Image description: Water jets from a fountain suspended in the air. Image by Geoffrey Crofte on Unsplash
A new factual drama from Channel 4, Dirty Business, charts the real stories of the pollution of England’s waterways since the water companies were privatised in 1989. To mark the first episode airing this week, Channel 4 unveiled a dramatic new art installation, ‘a fountain of filth’, on London’s South Bank.
About the show – Dirty Business
The public art instillation was designed to designed to raise awareness of Britain’s sewage scandal, which is what Channel 4’s accompanying show – Dirty Business – is all about.
The show’s arc features the amateur investigators, Peter Hammond, a retired professor of computational biology, and Ash Smith, a retired police detective, who uncovered the raw sewage entering their local river and the whistleblowers who helped get the story out. It also features the stories of the victims of what has the potential to be one of the biggest corporate scandals in the country’s history.
Heather Preen tragically died aged eight years old, just two weeks after contracting the most aggressive strain of E. coli during a family beach holiday in Dawlish, Devon. Her mother, Julie Maughan (played by Posy Sterling in Dirty Business), has fought for change in the water sector ever since.
The Fountain-of-Filth
Channel 4’s fountain on London’s South Bank reflects the real stories of swimmers, surfers and beach goers who believe their lives have been affected by the sewage released into England’s rivers and seas – showing them vomiting sewage water while a water company boss holds a briefcase stuffed with cash above them.
The fountain, displayed from 23-25 February, was created by 4Creative and Glue Society, and features Surfers Against Sewage’s Lizzie Cresswell, Windermere environmentalist Matt Staniek, wild swimmer and author Ella Foote and ex-pro surfer Sophie Hellyer.
Image description: The fountain depicts a circle of people with water streaming out of their mouths, signifying them vomiting. At the top of the fountain stands a person depicted wearing a suit, holding a briefcase of cash and seemingly unaffected by any illness. Channel 4/Glue Society