“If I’d been s**tting into a river non-stop for 966 hours I’d probably have been arrested by now.”
But water companies get away with it.
But the water police force – the Environment Agency – has never prosecuted any water company executive or owner or board member, ever. Not once. In the show, Chanel Cresswell’s Environment Agency whistleblower calls the agency a ‘Potemkin regulator’.
Potemkin was a Russian Field Marshall who had an affair with the Empress Katharine. He’s said to have built the facades of bogus villages to ride past and admire on her way to their booty calls. So Potemkin means something got up to look like something – in this case a regulator – which is in fact fake.
‘Dave’ supplied us with internal Environment Agency documents and the results of his investigations into the Agency. They showed the Agency handing down policies which prevented its own investigators from doing their job properly.
Writing the script, it was vital to protect Dave’s identity. I made him a woman, and cast the incredible Chanel Cresswell to play him. But a year or more into our investigation, Dave’s circumstances at the agency had changed. They’d identified him as a whistleblower back in 2021 and after years of legal battles, he had eventually agreed to leave.
He’d given up a 21-year career to tell the truth about the Environment Agency. His real name is Robert Forrester, we name him in a card at the end of episode 3, and he is a national hero.
She’d had bad experiences with the media, but trusted Chris, who’d helped the family at the time of the Inquest, and Chris vouched for us. She decided she wanted us to tell her story. Julie and Laura spent the next year talking through every aspect of the Preens’ story, and providing the texture and truthfulness for the astonishing, heartbreaking performances of Posy Sterling and Tom McKay as Mark Preen, Heather’s dad, who eventually took his own life.
For the shoot, scores of real people (and their families) who’d contracted life-wrecking illnesses after coming into contact with sewage marinated water let rip on poor unfortunate actors playing (mostly) fictional water companies. The lovely actors were so traumatised by the pain and anger we all had a verbal group hug at the end of the shoot.
And so Dirty Business became a thriller. The story of two real-life detectives (played with brilliance and humour by David Thewlis and Jason Watkins) who uncover the evidence and take it to the cops… only to find that the cops aren’t interested.
This evidential basis formed the legal scaffolding of the series: the evidence was rigorously mapped to the narrative, so that every line in the scripts was underpinned with a corresponding evidential source. On set, Laura was nicknamed the ‘guardian of the truth’, there to ensure that whilst filming we remained faithful to the truth of what happened. She was constantly cramping my directorial style – but the actors loved it and thank god she’s so good at her job.
In 2023 Laura and I had made Partygate, the true story of Boris Johnson’s 14 parties during the Covid lockdowns. For that film, I’d worked with brilliant comedy actors who were also amazing at drama (Charlotte Ritchie, Alice Lowe, Jon Culshaw, Kim Nixon). And for Dirty Business I thought ‘There’s some much suffering and tragedy in this series. But I just can’t play the water companies and Environment Agency straight: the situation’s too ridiculous.’
As to what the country needs now? Criminal prosecutions. Law-breaking water company execs, owners and board members banged up. Zack Polanski, leader of the Greens, now surging in the polls, is calling for a return to collective ownership of the water companies. Time to end the 35-year train-wreck of privatisation.
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