Michael Sheen investigates how toxic 'forever chemicals' were dumped in Welsh quarries in the middle of the 20th century, in a two-part documentary that proves deeply enraging. The actor and director spends two days grilling environmental campaigner Douglas Gowan, whose filmed interview, given nearly 10 years ago when he had only weeks to live, provides much of our knowledge on the subject.
Sheen's investigation into Monsanto's legacy
The documentary focuses on the now defunct American agrochemicals giant Monsanto, which after the second world war cornered the market in controversial chemical innovations. Agent Orange, DDT and Roundup were all made by Monsanto, as were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – indestructible compounds that were hailed as miracle chemicals until they were discovered to be toxic and carcinogenic. From the 1940s to the late 1970s, PCBs were made at the Monsanto plant in Newport, the city where Sheen spent some of his childhood.
Gowan deduced that the factory's waste was buried in landfills across south Wales, in a way that he thought allowed PCBs to leach into the surrounding water and soil. Sheen travels to the village of Ynysddu, where two councillors, both called Jan and known as 'the two Jans', have spoken out most. One of the Jans relays testimony from villagers who remember lorries arriving at night at the nearby quarry, leaving behind a jelly-like substance on the roads that children would play with the next morning. Residents describe dogs that are walked in the woods dying of cancer.
US links and a $300m settlement
Sheen then travels to Anniston, Alabama, formerly the site of Monsanto's main PCB factory in the US. A paediatrician working there says she has seen an unusual amount of birth defects, including children born without eyes or with their intestines on the outside of their bodies. Sheen meets attorney Donald Stewart, who in 1993 sued Monsanto on behalf of the town, securing a $300m settlement. Stewart shares internal Monsanto memos from as long ago as 1949 that suggest the firm knew how dangerous PCBs were.
Back in the UK, Sheen pores over parliament's Hansard transcripts with Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, the married investigative duo who present the BBC Radio 4 podcast series Buried. They reveal that, in 1973, a government minister in Westminster was traducing Gowan from the dispatch box, insinuating that he had doctored his evidence. The parliamentary debate followed a Sunday Times expose by the journalist Peter Pringle, who used Gowan as a source.
Testing the soil and a vicar's involvement
Sheen then embarks on a project to test the soil near the landfills, accompanied by an environmental scientist and a vicar. The vicar is the Rev Paul Cawthorne, whose interest was sparked by a deathbed confession from a parishioner who used to drive trucks filled with barrels of seething crud.
The PCBs affair has been rumbling on for years without many firm answers being obtained, but that may change in next week's concluding episode. Buried With Michael Sheen aired on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer.
