Toxic Town writer hopes series has same impact as Mr Bates vs The Post Office
"It was amazing seeing how far it reached and that's the dream."
It was just last year that Mr Bates vs The Post Office landed on ITV, and few could have predicted the wider real-life impact the series would have.
The four-part drama – which told the true story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history – led to renewed public outrage and new legislation announced to exonerate wrongly convicted subpostmasters.
The impact of Mr Bates vs the Post Office is something that many TV writers, including Jack Thorne, have sought to emulate in their own projects.
Speaking in this week's issue of Radio Times magazine, Thorne said that he hopes a little of the impact made by Mr Bates vs the Post Office will rub off on new Netflix drama, Toxic Town.
He said: “I think every writer in the social realism realm took a breath when that came out, particularly when everyone said, ‘This is what TV drama can do!’ We’ve been trying to do that for years… B*****ds!
"But it was amazing seeing how far it reached and that’s the dream, because there’s a lingering sense that no one paid attention."
Toxic Town arrives on Netflix next week and is based on one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, centring on the stories of the people at the heart of the Corby toxic waste case in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
During this period, the rates of upper-limb defects in babies born in Corby were found to be higher than those of children born in the surrounding area, with a judge later ruling this was due to negligence in the reclamation of a steelworks.
Thorne said of the series: “I don’t think it’s about the mothers going after more people, and they certainly weren’t in it for the money. They’re worried for where our country is at, worried that what they and others went through has been forgotten and, when the Government is talking about slashing regulations and red tape, concerned about how we protect ourselves and our children.”
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Jodie Whittaker stars as Susan McIntyre in the series and speaking of the real-life woman who the character is based on, Thorne added: “Susan was the natural leader. I loved everything I read about her, then I met her and loved her even more – she’s a complicated, wonderful person, joyous to write.”
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He continued: “The trouble you can get into is when people say, ‘There’s a version of me I want to tell’. But they didn’t. They told us everything, even stuff they found deeply moving and very difficult to talk about.
"The responsibility as a writer is huge, but I love shows that are prepared to do the hard yards and find the drama within complication.”
As well as Whittaker, the series stars Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey), Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus), Karla Crome (Am I Being Unreasonable?), Rory Kinnear (Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger), Robert Carlyle (The Hack), Claudia Jessie (Bridgerton), Joe Dempsie (Showtrial) and Michael Socha (DI Ray).
The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.
Toxic Town will stream on Netflix from Thursday 27th February. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
