That's the word that you use a lot. I think that is, 'cause it is all about justice.

Justice for our children.

Yeah. It's honestly such a huge honour to be given the opportunity to be a part of telling the story.

[contemplative music plays and fades]

[Whittaker] Toxic Town is a story that, shamefully, I was really unfamiliar with. It's set in a real town, and it's about some women and families who discovered that their children were born with limb differences. He's got a bad hand. Don't stare, okay? So has mine.

[Whittaker] What united them was that the town they were living in was poisoning them. How'd that happen? This will bring attention to something that is incredibly shocking, incredibly heartbreaking, and totally avoidable.

[tense music playing]

I don't know.

[music stops] Today, I'm getting to see Susan McIntyre, who I play. Now that Susan's seen it, I think the main hope, for me, is that it is something she's really proud of and something that represents, fundamentally, what those mothers went through.

[person] Rolling.

[woman 1] Maggie, take one.

[woman 2] Why don't we begin. Okay.

[woman 2] So, introduce yourself

and tell me which actor played you.

[contemplative music playing] I'm Susan McIntyre, and Jodie Whittaker's playing me in the drama. So lovely to see you again. Name's Tracey Taylor. My child in the story is Shelby Anne Taylor.

[doctor] The baby

Shelby. Her name's Shelby. And my character is being played by Aimee Lou Wood. Hi Tracy.

[Taylor] I'm looking forward to seeing Jodie and Aimee Lou again because they have done us all proud, they have done the children proud. I'm Maggie. I am Sam's mum in the drama, and Claudia Jessie played me. I knew she was in Bridgerton, so it was quite a shock, really, do you know what I mean, that somebody so, you know, so famous, was, you know, going to be playing me. It was just unbelievable, really. They have a case, Derek. We've got one. And we're going to win. Was there any bits that kind of stood out to you as really representative or really made you laugh 'cause it totally didn't happen like that?

[both laugh] I loved the karaoke bit.

Did you?

I thought it was amazing. Come on, everyone!

Peter, get up here!

Absolutely not! And the crazy part was that's Connor's favourite song. Is it? When he was little he used to sing it all the time.

Incredible.

No one knew that. No one knew that. Come on, everyone!

[McIntyre] Brilliant. Yeah, very good. She's even got my accent and everything. I liked the way you were dressed as well, 'cause that was exactly me.

Back in the day.

Yeah. It was just crazy. It's taken me over a year to grow my hair back.

[laughing]

Oh, wow.

[lively music playing]

What are you in for? I have diabetes. Blood pressure through the roof. Keep telling them it's nothing to do with my body. I'm with the wrong fella.

[Mahon] I loved the humour. People from Corby have a good sense of humour. [chuckles]

You fart in your sleep, do you know that?

Do I? As for being in the hospital, apparently farting in the night, I would just like it on tape that that did not happen, and Susan will back me up on that one.

[tense music playing] Growing up in Corby with the steelworks and everything, I always remembered black dust and smoke, and just kind of just thought it was normal, really. And so then living with this reddy, browny dust, that was part and parcel of, you know, what happened, really.

[music becomes ominous]

[McIntyre] The dust was everywhere. You were walking in sludge. But no one actually knew that this was actually toxins.

[woman] Lovely. That's it. Well done.

[screaming] One more push.

[McIntyre] Connor was born with no fingers on his left hand. He had a little bit of a thumb, but the rest was little buds. Are you taking him?

Can you get the doctor?

[woman] Yeah.

[McIntyre] At the beginning when he was firstborn,

I couldn't bear to look at his hand.

[moody music playing]

[Connor crying] It was really hard. But the more I looked, the more I didn't have to look at that. I had to look at him, 'cause I loved him so much.

[sniffling]

[Connor crying]

[McIntyre sighs]

[music stops] Were there any scenes that felt particularly sensitive or poignant? Probably the actual birth, and the… what happened afterwards.

[baby crying]

[nurse] Oh. Obviously we were really excited, it was going to be our first child. Hello, Shelby.

I'm Tracey. I'm your mum.

[contemplative music playing]

[Taylor] Shelby was beautiful. They wrapped her up and then gave her to me. And I gently pulled a piece of the blanket away, 'cause I wanted to see her face. That's when I noticed she'd got a deformed ear. Shelby.

[doctor] We're having a problem birthing the placenta. Tracey's losing blood. Something wrong with her ear. Concentrate on getting this out, eh? They took her down to the special baby care unit and put her in on oxygen. That's when the doctor said, "We honestly do think there's something seriously wrong." We called our priest who'd married us, and asked him to come and baptise her and give her a blessing. And then they came back, took us into a room, and they said, "Look, we're really sorry, but unfortunately, she's only got a two-chamber heart as opposed to a four-chamber heart." "There's blood being pumped straight into her lungs as opposed to her heart." And I sort of said, "Well, can you please try and operate?" And they said, "Well, we could take her in, but it's over 90% chance she won't be coming out alive." So we had to make the decision of, "Did we put her through that and any more pain?" "Or did we let her go?" So…

[voice wavering] we asked my mum and dad to come down to see their granddaughter.

[sorrowful music playing] Sorry. And say their goodbyes, to which they did. And we decided, as parents, we would take her off life support machine. If she lasted a little while, then we would give her the chance of going in to surgery and being operated on, knowing that there'd be many years of surgeries for her. But she went… At least she went in our arms lovingly.

And she only lasted five minutes.

[music stops] I don't know if you'd like to see an actual photo of Shelby. I'd love to see a photo. And my husband, of course. [chuckles] I want to see Marc. Oh my God.

[ethereal music playing]

[sniffling]

[whispering] It's all right. So beautiful. What you have done for her… I'm in debt to you. 'Cause you have done her justice. And you've done us justice, and we will forever be grateful. So, thank you so much. I'm so honoured that I got to play you.

Thank you.

I really am. And that photo is so gorgeous.

[ethereal music fades]

[Taylor] They did testing on both of us and said there was no reason why it should've happened. And I started to feel, "Well, hang on a minute." "Is there something I'd done in the first three months?" You know? You start to blame yourself as a mother.

[intriguing music playing] Turns out that I was working next door to where the main toxic waste was, the deadly stuff was being done. That was the whole of the pregnancy. All of this at the start was just like one big jigsaw puzzle, and slowly, the pieces came together.

[Mahon] So, generally, Derek went to work, drove his dump truck, you know, never really talked much about work, and, he'd come home, just, his clothes were… like he used to wear jeans, and they'd be caked in mud, really, and, you know, to us, we thought it was mud.

[intriguing music stops] Found out I was expecting Sam, And, yeah, we were really happy, you know, delighted. It wasn't until Sam was born it turned out it was a severe clubfoot. I just kind of accepted that it was just something that happened, you know? And then, I remember seeing the thing in the paper and thinking, "Oh my God," you know? "This could be what has caused this." Today, I can confirm that the epidemiological study found no difference between the rate of children with birth defects born to mothers in Corby

and those in the wider Kettering area.

[people chattering]

[McIntyre] When they said, "no clusters found," I was angry. I just lost my temper with them. Take time to digest what's been written? Doesn't need digesting. It's already been digested. It's shite!

[audience cheering]

[McIntyre] And we were little people to these big men. But we were determined, and that was it.

[contemplative music playing] We had to show that we were strong, independent women who were going to prove that what they did was wrong. And we were not going to be lied to.

[people chattering] That was a really scary moment, going to court and facing it all. Holy shit. Just do what you do. And what should I do?

[man] Just tell them what they did to you. What they did to your kids. And then the day I went to tell the courts the truth… My son has been in pain his entire life. And it wasn't his fault, and I don't like that. To me, we were the underdogs, and I think that is the magic of the whole story, really.

The fetal medicine evidence proved…

[quiet dramatic music playing] …that there had been continuing breaches of the duty of care on the part of Corby Borough Council. Those defaults led to the distribution of contaminated materials, materials which damaged the claimants and the children inside them. It is for these reasons that I find for the claimant.

[loud cheering]

[uplifting music playing]

[McIntyre] And the verdict, it was just like, "Wow." "We've actually won."

[sobs quietly] I think that was a major thing that because this had never been proven before, that airborne, you know, chemicals, waste, dust, could cause birth defects. All the years of fighting and then finding out that, yes, we… you know, the judge believed us mums, and we were right, it brought a real, big sense of relief, because it was, like, I didn't do anything wrong, it's not my fault. It's honestly such a huge, like, honour to be given the opportunity to be a part of telling the story, 'cause I think for us guys, particularly, I think, with me and Aimee Lou, we had lots of scenes together that were

within the hospitals.

Yeah. So we could fully kind of appreciate without ever knowing what you've been through, what it must've been like to be day in and day out in those environments. Yeah. And then someone questioned the validity of your claims is unimaginable and completely unacceptable.

[upbeat music playing] Over ten years, our fight. I can't even remember how it started. In a labour ward.

[Mahon] I think watching it on behalf of Derek as well, he was, like, just blown away by the whole thing, you know? He doesn't get very emotional very often, but he was literally crying at the end of it, and he just thought it'd done it such justice, really. Yeah. Well, while we have snot and tears all over our faces, should we have a photo?

[all laughing] Good idea. A photo. A lot of times I kind of… The way I deal with things is I put things to the back of my head and just leave them there, really. But when it was out that there was going to be, you know, this drama about what had happened, it was a bit like therapy. It's been so good to see you.

[Mahon] Brilliant, yeah. Oh. Oh, I love you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. We have a great team. And that's what it needed to take them to court and win. So, yeah, there is a friendship and a bond there that's going to be there until… the end of time.

[woman] Do you feel proud?

Yes. Very. My pride was, that we fought it. We fought it to the end.

[woman] And you won.

[chuckles] Yeah, we sure did.

[upbeat music fades]