Toxic Town Season 1 Episode 1 recap: Corby's struggle with a dark past 

Netflix's new miniseries, Toxic Town Season 1, takes viewers to Corby, a small town in England with a dark history of industrial collapse and environmental neglect. All four episodes of the miniseries dropped on Netflix on February 27, 2025.

The four-part series is based on a true story of the UK's major environmental scandal, the 2009 Corby poisonings, and the subsequent court dealings. It is the story of the mothers who bravely sought justice for their babies born with defects due to the environmental hazards in Corby. The synopsis of the series reads,

"The tragic waste case in the East Midlands and three mothers fighting for justice for rates of upper limb defects in babies born in Corby were subsequently found to be three times higher than those of children born"

The first episode, directed by Minkie Spiro, introduces the viewers to Corby, once a thriving industrial hub, but now facing a major blow when the government closed the Corby Steelworks in 1979. Thus, thousands lost their jobs, and the economy was on the brink of collapse. In the 1990s, the local council tried to redevelop the area by cleaning the steelworks site, causing major harm.

Let's look at what happened in Toxic Town Season 1 Episode 1.

---

Corby, a town built on toxic ground: Toxic Town Season 1 Episode 1

The premiere episode of Toxic Town begins with a voiceover.

"No one's ever listened to me, I'm just a mum. So I had to make them listen"

The scene shifts to a montage of thriving industrial Corby in the 1970s, when thousands of Scots moved to the town for jobs. However, in 1979, the conservative government shut the British steel plant, resulting in 10,000 job losses and protests, 'Save Corby.' Corby Town Council launched a reclamation project across the steelworks lands. The archives show a council member giving a hopeful answer about Corby's reclamation project. The montage ended with trucks demolishing huge structures and dumping the waste.

---

Corby babies born with deformities: Toxic Town Season 1 Episode 1

In 1995, Susan McIntyre (Jodie Whittaker) gives birth to a son, Connor, with a deformed hand. She faces social stigma and judgments related to her son's disability. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Peter also leaves her. At the same time, in the same hospital, Tracey (Aimee Lou Wood) loses her newborn daughter, Shelby, due to heart issues. However, before her baby was declared dead, she saw her daughter's ears looked unusually soft. However, these issues are not isolated, as Pattie (Karla Crome), a pub owner, and Maggie (Claudia Jessie), whose husbands work at the reclamation site, also have children born with such deformities.

In the episode, even though the mothers initially blame themselves and their lifestyles for their children's deformities, they soon realize that it's something else. The episode ends with Tracy wiping the dirt off Shelby's grave while Susan takes her children to the park, contemplating that she might be the worst mother but promising that she was going to make things right for them.

---

What did Ted uncover about Corby's reclamation project?

The episode also follows Ted (Stephen McMillan), a young council inspector who questions the reclamation project and what's happening behind the scenes. Ted writes a report and questions why the workers are not provided with masks and finds out the land is contaminated with iron, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium. Ted soon discovers that the safety issues at the reclamation sites aren't just mistakes; they are a part of a bigger intentional cover-up. The council was mindlessly handing out contracts to its allies, ignoring the hazards, to save money.

Ted then decided to expose the truth. He started collecting evidence of the corruption and even photocopied several proofs. He even hands those documents to a councillor, Sam Hagen (Robert Carlyle), who was well connected with the council chief Roy Thomas (Brendan Coyle). Meanwhile, the council chief tries to lure Sam with a second-in-command position if he destroys the evidence and drops the questioning about Corby's project. However, Ted's actions soon lead to him being a prime target. Ted's car is blown up, and the office for the Wonderland theme project is burned down too.

By the end of the first episode of Toxic Town, both Ted and the mothers of Corby are determined to fight as the council's corruption begins to emerge.

Read More: Toxic Town cast and character guide

Tune in to SoapCentral for more updates.