'Toxic Town' Opens With a Slick Pair of 1990s Era Episodes

Toxic Town is the story of the Corby Toxic Waste case, a landmark court case dubbed “the British Erin Brockovich” that has now spawned a swift, pacy Netflix miniseries that borrows not just from the formula of the crowd-pleasing Julia Roberts film, but also the 25 years of media about environmental injustice and class action lawsuits that we’ve seen since. The significance of the case – ten years in the making and the first to establish a link between atmospheric toxic waste and birth defects – cannot be overstated. 

However, while the sterling talent attached to Toxic Town (written by Jack Thorne, starring Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, Claudia Jessie, Rory Kinnear, and Robert Carlyle) commit to the outrage and heartbreak of these ordinary people's inhumane treatment, it’s a little too slick and digestible in comparison to powder kegs like Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters or the economic Mr Bates vs The Post Office. 

Episode 1 begins before the historic 2009 ruling – in 1995, long after Corby’s run of being a central industrial hub ended with the Conservative government closing Corby Steelworks in 1979. To curb the eventual 30% unemployment rate, a series of EU grants and redevelopment plans went into the town, including a reclamation project of the former steelworks site to make the land usable for future business. This is where toxicity comes in – the council’s handling of the project was shambolic, negligent, and corrupt, and no proper safety measures were adhered to when toxic dust was transported from the steelworks.

When Susan McIntyre (Jodie Whittaker, bravely handling a Scottish accent) gives birth to Connor, who is born with a deformed hand, it’s not long before Connor’s father (Michael Socha) is out of the picture. Susan switches between fun-loving and terse depending on if someone’s currently making her life harder by mocking Connor’s disability. Also expecting is Tracey (Aimee Lou Wood), a new mum whose baby daughter dies due to birth defects. 

Soon pub landlady Pattie (Karla Crome) and Maggie (Claudia Jessie), the wife of a reclamation site truck driver, give birth to children with similar disabilities – a pattern of deformed hands and feet that spur the women to look past their guilt and defensiveness to gradually rally each other and accuse Corby council of poisoning them by mishandling the reclamation project.

Susan’s hesitation to start legal proceedings is warranted: working class people from every place in Britain (Corby was nicknamed “Little Scotland” because so many workers moved there from economically depressed Scotland) have been historically divided and disenfranchised whenever they’ve tried to protect their wellbeing and economic security. Connor’s disability makes her family outsiders and vulnerable: Susan’s hookups make demeaning comments about her son; she gets into fights with women trying to blame her for Connor’s condition. 

Multiple times in the first couple episodes, mothers will snap to anger or distrust when a woman stares at their child – only for them to reveal their child has a similar birth difference. By the end of Episode 2 (set in 1999), a callout for Corby women interested in pursuing legal action has been widely shared, led by Susan, Pattie, and their lawyer Des Collins (Rory Kinnear). Now begins a punishing ten-year journey to something resembling justice.

The B-story throughout “1995” and “1999” is a tale of radicalization: young Ted (Stephen Macmillan) is a council worker who quickly learns that the lax safety measures at the future “Wonderland” theme park site isn’t due to individual incompetence. It's strategic, systemic corruption – contracts gifted to friends of high-up councillors and wilful negligence of health and safety to rush along (personal) economic growth. 

Ted's colleagues hold the legacy of his well-known but now ailing father over his head like a threat, and after losing his dad between 1995 and 1999, Ted dedicates himself to the paper trail following the reclamation project errors. He photocopies sensitive documents and sends them to loyal councillor Sam Hagen (Robert Carlyle), a nebbish longtime friend of council chief Roy Thomas (Brendan Coyle).

Sam's belief in the effectiveness of council bureaucracy slowly makes him a target for the self-serving cronies trying to keep a grip on their ill-gotten and misguided authority. Carlyle has a stunning scene standing at the urinals of a function for Corby’s male, masonic choir. Here, Roy finally offers Sam the treasured second-in-command position he knows his colleague deserves – so long as he drops all lines of questioning about the bogus contracts and dodgy reclamation policies. 

By this point, Ted’s car has been firebombed and the “Wonderland” offices have been arsoned to the ground – there’s no doubt the council are covering their tracks. Sam faces the heartbreaking reality that he’s being pandered to and Roy’s support is phony. Ted is let go (alongside other reclamation-related employees) for no good reason; Sam reports to the police with his findings. Jack Thorne’s interpretation of the case may go down a little too smoothly for how fraught and ugly these recent events really were, but the first half of Toxic Town makes us hungry for accountability for an all-too-real corruption.

All four episodes of Toxic Town are streaming on Netflix starting Thursday, February 27, 2025. We will publish the recap for the second half of the series tomorrow.