Michael Sheen has described the process of filming a new BBC documentary about chemical contamination in Wales as 'scary'. The two-part series, titled 'Buried', investigates claims of chemical contamination across the country and the scandal he uncovers could leave a devastating legacy across the UK.
A daunting experience
The Newport-born actor, who is part of the judging panel for this year's Pride of Britain Awards, is more accustomed to movie sets and scripts. Sheen, 57, admitted it was scary working on something where he never knew what would happen next, including the risk of taking hazardous contamination home with him.
One hair-raising moment came after a visit to Brofiscin Quarry, a disused landfill site near Groesfaen, which became known as one of the most polluted places in the UK after receiving thousands of tonnes of hazardous industrial waste from major companies.
"I'd been in the field and hadn't been wearing the wellies at that point. I was wearing my own boots," Sheen said. "I remember going back in my car and stopping at the garage to get petrol and then taking my boots off and hosing them down in the garage - because I got so paranoid that I might be taking this home. There's moments like that where it is really daunting. It is scary."
The story of Douglas Gowan
Sheen's personal involvement began almost a decade ago when he met farming consultant and whistleblower Douglas Gowan, who claimed the Welsh people had been poisoned by decades of exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment. Gowan believed thousands of tonnes of toxic industrial chemicals, known as Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), had been dumped in sites across Wales and north west England, and spent over 50 years trying to warn others, but to little avail.
Often described as the "godfather of forever chemicals", PCBs were regarded as a wonder chemical in the 60s due to their resistance to breaking down, but are now officially classified as a Group 1 carcinogen and banned worldwide.
Deeply troubled by the story, Sheen tracked Gowan down and spent two days filming an interview with him. Gowan described a lifetime battling corporations, government and local councils, claiming Monsanto - the world's leading PCB producer - knowingly buried highly toxic waste in communities across Wales, with consequences still being felt today. Two months after that interview, Gowan was dead, leaving Sheen with his story.
Falling down a rabbit hole
Sheen admitted he 'fell down a rabbit hole' when he began researching the scandal after randomly coming across it on Wikipedia while living in LA. "There was one tiny sentence about environmental controversy that mentioned Brofiscin Quarry in south Wales. So I looked it up and eventually found this man called Douglas Gowan and the beginnings of his story, and I was completely intrigued," he said.
"I decided that I would try and find out if he was still alive, and he was. I got in touch with him and he said, 'Come and see me, quickly because I might not be around much longer.' So I went to see him with my mate, Julian, and we filmed him for two days and got the story. And within two months he was dead."
Sheen decided he had to do something with the shocking material. "There were two bits of my brain working. One bit was going; this is a great drama. Douglas Gowan getting a phone call, turning up as a junior guy for the farmer's union and investigating this farm, and then the story just gets bigger and bigger. But then the other part of my brain was going, if he's right, people might be in danger."
A mission to push for change
Across the two episodes, Sheen - aided by investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor - retraces Gowan's footsteps with the help of environmental experts, forensic scientists and residents living near toxic dump sites. The father-of-three, celebrated for his portrayals of Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost, remains a man on a mission.
"The whole point of us making this is to push for something to happen…. What I hope this documentary does at the very least is create a national conversation about whether this should be happening - and what is the best way forward."
'Buried with Michael Sheen' comes to BBC Two, BBC One Wales and BBC iPlayer from Monday 17 August at 9pm.
