Toxic Town: Writer Jack Thorne hopes Netflix show can inspire more like Mr Bates and the Post Office
Netflix's Toxic Town writer Jack Thorne told ITV News Anglia why he wanted to tell the story of Corby's toxic waste scandal
The writer behind the new Netflix drama Toxic Town said he hopes the show will inspire more agenda-setting drama - and warned that its lessons must still be heeded by today's politicians.
Jack Thorne, 47, said he hoped more writers would want to tell the story of ordinary people and their fight to get justice against authority, such as the ground-breaking ITV drama Mr Bates and the Post Office.
Toxic Town tells the story of a group of mothers living in Corby who fought a legal battle after several of their children developed birth defects in the 1990s following work to shift contaminated waste from the nearby steelworks.
"I would love it if it did [inspire others]," he told ITV News Anglia. "I've been trying to write dramas like the Post Office all my life.
"This show was actually filmed before the Post Office [series] even came out, but I think the Post Office drama was hugely important for my profession and the world, that thing of telling people what TV can do and what TV should do and if it leads to more like that then I'll be delighted."
Many of the children affected by the defects were missing fingers and toes, and some of the babies died.
The four-part drama focuses on the parents who battled for justice, with Jodie Whittaker playing Susan McIntyre, whose son Connor was born with a deformed hand.
Toxic Town also stars Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood and Trainspotting actor Robert Carlyle.
Whittaker’s character says her son “has been in pain his entire life and it wasn’t his fault”.
She is seen campaigning alongside Wood, whose character Tracey Taylor says: “I’m here for them [the children] and the damage my council did them.”
The series also stars Skyfall actor Rory Kinnear, Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle, Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie and Skins actor Joe Dempsie.
Mr Thorne said he felt driven to write the piece after discovering about the Corby case.
"I was amazed that I had never heard of it. I read a lot, watch a lot and listen a lot and I hadn't heard a thing about it and that was part of the reason I felt I had to write this - this is the sort of thing TV can give light to," he said.
Mr Thorne is a BAFTA award-winner who also wrote the script for the acclaimed TV show His Dark Materials, as well as the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the films Wonder and Enola Holmes.
He believes the Toxic Town case has important lessons for current politicians in the rush to get Britain building.
"I think we have got into a situation where we delight in the reduction of red tape. Even the Labour party now - Sir Keir Starmer is using the word 'blockers' for planners and bureaucrats who are just trying to put safety measures in place.
"What happened in this community came about as a result of people not worrying about the things they should, and people prioritising progress and growth over the safety needs of the people: as a result of that a lot of people got sick and some people were killed."
Mr Thorne spent a long time chatting to the mothers in Corby and said he wanted to capture both their sense of humour and resilience in the show as they continued their long battle for justice.
"So many people tell working-class stories with misery and actually they were remarkable and funny.
"It's a raw truth. These people are real people... and by following them and seeing the pain they went through, and understanding the pain their children went through, and how painful it is as a parent to see your child go through agony after agony because they're having operations to try to graft toes onto hands... that's the heart of the show," he said.
Mr Thorne praised the solicitors who took up the case as well as the bravery and stoicism of the mothers who faced great sadness.
"Some children were born dying or dead. One of the three mothers we follow, her child died as a result of the injuries sustained in the womb by their mother ingesting this toxic dust."
He said he wanted to write about the beauty of the human condition above all.
"These people are wonderful and we celebrate everything about them," he said.
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