The death of Heather Preen: how an eight-year-old lost her life amid the UK sewage crisis

"In 1999, Maughan's eight-year-old daughter, Heather Preen, had contracted the pathogen E coli O157 on a Devon beach and died within a fortnight. Maughan's marriage hadn't survived the grief she separated from Heather's father, Mark Preen, a builder, who later took his own life. I've always said it was like a bomb had gone off under our family, says Maughan. This little girl, just playing, doing her nutty stuff on an English beach. And that was the price."

"The result, Dirty Business, a three-part Channel 4 factual drama, is aiming to spark the same anger over pollution that ITV's Mr Bates Vs the Post Office did for the Horizon scandal. Jumping between timelines, using actors as well as real people and with actual footage of scummy rivers and beaches dotted with toilet paper, sanitary towels and dead fish, it shows how raw sewage dumps have become standard policy for England's water companies."

"Jason Watkins and David Thewlis play sewage sleuths Peter Hammond and Ash Smith, Cotswolds neighbours who, over time, watched their local river turn from clear and teeming with nature to dense grey and devoid of life. Hammond is a retired professor of computational biology, Smith a retired detective, and together, they used hidden cameras, freedom of information requests and AI models to uncover sewage dumps on an industrial scale."

Dirty Business is a three-part Channel 4 factual drama revealing routine raw sewage dumping by England's water companies, mixing actors, real people and stark footage of polluted rivers and beaches. Julie Maughan recounts personal tragedy after her eight-year-old daughter, Heather Preen, died from E coli O157 contracted on a Devon beach, with long-term family consequences including separation and a later suicide. Two local sleuths, Peter Hammond and Ash Smith, documented ecological collapse using hidden cameras, freedom-of-information requests and AI models to expose industrial-scale sewage discharges. The production presents whistleblower testimony and links pollution problems to privatisation and regulatory failures.

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