environment<\/a> from its treatment facilities. Thames, Yorkshire and Northumbrian Water were collectively fined a record \u00a3168m in 2024 for a “catalogue of failure” relating to illegal sewage discharges.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_Dirty-Business.jpg\")
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Actor Posy Sterling plays Julie Maughan in Channel 4’s Dirty Business.(Image: Rob Baker Ashton \/ Channel 4)<\/p>\n
At a screening in London, actress Posy Sterling, 33, was visibly emotional as she discussed the challenges of playing Julie. “I want everyone to know who Heather was,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I was thinking, she’d be older than me now, that’s how long Julie has been waiting. I’m emotional and I’m angry about the dishonesty and the profiteering that’s been going on. That’s where I want the change to happen – this country is not going to be lied to any more. And that they’re not going to get away with it.”<\/p>\n
The drama is based on the meticulous efforts of ex-detective Ash Smith and his neighbour Peter Hammond, a university professor. They spotted the river flowing through their picturesque Oxfordshire hamlet had turned brown and was teeming with dead fish, prompting them to investigate.<\/p>\n
A decade later, their data, combined with whistleblower testimonies and accounts from families who have suffered due to the nation’s polluted water, form the crux of the drama.<\/p>\n
Actor David Thewlis, who plays Smith, said: “I think this is the biggest corporate scandal in British history. My hope for the future is that we have a regulator that brings some of these people to justice.”<\/p>\n
Thewlis admitted the role had made him “a bit of a campaigner” and he hoped the drama would spur the nation into action. “It’s not a niche subject, every single person in the country surely detests this situation,” he stated.<\/p>\n
“We’ve all been taught to believe it’s normal.”<\/p>\n
The real Smith said he and Hammond had essentially performed the duties of industry regulator, the Environment Agency, for the past decade. He said: “This is breaking all the regulations that should protect us and enshrining it in a business model and having the regulators and government underpin it.<\/p>\n
“This is not the way to conduct a business. It’s not meant to be a cash machine. It’s meant to be a water company.”<\/p>\n
Jason Watkins portrays Hammond and, having lost his two-year-old daughter to sepsis in 2011, admitted viewing the powerful opening episode had left him “struggling for words”.<\/p>\n
He said: “It’s the juxtaposition of all the work that these guys have done, and the emotional impact of these things having consequences for families. I have lost a child myself, so it is a difficult watch. And also to think that it is preventable – I’m very proud to have played one of these people doing this incredible work.”<\/p>\n
Watkins, 63, said the privatisation system, brought in by Margaret Thatcher 35 years ago, had failed to deliver. He said: “I wanted to make this series because it’s told through ordinary people who refuse to look away when something isn’t right. Shining a light on the real human cost of environmental damage and corporate neglect felt both urgent and important to be part of.”<\/p>\n
Writer and director Joe Bullman said he hoped the drama could achieve for water pollution what Sir Alan Bates accomplished for the Horizon IT scandal. “The power is all in the hands of this group of international hedge funds and banks who control our water companies and perhaps don’t have, as their strategic goal, the maintenance of our rivers and our seas,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Maybe their goal is just to make money.”<\/p>\n
Describing Smith and Hammond as “national heroes”, he also praised Chris Hind, head of campaign group Surfers Against Sewage, for preserving documents related to Heather’s inquest for over two decades.<\/p>\n
He said: “We went to his house and looked at the documents on his kitchen table, and saw how the Environment Agency had sought to argue the bay being marinated in sewage didn’t have any impact on people’s health. Every single line in that is the truth – because Chris had the foresight and courage to hang on to those documents.<\/p>\n
“This needs to come under public ownership, no question. It’s our industry, we pay the bills, those people work for us. Maggie’s big sell off hasn’t worked.”<\/p>\n
A South West Water spokeswoman said: “The bathing water at Dawlish Warren was tested as part of the investigations at the time by Environmental Health and samples were clear of E. coli.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New TV series tells true story of little Heather Preen in Mr Bates vs Post Office-style drama set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,124246,124247,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-440222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-longbridge","tag-rubery-and-rednal","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_DQP_BEM_140616TRUST_26JPG.jpg\")
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