Is Netflix’s ‘Toxic Town’ A True Story? The Corby Toxic Waste Case, Explained

Netflix’s new series Toxic Town is now streaming. The miniseries follows three mothers as they uncover the cause of their children’s birth defects in a small British town, but is it based on a true story? Read on to learn about the U.K.’s largest child poisoning case since thalidomide and what happened to the families involved.

The new drama series, directed by Minkie Spiro, centers on three mothers—played by Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, and Claudia Jessie—who live in the British steel town of Corby, where their children were born with similar birth defects, including missing fingers and clubbed feet.

Toxic Town showcases the families’ decades-long legal battle against the Corby’s borough council, which they hold responsible for the mishandling of toxic waste that led to their children’s disabilities. The show’s writer, Jack Thorne, was initially unaware of the case that’s been dubbed “the British Erin Brockovich.”