Horror is the genre that’s meant to scare people. Personally speaking, I love horror. It’s sort of comforting to me because I know that the ghosts, ghouls, zombies, vampires, werewolves, or whatever other grotesque things that have birthed from the vivid imagination of an artist aren’t real. And that gives me a sort of enjoyment that no other genre does. A lot of people are traumatized by war dramas, which is understandable. Nobody likes to watch dismembered bodies strewn around a battlefield while leaders are either twiddling their thumbs or heartlessly sending young men and women to their deaths in the name of patriotism and whatnot. It does affect me, especially if such films aren’t being used for the propaganda of a political party. But, as I grow older, the genre that I actively avoid in order to save myself from being psychologically disturbed is drama. It doesn’t matter if the films, shows, and miniseries that fall into this category are based on a real story or completely fictional; the better they are, the more upset I get. With that in mind, I’ll say that Toxic Town is terrifying enough to be treated as a horror show.
Toxic Town, written by Jack Thorne and Amy Trigg, with the episodes being directed by Minkie Spiro, is based on the real-life tragedy of the Corby toxic waste case. The borough used to have a steel plant, but in 1979, it was shut down, and the council had to do some good old waste management. The Corby Borough Council, headed by Brendan Coyle, hired a private company called Rhodes and Miller to get the job done. One of the youngest members of the council, Ted Jenkins, was in charge of checking whether or not the concerned authorities were following all the safety measures, but his apprehensions were ignored by Pat Miller and Bill Martin. So, all the poisonous muck and dirt that was extracted from the demolished site was haphazardly carried through the town and dumped right on the outskirts, thereby contaminating every single part of the borough. The first signs of this incident were noticed when women began giving birth to children with congenital malformations, with some pregnancies even ending in death. The dramatization of the fight between the residents of the borough and the council, which dragged on from 1995 to 2009, largely unfolds through the perspective of three women: Susan McIntyre, Tracey Taylor, and Maggie Mahon.
If you have watched Erin Brockovich, Chernobyl, or the documentary that Samdish Bhatia has done on the “cancer district” of Uttar Pradesh, you’ll be able to guess at the narrative of Toxic Town. You have corrupt public representatives and their massive financial backing on one side, and on the other side, you have the victims of said public representatives’ corrupt practices who are fighting for justice with what little resources they have. So, it’s easy to label it as “predictable” and “cliché.” But it’s the similarity with the aforementioned stories about ministries that are responsible for the health and safety of a town, city, or borough, casually sacrificing people to make a quick buck, that makes this particular tragedy so scary. The fact that this kind of behavior is a global phenomenon and that generations have suffered because of humanity’s selfishness is, to put it simply, wild. Whenever we talk about mass murders and genocides, we point at fascists who rose to power by committing all kinds of war crimes. However, if an unbiased and uninhibited investigation into the deaths and deformities, direct or indirect, caused by capitalists and business moguls is done, I think the horrors inflicted by history’s greatest dictators will pale in comparison.
Toxic Town is surprisingly light-hearted. Not to sound disrespectful, but one of the biggest reasons why I stay away from stories about real-life calamities is the tone. I understand why directors like to keep things somber and serious. They want to convey the gravity of the incident in question to the audience, and since it is a method that has worked time and again, it’s what everyone does. The approach taken by Thorne, Trigg, and Spiro is a little different. They somehow balance that familiar British humor with the stomach-churning revelations around the Corby Borough Council’s awful waste management. So, on one hand, you have moments of levity, and on the other hand, you are shocked to your core. When you are not doing either of those, you are bawling your eyes out as you relate with the plight of the working class of Corby and salute their resilience. And it’s insane that Spiro and her team pull off all this, while subtly shifting the production design, costume design, and hair and make-up design from the mid-90s to the early 2000s, within a matter of 4 episodes without making anything feel rushed or half-baked. I have watched so many movies, TV shows, and miniseries, and I don’t know how they did it, but I’m glad they did, because it means that there’s still room for surprises in this landscape, which is getting saturated by stories on true events.
The cast of Toxic Town is spectacular. Jodie Whittaker has delivered a career-best performance. She actually embodies the miniseries’ inexplicable shifts in tone while never losing sight of the core values of her character. Aimee Lou Wood portrays heartbreak so perfectly, and her chemistry with Whittaker and Matthew Durkan is beautiful. Brendan Coyle will make you want to punch your screen, or maybe something else that’s not as valuable as your laptop or mobile device, and that’s a compliment. The legendary Robert Carlyle is excellent, as always. There’s a bit of a Game of Thrones reunion going on here because both Joe Dempsie and Simon Armstrong are in the supporting cast. Dempsie is rather despicable throughout the show, but he has that one gut-wrenching scene at the end, and he nails it. I know Claudia Jessie more through her interviews and not so much through her acting work, and I am aware of how energetic and expressive she is. So, as soon as I saw her delivering such an understated and restrained performance, I was immediately impressed. Stephen McMillan is really good. The ever-dependable Rory Kinnear is expectedly fantastic. Lauren Lyle, Michael Socha, Karla Crome, and the rest of the ensemble deserve a huge round of applause for their amazing work.
There’s no doubt that Toxic Town is one of the best shows of the year so far. As mentioned earlier, it is chock-full of brilliant performances. The storytelling is perfect. The pacing in every single episode is immaculate. It’s enjoyable, saddening, and educational, all at the same time. If that doesn’t sound like a recommendation, I don’t know what will. That said, I would like to live in a world where there’s no need to make a miniseries like this. I mean, I don’t have to be the one to tell you that one out of the many reasons why this story is being told now is because atrocities of this magnitude, or much bigger than this, are happening as you read this sentence. Just last year, the UK government dumped an unimaginable amount of sewage into the country’s rivers. Megacorporations are flouting all kinds of rules and polluting the water we drink, the soil we grow food in, and the air we breathe. I don’t know where these capitalist overlords and corrupt government officials in this world intend to go after they’re done destroying everything that we hold dear, but it’s an outcome that I don’t wish to see. I want people to wake up from whatever slumber they are in and strive towards sustainable living, not just for us but for future generations. At least then I’ll be able to watch well-made movies, shows, miniseries, and even documentaries on the follies of mankind without worrying about whether or not I, my family, or my friends are going to become the subject of a similarly tragic tale one fine day.
