Toxic Town - Season 1

Toxic Town is an excellent miniseries thanks to strong actors and a gripping true story as its basis. True scandals are good sources of inspiration for series makers. Series such as De Toeslagenaffaire and Mr Bates vs The Post Office did well last year. These series managed to reduce a gigantic, terrible event to something very human. We saw how ordinary people were affected by the negligence and malice of the large system, and how these people stood up against it. The miniseries Toxic Town, based on the poison spill scandal in Corby, also uses this approach and succeeds well.

For years, toxic waste from a steel mill has been dumped in the English industrial town of Corby. When many children with abnormalities (missing limbs, poorly developed organs) are born in the area in the 1990s, people begin to realize that it is due to the toxic discharges. When the mothers of these children manage to find each other, they take action against the local government together with a lawyer. What follows is a years-long legal battle for justice.

When Jack Thorne (known for His Dark Materials and Best Interests) was announced as the writer of this project, my interest was piqued. Thorne has been committed to the rights of people with disabilities for years and often knows how to weave his ideals very well into the stories he writes in a realistic way. And that is also the case in Toxic Town. Here and there, certain things and coincidences are exaggerated for dramatic effect, but that is forgiven thanks to the sheer quality of the story.

Writer Jack Thorne manages to make the big scandal small and human

A scandal like this is huge, but Thorne manages to keep the scale small and personal. The struggles of parents with a disabled child are central and the story is propelled from there. These struggles lead to frustrations, marital problems and more misery. These struggles are also strongly portrayed from the children's point of view. Missing school because of operations and being bullied because you are different. The series manages to portray these kinds of things realistically.

What helps is an excellent cast. We mainly follow four mothers (and their children) who get involved in the legal battle. The actresses who play these mothers (Jodie Whittaker, Aimée-Lou Wood, Karla Crome and Claudia Jessie) do a great job, and especially Whittaker and Wood excel. The character of Jessie fades a bit more into the background and that is a shame, because her character has an interesting perspective.

With Brendan Coyle as a shrewd councilman, the evil in Toxic Town also gets a human face and thus becomes an interesting antagonist. Robert Carlyle, Rory Kinnear and Joe Dempsie are also welcome additions to the cast.

Jodie Whittaker and Aimée-Lou Woud convincingly carry this series

Another thing this series excels in is the direction. The choice of music and the decor give a convincing picture of the period between 1995 and 2009, in which this series is set. The direction also manages to evoke a very effective sense of impending doom. Images of happy expectant parents are alternated with images of waste dumps, dirty puddles and dust swirling through the air. Despite the sense of doom and the intense emotions that sometimes pass by, the series sees appropriate space for humor and lightness, which means it never feels too heavy.

The makers of Toxic Town have delivered an excellent miniseries. Just like other series based on true scandals, Toxic Town convinces with a gripping story that is told in a personal way. For fans of similar series (or actually all series fans) this is an absolute must.