MICHAEL SHEEN: Toxic waste investigation Buried finally gets its air date

Michael Sheen’s investigation into claims that toxic chemicals were buried across south Wales finally has an air date: Buried with Michael Sheen begins on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday 17 August.

The two-part series, first announced in January, follows the Port Talbot-raised actor as he digs into allegations that hazardous industrial waste was dumped near farms and communities, and asks whether the man who spent 50 years warning about it was right.

That man was Douglas Gowan, the farming consultant turned whistleblower whose suspicions began in the 1960s, when he found a deformed calf next to a landfill site in Rhondda Cynon Taf while working for the farmers’ union.

Gowan’s own tests found high levels of toxic chemicals, and he spent the rest of his life claiming thousands of tonnes of industrial waste containing PCBs had been buried in Welsh communities.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were once prized in industry for their durability, then banned worldwide over serious health and environmental risks. They do not break down, which is why they are known as forever chemicals.

Sheen came across Gowan’s research online from his home in Los Angeles, and met him almost a decade ago. He later spent two days recording the whistleblower’s full story. Two months after filming, Gowan died.

“This is a story that has troubled Wales for decades, and for me, it’s deeply personal,” Sheen said when the series was announced. “In this series, we try to uncover the truth about what is beneath our feet, hear from the communities affected, and understand how something so insidious could stay buried for so long.”

From an award-winning podcast to a DocFest world premiere

The series grew out of Buried: The Last Witness, the award-winning Radio 4 and BBC Sounds podcast by investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor, who join Sheen on screen as they retrace Gowan’s footsteps.

Testing carried out for the podcast, supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry, found PCB levels in shop-bought fish that breached official health advice, and in one instance broke the law, the society said.

The television series had its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest in June, and visits suspected dump sites with environmental experts, forensic scientists and residents living near the areas linked to the allegations.

The BBC has said the investigation is packed with claims of conspiracy, complicity and denial, and asks how a secret of this scale could have remained hidden for so long.

For Sheen, it extends a run of work rooted in home soil, from founding the Welsh National Theatre to campaigning on the issues facing Welsh communities. Buried with Michael Sheen starts Monday 17 August at 9pm on BBC Two, with both episodes on iPlayer.