Sometimes the most horrifying stories are the ones that are true. The production team behind the acclaimed series Black Mirror, is now tackling a limited series based on the real-life Corby Toxic Waste Case. The case dominated UK news headlines and now Toxic Town is coming to Netflix later next month. We’re now getting our first look at the upcoming series. It stars Jodie Whittaker, best known for playing the Thirteenth Doctor on Doctor Who, as well as Claudia Jessie, best known as Eloise Bridgerton on the hit Netflix Regency-era drama, Bridgerton. Joining Jessie and Whittaker is Once Upon a Time‘s Robert Carlyle.
Netflix first announced the series back in 2023, and now it’s finally come to fruition. The streamer says, “Toxic Town is a story about community, focusing on three mothers who take on a David and Goliath fight for justice. By tracing through the years of their fight, a terrible truth comes to the surface – one of stinging injustice.” No official character names have been released ahead of the four-episode miniseries as of January 2025. One image shows Whittaker with a young boy talking with presumably a journalist about the issues going on in the town of Corby. Another image shows Whittaker and Jessie at what looks to be a park, with buildings puffing dark smoke and fumes into the atmosphere.
What Is the Colby Toxic Waste Case?
The case, ruled on in 2009, was the first in the world to directly link between toxic waste in the atmosphere and birth defects. This link was after, according to the BBC, eighteen different families in the community of Corby claimed that their 19 children, born over the same 15 years, were born with upper limb defects. Between 1984 and 1999, officials in Corby took it upon themselves to demolish a steelworking plant. It also required that they remove waste from the land after British Steel said operations would cease. The whole site was nearly 700 acres of land and the BBC says that the contractors employed to remove the toxic waste actually had very little experience in doing so. After the case was ruled on in 2009, the Corby Borough Council first tried to dispute the claim of any wrongdoing but the following year, in 2010, admitted to the mistakes of the cleanup job between 1984 and 1999.
Toxic Town hits Netflix on February 27. Stay with Collider for the latest updates.
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