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Michael Sheen: 'It's so overwhelming, once you discover the truth'

Following their investigation into illegal waste dumping in Northern Ireland, journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor are delving into another UK environmental scandal.

In Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4's Buried: The Last Witness, after receiving a box of unseen documents and evidence, they join forces with actor Michael Sheen to uncover the story of Douglas Gowan, a whistleblower who spent the last decades of his life trying to raise awareness of the lasting impact of PCBs – or 'forever chemicals' – on our environment. In a surprise twist, Sheen had recorded Gowan's final testimony in 2017, after finding out that one of the first sites he'd been investigating was in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales.

Sheen explains what drew him to the story and how he feels about the shocking legacy of PCBs in the UK.

Listen to the whole series of Buried: The Last Witness on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds

Dan Ashby, Michael Sheen and Lucy Taylor at DocFest 2024 in Sheffield. Image: Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehie

How did you first get involved in the series?

I got involved in this project because I had a phone call from Dan and Lucy [Buried: The Last Witness presenters/producers Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor] out of the blue, asking me about my relationship with a man called Douglas Gowan.

Douglas Gowan pictured in 2017. Image: Michael Sheen

I think, seven years previous to this phone call, I had gone down a rabbit hole, as many people do, on the internet where I had discovered this extraordinary story about this man and what he had been investigating over the years, since the sixties.

And I didn't know what to do with what I'd found out. And then suddenly I had somewhere to go with it.

And what was it about the story that particularly resonated with you?

It's a story that involves Wales [one of the first sites that Gowan investigated was a landfill near farmland in Llantrisant in the Rhondda Valley]. It's a story that has a fantastic dramatic narrative to it. It's a story that has conspiracies all around it. It's a story that just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

It's a story about how poor communities can be exploited. And about how people who don't have a voice can be ignored, even when there are dangers. And it's a story about danger that is still there now presently, and that something needs to be done about it.

The Royal Society of Chemistry testing river water in Caerphilly, South Wales.

What was the most shocking thing that you discovered during this investigation?

I think the most shocking thing that has been uncovered has been the scale of the problems, and the scale of the potential dangers to people. Not just about this particular aspect of it but what this is connected to – the idea of 'forever chemicals', the idea of toxic chemicals that don't degrade. How prevalent and how much it is in our lives.

Actor and campaigner Michael Sheen. Image: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

It's so overwhelming, once you start to discover the truth about this, that I can see why it makes people not do anything about it. Because it's too much, it's almost too much for our brain to take in. So that was the most shocking aspect of it for me.

And what would you like people to get out of the series?

The one thing I want people to take away from this is to say that this is going on and something needs to be done about it. Because there are people who are potentially in danger. A lot of people, a lot of communities. And someone needs to take responsibility for it and to do something about it. Please God, it's not a problem, but let's make sure that we're proving this to be the case.

Hear the full story of the investigation by listening to Buried: The Last Witness on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds.

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