Toxic Town on Netflix is an intriguing story about a fight between the mothers who live in Corby, England and their town council when it comes to a toxic waste case. It's show full of emotion, resilience, and much more. So is this all based on a true story?
The answer is, yes. Toxic Town is based on a true story. This is unfortunate as it means these parents and children went through the difficult time of the kids being born with missing limbs, compromised immune systems, and other health struggles. And it all could have been avoided. As seen in the series, mothers usually and heartbreakingly blame themselves. But it wasn't their fault at all.
Let's start from the beginning. So Susan McIntyre (Jodie Whittaker), Tracey Taylor (Aimee Lou Wood), and Maggie Mahon (Claudia Jessie) are three real-life mothers whose children were effected by the Corby poisonings. Just like in the show, Susan's son Connor is missing fingers on one of his hands, Tracey's daughter Shelby Anne had a deformed ear and passed away after just a few days, and Maggie's son Sam was born with a club foot.
An article from The Times (which also features images of the real-life trio) describes the real-life McIntyre as "formidable and a doer," which is likely how the writers and Whittaker built the character in the Netflix series. She was one of the first people to be approached by a journalist at the newspaper, as seen in the show, which kickstarted everything.
And while Susan and Tracey see each other again a few years later at the hospital and that's how Tracey learns about the potential of a cluster in the area, it was actually through the television interview that the real-life Tracey put the puzzle pieces together. Here's what she told The Times:
“I stopped in my tracks — it was next-door to my work. It was like a jigsaw puzzle with all the pieces flying at me at once. All that time I had been blaming myself, and my husband and I were thinking, ‘What did we do wrong? Was it using the microwave?’ You blame yourself because you have no answer.”
Just like in the series, Taylor had been working close to where the toxic waste was being transported. Unfortunately, she really did need to be left out of the court case in the hopes of building a stronger one and keeping it consistent. Even though Shelby Anne had been born with a deformity in her ear. That happened to a few women, the case totaling to 18 families and 19 children. Though there were more who struggled health wise that were most likely effected due to the toxins.
Toxic Town really didn't change many of the true facts and how certain events happened. Though some areas were dramatized for the sake of television. And some characters, like Roy Thomas (Brendan Coyle) represented multiple men at the council. But it's easier to sometimes just focus on one when watching a show.
Sam Hagen, played by Robert Carlyle, is also based on a real-life person who took the internal documents and delivered them to lawyer Des Collins (Rory Kinnear). Ted Jenkins (Stepphen McMillan, who had been worried about the breaking of rules from the start and helped the mothers win the case at court, seems to be based on a real person who had first brought up his concerns to Sam like in the show. Though it's not clear if he did testify in court at the last moment like in Toxic Town, or if that was created for dramatic purposes.
It wasn't until 2010 that the Corby mothers received a settlement from Corby Borough Council who agreed to pay, the sum coming out to be £14.6 million. The council leadership, Pat Miller, and Bill Martin are fictional characters. No one faced criminal charges. It was also a long 11-year battle as well as seen in the drama series.
Unfortunately it's true that the toxic waste was being transported in lorries that weren't covered properly, and the dust was being spread all over from the site to the quarry where it was being disposed of. This real-life case was monumental as it was the first to prove that there's a connection between airborne toxins and birth defects. It's also described as the British Erin Brockovich.
Toxic Town season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.