Netflix’s Toxic Town Is Based On The Corby Poisonings

Featuring stars from Bridgerton, Doctor Who, and The White Lotus, the new Netflix series Toxic Town follows a group of families in Corby, England, who allege that toxic waste from the town’s former steelworks is responsible for devastating consequences.

Not only is Toxic Town based on a true story, but it’s received the support of some of the very people involved in the pivotal environmental justice case — which has been likened to a “British Erin Brockovich.”

Here’s everything to know as you watch the new series, which premiered on Feb. 27.

Dangerous Dust

As the BBC notes, Corby’s steelworks was closed in 1980, and waste from the site was transported to a quarry.

But in the years that followed the land reclamation project, many local women gave birth to children with limb deformities and other birth defects. Tracey Taylor (who is portrayed by Aimee Lou Wood in Toxic Town) lost her daughter, Shelby, at four days old.

The families of 19 affected children worked with solicitor Des Collins to bring forward a class action suit against the Corby Borough Council. According to the BBC, Collins argued — bolstered by pollution and toxicology experts — that the council had mismanaged toxic waste from the reclamation project, contributing to “contaminated dust” spreading through the area.

A 2009 High Court ruling indeed found the council “negligent,” per The Guardian. As Netflix notes at the end of Toxic Town, “the legal case was the first in the world to establish a link between airborne toxins and damage to unborn children.”

While the council prepared to appeal the decision, they ultimately reached a private settlement with the families in 2010 — while still denying liability.

The Women Of Toxic Town Today

Fifteen years after the conclusion of their landmark case, several of the Corby mothers have praised Netflix’s dramatization.

Taylor sat down with Wood in a moving moment shared by Netflix, and thanked the White Lotus star for bringing Shelby’s story to light. “What you have done for her... I’m in debt to you,” Taylor said, sharing a photo of her baby. “Because you have done her justice, and you’ve done us justice, and we will forever be grateful.”

Susan McIntyre and Maggie Mahon — portrayed by Jodie Whittaker and Claudia Jessie, respectively — also celebrated Toxic Town’s release.

“It was a bit like therapy,” Mahon said of sharing her story through Netflix.

McIntyre, for her part, said she was proud to revisit the women’s quest for justice. “We fought it to the end,” she said.