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The Fountain of Filth \u2013 a new installation publicising Dirty Business. Image: James Veysey \/ Shutterstock for Channel 4<\/p>\n\u201cThe water companies dump sewage in our waterways and almost every time they do that, that\u2019s a crime.\u00a0Yet no water company owner, executive or hedge fund manager has ever been prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you watch the films, you can see the scope and the extent of the scandal. It\u2019s the worst corporate scandal in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fountain of Filth \u2013 a new installation publicising Dirty Business. Image: James Veysey \/ Shutterstock for Channel 4<\/p>\n
As the series launches, Channel 4 have unveiled a new public art installation called The Fountain of Filth on London\u2019s Southbank. This is provocative stuff. The striking statue depicts children, women and men vomiting brown water. Above them is a businessman (who looks rather like Keir Starmer) clutching a briefcase overflowing with cash to represent the water companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a government that was elected partly on the pledge to clean up the cesspool that is our water companies and our regulators who have operated policies which have had the effect of enabling this festival of greed which the water companies have become,\u201d Bullman told Big Issue at the unveiling of The Fountain of Filth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were elected on that. But their white paper is essentially about backdoor deregulation. In light of the fact that the Environment Agency has failed spectacularly, the Labour government\u2019s response is less regulation and further involvement from the international private asset management funds who own our water companies. It\u2019s really staggering.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to the allegations made in the show, an Environment Agency spokesperson said the current government has committed to ending \u201cself-monitoring\u201d for water companies and added:: \u201cThe depiction\u2026 in this film does not reflect the significant changes the organisation has undergone in recent years to better tackle water pollution\u2026<\/p>\n
Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
\u201cMore people, better data and increased powers mean we will always act on intelligence of potential offences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cast of Dirty Business is led by renowned actors David Thewlis and Jason Watkins, as unlikely double act Ashley Smith and Peter Hammond \u2013\u00a0recent Big Issue Changemakers<\/a> as co-founders of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n One spent his career investigating bent coppers, the other was a professor of computational biology, both live next to the River Windrush and had witnessed its transformation. By combining their talents they are able to navigate the obfuscation of the water companies and the complex data showing the output from their local Burford sewage works, near Oxford.<\/p>\n Speaking at the statue unveiling, Smith said: \u201cThey\u2019ve normalised dumping untreated sewage, and we know what the consequences can be. Because we know about Heather Preen, who died from it. And we know that they tried to cover that up and remove the link from sewage. How many more people have been victims? We do not know.<\/p>\n The trailer for Dirty Business on Channel 4. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not finished. It\u2019s what we do next that counts. It\u2019s what this programme does and how we do not tolerate being treated like this, how we do not just let the staff of those companies take the blame for corporate greed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t change your water company. You can\u2019t give up water. So they\u2019ve got us. We have to fight \u2013 and now\u2019s the moment to do it. We cannot waste this.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n The new series launches as campaign group Surfers Against Sewage<\/a> reveal the latest data showing that sewage poured into England\u2019s bathing waters for 124,717 hours in 2025, and 1,236 people reported sickness after using the water. This year, English water companies have already dumped sewage into bathing waters for 46,141 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n SAS have also launched a new petition<\/a> calling on the government to put public health before profit, with Giles Bristow, Surfers Against Sewage chief executive, saying: \u201cFor three decades, millions of hours of sewage have been dumped into the nation\u2019s waters while millions in payouts have been siphoned off.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this isn\u2019t about data and statistics. It\u2019s about Heather [Preen]. It\u2019s about Reuben [a young surfer who believes he contracted Meniere\u2019s disease after surfing in polluted waters]. A mother in surgery after a swim. A surfer gambling with his health. A child rushed to hospital after a day at the beach. Real people, still suffering, while shareholders get richer. You cannot put a price on clean water. But this government has. And we are all paying it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n By bringing together the science, the activism and the real-life impact of the ongoing sewage scandal in an accessible television drama, Dirty Business should be a gamechanger. But then again, so should the death of Heather Preen back in 1999.<\/p>\n The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n Dirty Business airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on 23, 24, 25 February 2026<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this winter.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and how we fund our work to end poverty.<\/p>\n You can also support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0magazine subscription<\/a>. Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe water companies dump sewage in our waterways and almost every time they do that, that\u2019s a crime.\u00a0Yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[48673,146,95551,85,46,154542,411,98881],"class_list":["post-307555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-channel-4","tag-entertainment","tag-environment-and-community","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-surfers-against-sewage","tag-tv","tag-water-pollution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}