Buried: The Last Witness – 'mind-boggling' exposé into toxic chemicals

Michael Sheen teams up with the BBC for 'terrifying' 10-part podcast

Barrels of toxic waste in nature.
The 'brazenness of those responsible' will 'make you gasp'
(Image credit: Dejan Ilic / Alamy Stock Photo)

In 1967, Douglas Gowan discovered a deformed calf at a farm in South Wales. The environmental campaigner spent the next five decades trying to blow the whistle on the secret toxic waste dumping he discovered had been taking place for years at a nearby landfill site, and the devastating impact of these '"forever chemicals" on the food chain. Gowan died in 2018, but his extensive files form the basis of the BBC's disturbing 10-part series, "Buried: The Last Witness". 

After receiving the tip-off, married investigative reporters Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor teamed up with Welsh actor Michael Sheen to delve into Monsanto's illegal disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – fire-resistant chemicals used in everything from paint to paper before eventually being banned in the late 1970s.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.