The Tragic and Triumphant True Story Behind Netflix's 'Toxic Town' (2025)

There's something about a good underdog story that audiences can't resist. Written by Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials) and directed by Minkie Spiro, the new Netflix release Toxic Town stars Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, Bridgerton's Claudia Jessie, Robert Carlyle, and Rory Kinnear. It follows the three women and the lawyer who spearheaded a class action suit against a local steel factory that they believe caused deformities in dozens of children born in Corby, England, from 1985 to 1997. It is based on a true story that is both tragic in its cause and triumphant in its effect, bringing an unlikely group of blue-collar working women together to hold the sizable British company responsible.

Jodie Whittaker shines as the leader of the ragtag group, and Aimee Lou Wood makes a hard-heel turn from Chelsea, the bubbly free spirit who is also starring as part of the ensemble in the hit HBO series The White Lotus Season 3. The case has become well known as the British version of Erin Brockovich because it features strong women facing what appear to be insurmountable odds to get justice for those negatively affected by the actions of a large company that employed around 10,000 people. It is a landmark case because it was the first time a party had been held responsible for transmitting toxic poisoning through airborne dust and other materials.

What Is 'Toxic Town' About?

Corby is a medium-sized town with approximately 75,000 people, about an hour's drive east of Birmingham and north of London. About 75% of the population in Corby is of Scottish descent, as are most of the women depicted in the show. In the mid-1980s and well into the 1990s, the Corby Borough Council was responsible for transporting and dumping the toxic waste from a nearby steel factory (Corby Steelworks). Beginning in the late '80s and early to mid-1990s, more than two dozen children in Corby were born with various birth defects to their limbs, including missing fingers and toes. One of the women whose son was born with a deformed right hand, Susan McIntyre, along with dozens of other mothers who had given birth to children with similar limb deformities, sought legal representation to hold the Corby Borough Council responsible for their pain and suffering. In 2009, after years of being dismissed and struggling with their children being bullied and made fun of, the court ruled in favor of McIntyre and the women of the Corby suit for 14.3 million pounds.

What Was It Like Living in Corby During That Time?

According to Time Magazine, Corby residents recalled the presence of muddy lagoons that smelled “like a hospital ward.” The kids played close to large puddles of liquid that fizzed when stones were thrown into them. Tracy Taylor, who is portrayed by Wood and gave birth to one of the first children affected by the waste, said there was “a fine dust that got everywhere,” like “the Sahara desert had just done a great big whoosh over. You could clean your desk, and by the time you picked up your coffee cup, it was thick with dust again.” She carried asthmatic inhalers with her when she left the house and wouldn’t leave the house at dinner time because the air would burn the back of her throat. Taylor couldn't be part of the settlement because her child died after just a few days, but she was instrumental in gathering the women and the testimony she gave in court was damning,

Downton Abbey star, Brendan Coyle, plays Roy Thomas, a fictional Corby borough councilor who comes across as the bad guy in Toxic Town, and he was actually born in Corby. Coyle told the BBC he was thrilled that the story of his hometown was being told to the world, saying, "One of the mothers (involved in the case) has been in touch... It's kind of the talk of the town. People are excited about it... For them, the mothers and these children, to have their story told... It's amazing. It's something that's been buried for a long time in terms of people's perception." Even though Coyle was born in Corby, he admitted that he was not familiar with the landmark case. So, it is clear that the horrors that these women went through have been kept under wraps for some time.

What Are Susan McIntyre and Tanya Taylor Doing Now?

In a piece for Netflix and published in Elle, Susan McIntyre and Jodie Whittaker are shown meeting each other for the first time, as are Tanya Taylor and Aimee Lou Wood. They enjoy a lively conversation where McIntyre praises the show's authenticity and recalls the events in Toxic Town, "That was a really scary moment, going to court and facing it all. At the end of the day, I went to tell the God’s honest truth... When we got the verdict, it was just like wow, we’ve actually won... My pride was the way we fought it. We fought it to the end." She is now in her mid-50s and is the mother of two sons.

Whittaker also spoke about what it meant to play McIntyre, "It is honestly such a huge honor to be given the opportunity to be a part of telling the story, because I think for us guys, particularly I think me and Aimee Lou, we had lots of scenes together that were in the hospitals and so we could appreciate – without ever knowing what you’ve been through – what it must be like to be day in and day out in those environments and then someone question the validity of your claims is unimaginable and completely unacceptable."

Toxic Town is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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Toxic Town

Drama

8/10

Release Date

February 27, 2025

Network

Netflix

Writers

Amy Trigg

Cast

• 

  Jodie Whittaker

  Uncredited

• 

  Robert Carlyle

  Connor

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

1

Producers

Minkie Spiro, Jack Thorne, Annabel Jones

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