, Columnist
Can a TV Show Solve the UK’s Sewage Crisis?
Actors Jason Watkins (left) and David Thewlis as campaigners Peter Hammond and Ashley Smith in Channel 4’s Dirty Business.
Photographer: Rob Baker Ashton/Channel 4
My advice: Tune into Dirty Business, Channel 4’s new “factual drama” about the UK’s water pollution scandal — but don’t watch it while eating. There are simply too many shots of raw sewage to make a TV dinner enjoyable.
Then again, you’ll end up feeling sick with rage anyway. The show is based on a multi-year investigation into England’s water companies by retired police detective Ashley Smith and Peter Hammond, a professor specializing in machine learning. It tells the true stories of multiple victims and whistleblowers who have been impacted by sewage dumps.