DIRTY BUSINESS - Mon Tue Wed 9pm ch 4 - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Channel 4’s new factual drama Dirty Business lays bare the criminal activity of Thames Water and other English water companies

As we saw with ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office (2024), TV can be powerful and result in real change.

But whilst that awful miscarriage of justice has seen over £1.3billion paid in compensation, that’s nothing compared to the reparations owed to victims of England’s water companies – the target of Dirty Business.

Based on a decade-long investigation, factual drama Dirty Business follows real-life heroes Ash Smith (David Thewlis) and Peter Hammond (Jason Watkins) as they notice that their local patch of the River Windrush in The Cotswolds is becoming polluted.

But when the water company sends over inconsistent data in response to their inquiry, the unlikely detectives begin an investigation into this environmental scandal that has resulted from England’s water being owned and run by multi-million international corporations.

That investigative storyline – which is assisted by Thames Water whistleblower Mickey (Asim Chaudhry) - is emotionally undercut by the story of Julie (Posy Sterling) and Mark Preen (Tom McKay) whose eight-year-old daughter Heather dies just days after coming into contact with raw sewage whilst on holiday in Devon in 1999.

Who stars in Dirty Business?
David Thewlis as Ash Smith

After retiring as a police detective, Ash Smith began investigating water companies and regulators when he discovered that the river near his home was becoming polluted due to illegal sewage dumping by water companies. He subsequently founded Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) in 2018 – a grassroots group of activists which specialises in investigation into water companies and regulators.

Jason Watkins as Peter Hammond

Former Oxford Professor Peter Hammond proved invaluable in deciphering the data that the water companies eventually provided and was able to identify patterns of questionable behaviour on their part. As a result of his and Ash’s investigation, Pete has also become an activist and member of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution.
‘I’m very proud to have played someone who did such incredible work in raising awareness about how awful this situation is,’ says Jason Watkins of playing Peter in Dirty Business.

Asim Chaudhry as Mickey

Another hero, whistleblowing sewage plant worker Mickey partners with Ash (David Thewlis) and Peter (Jason Watkins) and begins to supply information on the critical failures of the water company that he works for: Thames Water.
The character of ‘Mickey’ is based on a real individual who provided a similar role in the investigation.

Posy Sterling as Julie Preen

Julie Preen and her husband Mark (Tom McKay) are wracked by grief when their eight-year-old daughter Heather dies after coming into contact with raw sewage and contracting E.coli.

Tom McKay as Mark Preen

The husband of Julie (Posy Sterling) and father of Suzanne and Heather, Mark’s world is torn apart when Heather dies of E.Coli poisoning.

What makes Dirty Business so powerful is that everything that you see in the factual drama is true. The water companies really are illegally dumping sewage into our rivers in England 1,600 times a day and facing no consequences for their actions.
This truly is one of the greatest corporate and regulatory scandals in our country’s history and hopefully TV shows like Dirty Business will result finally in some action being taken and water companies like Thames Water being held to account.

The companies have made themselves exempt from prosecution. Unless there are actual consequences they will keep on doing it.

Surfers Against Sewage have a live sewage map tool on their website:
https://www.sas.org.uk/sewage-map/
i checked my local river and Thames Water are currently discharging sewage into it. It’s absolutely outrageous. I’m writing to my MP tomorrow.

And yet people will still swear blind that the UK is a first world country

So is it only England that is privatised with the water companies like the programme said?

I am guessing they would never renationalise now, it's so depressing. The programme was really good I thought, those scenes with the engineer trying to restart the generator made me really stressed. And the courtroom scene where she described how Heather died was horrific.

I'm so angry, I saw a picture of Margaret Thatcher on a mug after watching and I just wanted to pick it up and smash it thinking about all the lives that she ruined.

It is disgusting. Corruption is rife , big business runs the show. Surely the water industry should be not for profits and the money should be reinvested in the equipment? What on earth is the environment agency even doing at this point? It’s all so shameful and lacks even the most basic decency in favour of making money.

I want to keep this thread in Active. I feel the need to keep some momentum going. I’ve never felt so angry.

We should all be up in arms about this! We’re being literally poisoned for money!

I’m also going to write to my MP. I can’t understand why Starmer’s priority has been to renationalise the railways while there is actual SHIT being poured into our water and the water companies have put themselves above the law! How can they do that?

I am also surprised there aren't more posts on here.
I was really shocked by it- great drama but awful that it's based on fact. I was in tears watching the sections about Heather.

I had no idea that waste was just so haphazardly dumped.

I thought that it went miles out to sea!😊

That it's acceptable to dump before even solids & paper have been filtered out!

I’ve written to my MP. If anyone wants to use my letter and just change the addressee I don’t mind putting it on here. If enough of us flag it up as a potential vote winner then MPs might be compelled to act.

I am suprised not more replies but I’m guessing people didn’t watch it - didn’t know much about it and reliese it’s actually based on true facts

Yes please. If you don’t mind.

I also don’t understand why no more traffic. The post office outraged everyone. I’d have thought the same with this. But practically crickets.

Feel free to change/alter as you wish.

Dear

I am, I am sure, one of many people who will be writing to you over the coming days after watching the Channel 4 programme ‘Dirty Business’ which addresses the subject of raw sewage being dumped in England’s rivers by water companies.

It’s very difficult to put my outrage over this abuse of our waterways into words.

We are custodians of this planet, and it’s our duty to treat our environment with respect, if not reverence. Currently, it appears we are allowing unscrupulous private companies to abdicate this duty in favour of abusing our rivers for the sake of profit.

Not only are we allowing this, we have also allowed them to put themselves above the law where this is concerned; there is no meaningful consequence to their actions, just ever-bigger profits and ever-dirtier waterways.

That the shocking levels of corruption means that we can no longer trust The Environment Agency to protect our health and well-being is yet another strand to the horror show that has ensued since the UK became the only country in the world to completely privatise its water supply.

The only comfort I can take from this is that other countries will look at our example and steer clear of allowing private companies to ravage their waterways in this disgusting manner.

Water companies must be independently monitored, facing real and meaningful consequences for illegal sewage dumping, and no longer be allowed to profit from the corruption of our rivers.

I implore you to make the restoration and protection of our rivers and seas your priority and your legacy.

Yours in hope,

Thank you @BlueEyedBogWitch

we have an issue near where we live which is regularly reported to the environment agency with a anaerobic (?) plant. Nothing is done.

Who would you send the letter to? Your MP? Mine is useless.

I think we can influence by who we vote and ask these Environment and water issue questions from candidates.

I've just followed Surfers Against Sewage on Instagram. They have a petition but strangely you have to ask them for a link to it, which I'm sure must mean fewer signatures. I'm not sure why the link isn't in their bio! There is also a recent video from Heather's Mum

Dawlish Warren is my local beach. It is a beautiful spit of land with a nature reserve on it and then about a mile of beach. At the one end is the 'family beach' with beach huts and amusements... and then it changes into a beautiful, wild and largely empty reserve.

South West Water are despicable with their spills. I have no faith that they have cleaned up their act. I went swimming in the sea at Dawlish Warren a couple of years ago and came out of the water covered in a red rash! I won't be going in again, which is such a shame at such a beautiful spot.

Yes def post it

let’s see if a million mn ers can do anything

Oh you have. Thanks. Sorry page hadn’t refreshed

MN could be very powerful here. There are loads of us. What happened to Heather Preen could have happened to any one of our children. I took my kids to that part of Devon in the early 2000s.

The bastards are just getting away with it. We can’t let them.

I’ve signed the SAS petition, and shared it in all my WhatsApp groups.

You can download a pollution ap at Surfers Against Sewage. Looks like there are 5(?) sewer overflows that discharge at Dawlish.

I felt so depressed last night.
Everything that governments get involved with ( or sell off ) become toxic and destructive and causes deaths.
It’s soul destroying isn’t it.

Hell of a series.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/292663021211364

Not many members. I thought there'd be far more outrage.

https://www.windrushwasp.org/blog

https://www.windrushwasp.org/get-involved

https://www.sewagecampaignnetwork.org.uk/

MP Briefing on Water Reform White Paper
24th Feb 2026

CAMPAIGN DAY AT WESTMINSTER
17th March 2026
On the 17th March we are asking campaign groups to join us in Westminster demonstrate the public outrage at privatisation for profit, and to stop the Water Bill. Book in for a 1:1 meeting with your MP and urge them to come to the Information Drop In.
13.30 - 15.30

MP information Drop In on the White Paper/Bill in Parliament organised by the Sewage Campaign Network, Room U in Portcullis House

15.30 - 17.00
All Campaign Groups to book in to meet their MP to tell them your views and get them to vote against pollution for profit