Toxic Town star Jodie Whittaker on justice, Doctor Who and why she's always 'on the brink of panic'

Jodie Whittaker has played some heroic characters over the years. But none quite like Susan McIntyre, who led the real-life fight for justice in the Corby toxic waste scandal.  

McIntyre led a group of women from Corby, Northamptonshire, whose children were all born with limb difference between 1985 and 1997 – at a time when the local steelworks were being dismantled, demolished and regenerated. Their struggle – McIntyre was dubbed the British Erin Brockovich – is brought back into the public consciousness by new Netflix series Toxic Town.  

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“I was blown away by the fight she had in her,” says Whittaker when she calls Big Issue.  

“She was so unapologetic. And she fought and fought for justice and fought and fought for her child. There wasn’t a nurturing environment helping Susan through this either. It wasn’t this big community coming together scenario. She was fighting single-handed, with no support apart from the other mothers.” 

Corby was a town built on steel. But in May 1979, the new Thatcher government announced the closure of the British Steel works – leading to 11,000 job losses, in a town of around 60,000 residents, as the unemployment rate there hit 30% over the next three years. Worse was to follow. 

The town, nicknamed Little Scotland as so many workers had relocated south for the secure jobs at what was once the largest steelworks in Europe, was already reeling from the loss of its biggest employer when tragedy struck. 

After central government let down the people of Corby, local government made things far worse. The regeneration and redevelopment of the steelworks site were badly mismanaged, with safety warnings not adhered to and corners cut to keep costs down. And, as toxic waste was transported across town, invisible pollutants were unleashed into the atmosphere and the air became poisonous. 

The result was a sudden rise in children born with limb disabilities. Ten times more children were born with upper-limb difference than would have been expected in a town the size of Corby. Zinc, arsenic, boron and nickel exposure led to the biggest child negligence case since the Thalidomide scandal – but a causal link was not identified for many years. And it was not acknowledged for a lot longer.  

It may well never have been discovered but for the group of local mothers – McIntyre, Tracey Taylor (The White Lotus’s Aimee Lou Wood) and Maggie Mahon (Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie) are those foregrounded in the Netflix dramatisation – who banded together in search of justice and accountability. The women’s struggle is captured in Jack Thorne’s devastating true-life drama. 

“It’s about creating a conversation so these things are never repeated,” says the writer. “For these women it was never about money. It was about creating noise and getting attention – that’s why it’s so sad that they got so little.” 

When we meet Susan McIntyre at the start of Toxic Town, she is the life and soul of the party. It opens with her on stage belting out “I Will Survive” during a karaoke night at the pub. She is confrontational, full on, uncompromising – a whirlwind of fast-talking energy, a real force to be reckoned with.  

“I love how unapologetic she is,” says Whittaker, recalling first meeting the real Susan McIntyre midway through filming. “It was the most terrifying experience. She could see I was way more nervous than her. But it was a beautiful moment. There was me, Aimee Lou and Claudia meeting the people we were playing. When you are face-to-face with the real-life person and they don’t look disappointed it’s a massive relief. 

“I kept thinking bits of the story might have been heightened. But when I’d ask Susan if it really happened, she’d go, ‘Oh yeah!’ Their approval is vital. You just want them to be happy.” 

In an age before social media, it took time for the women to find each other, to realise their stories had commonalities, and to begin piecing together what had happened to their children. Rory Kinnear plays heroic lawyer Des Collins who helped take their story to the highest courts in the land.  

“There were some scenes with Rory where he’d be talking about the legal stuff and I completely zoned out and missed my cue,” Whittaker says. “I’d been trying to take it all in, but even after reading it 10 times it is so difficult. So just imagine them having to navigate a system that is so complex, a system that is against you the whole time.”  

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By refusing to accept responsibility, local politicians – led by Roy Thomas (played by Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle) extended the suffering. Families were torn apart in a haze of guilt and recrimination. The devastating impact is captured in Toxic Town. It’s not an easy watch. Parents blame themselves and each other, fathers take refuge in drink or feel unable to stay in the family home, mothers initially struggle to bond with their babies or are consumed with guilt before the fight for justice takes over their lives.  

“I loved the dynamic between the women,” continues Whittaker. “I love all the scenes of the women in the pub because you don’t often see pub culture with women. And that mental capacity to fight like that for their children. 

“Because the thing I found so heartbreaking, especially knowing it was true, was that the instant thing was to blame their behaviour during pregnancy. And they had people accusing them of just wanting the money.  

“This was a woman fighting against judgements people made of her based on her class and it went on for years.” 

It opens out into a tale of whistleblowers, council cover-ups and courtrooms, but keeps McIntyre at the heart of the story. It’s exactly the kind of important, issue-led project that Whittaker has been relishing since leaving her most iconic role.  

“With these jobs I’ve done post-Doctor Who, I’m sure a therapist could absolutely dissect it. But I do gravitate towards quite a challenging emotional journey,” says Whittaker, whose previous big TV role was in Jimmy McGovern’s hard-hitting Time.  

“It’s not glamorous storytelling. There’s no toned hair. You’re not dripping in Versace. I loved Doctor Who so much. It was my happiest time. And it will always be the headline forever, it doesn’t matter what else happens in my career. But leaving Doctor Who it’s been an absolute joy and revelation to go off on a tangent and find it so fulfilling and exciting. I will never take that for granted, because I’m an actress in my 40s. So I’m always on the brink of some kind of panic.”  

Toxic Town follows Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Breathtaking – the ITV drama that showed life on Covid wards as politicians lied, obfuscated and delayed at the height of the pandemic, showcasing their failures of leadership then closing ranks rather than taking responsibility. Writer Jack Thorne is something of a specialist in hard-hitting drama. He was at the forefront of big, issue-led TV way before Mr Bates vs The Post Office hit the headlines. Thorne was approached by producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones to tell the story of the Corby toxic waste scandal and was, he says, ashamed not to know more about it.

He adds a chilling thought: “I don’t think the kids are the end of the story in Corby. Sadly, I think there will be others that have been poisoned. The cost of it will continue growing. 

“And I don’t think Corby sits alone. Corby just happened to have Susan McIntyre in it. I think there are other towns and cities that didn’t have Susan McIntyre, where people’s pain has been buried along with the waste.” 

For Whittaker, Toxic Town speaks to these times. “The way they were able to shut down the voices of working-class women is shocking,” she says. “When the council that is elected to protect you as the community fails to do that, it is unforgivable.”

“And we are in a transitional time in the world and that is scary. I’m emotionally led in my politics. But you do feel as if the loudest and most powerful voices don’t necessarily speak for the masses at the moment.”  

Toxic Town is on Netflix now.

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