The true story of Netflix’s latest hit TV show is almost hard to believe. Toxic Town tells the tale of families in Corby, Northamptonshire, who welcomed dozens of children into the world with birth defects due to industrial waste.

It was the tenacity of those families, a lawyer willing to listen and a doctor from Kent with specialist knowledge who uncovered one of the biggest poisoning scandals in Britain. Davina Jethwa speaks to Dr Penman about his involvement in the heartbreaking case…

The story began in 1980 when Corby steelworks was shut down and 10,000 people lost their jobs.

As a result, the council launched a regeneration project which saw the nearly 700-acre site demolished and millions of tonnes of waste, often in uncovered lorries, through the streets to a quarry.

Over the next decade, in what seemed like an unrelated matter, nearly twenty mums living near the reclamation site gave birth to children with deformities. It was later discovered that this was happening at a rate three times higher than in surrounding areas.

Corby Borough Council vehemently denied any link between the two events for years. It wasn’t until lawyer Des Collins arrived on the scene and took up the fight for the families.

He put together a team of professionals to conduct countless hours of research and to prove the cause, including Dr David Penman, who runs his a private clinic at the Hempstead Therapy Centre in Hempstead Valley.

Neither of them could have imagined the extent of the scandal, which has since been dubbed Britain’s Erin Brockovich, and became the biggest case of child poisonings since the Thalidomide scandal.

This was where expecting mothers were given the drug to treat morning sickness in the 1950s, but it was later revealed to have caused severe birth defects in thousands of children.

Speaking to KentOnline, Dr Penman said: “I was shocked that it could happen in this day and age with the knowledge we have of previous industrial disasters and the fact that this was happening.

“The first thing was to realise that if there was a cluster of these limb defects in an area, there needed to be an explanation as to why.”

“My first meeting with the solicitor for the claimants, I was, from memory, handed a list of toxic compounds that they were likely to have been exposed to, and a list of the birth defects suffered by the various claimants.

“Really, the question put to me was could any of these birth defects and the medical literature regarding birth defects be caused by industrial exposure?”

And that was exactly what they discovered - heavy metal cadmium had been present in the waste being transported all over town, and this substance can cause many severe health problems, even cancer.

The specialist said: “The interesting thing, and this was a sort of major argument in court, was why did most of these children only have one side affected - what we call unilateral limb amputation abnormalities.

“In fact, there are very few isolated, unilateral, just one side limb reduction defects.

“And it just so happens that cadmium, which was one of the compounds that I’d been informed was within this toxic soup, is one of those substances.”

This element was cited as the probable cause of the harm to the unborn babies as the contaminated dust had been spread throughout the town and inhaled by the mothers.

The toxin then got into their bloodstream and that of their fetuses.

It took years for this to come to light, but following the researchers’ findings, a civil court hearing took place, and Justice Akenhead ruled in favour of the families, finding the local authority had been negligent in its handling of the waste.

Corby council later settled with them for £14.6m in 2010.

Speaking on the scandal, Dr Penman said: “People were playing wide and fast with the rules to make money.

“That always seems to be the driver that cut corners but at someone’s risk. In this case, it was the risk of those children.”

The tragic real-life story has now been dramatised in Netflix’s latest series called Toxic Town.

The drama, which consists of four-hour-long episodes written by Jack Thorne stars Doctor Who actress Jodie Whittaker and Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood.

David Penman appears in episode three and is portrayed by Phillip Childs, sporting his iconic suspenders, although, as the real doctor says, “not quite as fancy as my collection of braces”.

Speaking on the story being put under the spotlight, he said: “I think it’s extremely important, both for the families involved, but also as a lesson that these things can happen.

“These sort of reminders are useful both to the public, but also to legislators that we need to keep legislation both up to date and enforced.”

Toxic Town is now available on Netflix - you can watch it here.

Since its release on Thursday (February 27), it has charted number one on the streaming platform’s Top 10 TV programmes in the UK category.