Based on a decade-long investigation into England’s water companies, ‘Dirty Business’ uncovers one of the biggest corporate and public health scandals in modern British history
The series, starring David Thewlis, Jason Watkins, Posy Sterling and Asim Chaudhry, tells the real stories of the whistleblowers and victims who say their lives have been destroyed after encountering sewage-polluted water.
The multi-channel collaboration covers digital, audio, video, online and print Guardian channels. Channel 4 is taking over all print, homepage and podcast ad slots with hard-hitting facts about the scandal.
Guardian Labs will also publish a series of interviews with the real people who inspired the show’s characters. Each article will feature a ‘reading-time sewage calculator’, using Guardian data to show readers how much sewage is released into UK waters in the time it takes to read.
Channel 4 has also unveiled a hard-hitting art installation – the ‘Fountain of Filth’ – on London’s South Bank to mark the launch, which the Guardian is publicising with a satirical cartoon and a video stream.
Imogen Fox, global chief advertising officer, says: “This partnership brings together two media brands united by shared values: public-interest journalism, social justice, and exposing wrongdoing hiding in plain sight.”
