Major new Netflix series Toxic Town, about Corby's toxic waste scandal, to star Robert Carlyle, Jodie Whittaker and Brendan Coyle

A major new Netflix series is set to tell the story of a town’s fight for justice for 19 of its children born with deformities following a botched steelworks clean up.

Toxic Town, written by renowned Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playwright Jack Thorne, will star Full Monty legend Robert Carlyle, Doctor Who and Broadchurch actor Jodie Whittaker as well as local lad Brendan Coyle, of Downtown Abbey fame, who grew up in Corby and whose family still live in the town.

Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood will also feature, as well as Rory Kinnear from The Diplomat.

Production on the series will start later this month (August) although there’s no news yet on whether the series will be filmed in the town itself.

The Corby poisonings were one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals and saw families take on Corby Council in the high court to force them to take responsibility for the scandal.

Toxic Town is a story about community, focusing on three local mothers who took on the David and Goliath fight for justice. The series will trace their fight through the years, bringing to light a terrible truth - one of stinging injustice.

The series is a Broke & Bones production for Netflix, executive produced by Annabel Jones, Jack Thorne and Minkie Spiro; directed by Minkie Spiro; produced by Delyth Scudamore and written by Jack Thorne. Episode 3 is written by Jack Thorne and Amy Trigg.

Jack Thorne said: "The Corby Toxic Waste Case is one of those moments in history that is defining. It showed our ability to close our eyes and ears to the safety of our people. It also showed the remarkable way that people will fight for what's right.

"Toxic Town tells the story of these funny, brave, incredible women and the way they scrapped for their children. It has been a true privilege working with Annabel, Minkie, Delyth and the whole Broke & Bones family on this incredible story, and we are so grateful to Netflix for giving us the opportunity and support in telling it."

Executive producer Annabel Jones, best known for Black Mirror, said: “We are thrilled to be working with the hugely talented Jack Thorne. He is the voice of this generation and brings an intelligence, an intensity and an empathy to the human story behind this landmark case. Jack compassionately explores the interplay between a local community’s desire for economic prosperity and the environmental and human cost. A story which is as pertinent today as it was then.”

What was the Corby toxic waste case?

Back in 1996, Corby mums Susan Macintyre and Mandy Thorpe both had babies that were born with hand deformities. This was already fairly unusual in a town the size of Corby, but when they began to come across more and more cases they knew something was wrong.

On their behalf, campaigning solicitor Des Collins approached the Northants Evening Telegraph and the Sunday Times for help. The stories written at that time uncovered further cases, and Collins began trying to prove there was a cluster, linked to Corby Council’s clean-up of the heavily-contaminated British Steel land.

Eventually, in 2009, 19 parents of children born between 1986 and 1999 went to the high court in London to sue the council, and to try to prove that 200 million cubic tonnes of contaminated waste that was carted around the town, sometimes un-sheeted, on the back of lorries at that time was responsible for the birth defects their children had been born with.

Extensively covered by this newspaper, the ground-breaking case uncovered a litany of mistakes, negligence and cover-ups that led to the families walking away from court victorious.

Mr Justice Akenhead ruled that Corby District Council had been ‘extensively negligent’ in its control and management of the reclamation of the former British Steel works in Corby, and held the council liable in public nuisance, negligence and breach of statutory duty.

The court ruled the breaches had led to the dispersal of contaminated mud and dust over public areas of Corby and into homes, causing birth defects in children born to mothers who inhaled the contaminants.

Corby Council had to pay more than £14m in compensation, finally admitted its liability and apologised following mediation with the families.

The case was important in British legal history because it became the first in the world to establish a link between atmospheric toxic waste and birth defects.