Toxic Town: Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle star in new Netflix drama

Some of the biggest dramas around are based on real life events, such as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Three Girls and Little Boy Blue, and now streaming giant Netflix have dropped one of the most-antipcated dramas of 2025, in the form of Toxic Town.

What is Toxic Town?

Written by award-winning writer Jack Thorne, who is responsible for writing the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play, Toxic Town is based on the real life story of one of the UK's biggest environmental scandals, the Corby poisonings.

Netflix say of the drama: 'Based on the real life story of one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, Toxic Town is the story of the people at the heart of the Corby poisonings. Focusing on the mothers, who took on a David and Goliath battle for justice, the series traces through the years of their fight as a terrible truth comes to the surface.'

Is there a trailer?

The official trailer was released on 5th February, check it out below:

When is it out?

All episodes of Toxic Town are available to watch globally from Thursday 27th February 2025.

How can I watch it?

Toxic Town airs on streaming platform Netflix.

How many episodes?

The new series is made up of four episodes.

Check out the first look photos below:

Who is in the cast?

Cast announcements were confirmed in Summer 2023, ahead of filming, with popular actors Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood and Robert Carlyle leading the cast.

See the full cast list below:

Jodie Whittaker as Susan McIntyre

Aimee Lou Wood as Tracey Taylor

Rory Kinnear as Des Collins

Robert Carlyle as Sam Hagen

Brendan Coyle as Roy Thomas

Claudia Jessie as Maggie Mahon

Joe Dempsie as Derek Mahon

Ben Batt as Pat Miller

Stephen McMillan as Ted Jenkins

Lauren Lyle as Dani Holliday

Michael Socha as Peter

Karla Crome as Pattie Walker

Matthew Durkan as Marc Taylor

Kobi Sadler as younger Connor

Toby Eden as teenage Connor

Where was it filmed?

Filming for the series took place in late 2023, with most filming happening in Breightmet Bolton. Other filming took place in Liverpool, Sale, Stockport and Holmfirth.

The true story behind Toxic Town

As Toxic Town tells the story of the people at the heart of the Corby poisoning, actors Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood reunited with mothers Susan McIntyre, Tracey Taylor and Maggie Mahon to reflect on the real story behind the drama.

Tracey Taylor said of the actors: “They have done us all proud, they have done the children proud.”

Aimee, who played Tracey said: “I’m so honoured that I got to play you.”

Fighting back tears, Tracey, whose daughter Shelby Anne died at just four days old, spoke with Aimee Lou Wood about the impact the series and seeing the actor play her has had: “What you have done for her (Shelby) I am in debt to you, because you have done her justice, and you have done us justice and we will be forever grateful.”

Speaking about the efforts it took to go to court, Tracey said: “We had to show we were strong independent women and prove what they did was wrong and we were not going to be lied to.”

Susan added: “That was a really scary moment, to go to court and face it all. I didn’t go to lie, I went to tell God's honest truth.

With Maggie saying: “We were the underdogs, and that is the magic of the whole story.”

Susan then gasped: “When we got the verdict it was wow, we’ve actually won!”

Tracey said: “All the years of fighting then finding out that, yes, that the judge believed us mums and we were right, was such a big sense of relief because we didn’t do anything and it wasn’t our fault.

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