run into conflict with the ongoing U.S. WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor strikes.