The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer (3x60’), a co-production with the Open University, is part mega-engineering ob doc, part specialist factual exploration of London’s rich and dirty history. Filmed over three years, the series charts the progress and setbacks faced by a team of 4000 construction workers tasked with creating London’s deepest ever tunnel - directly beneath the river Thames. It also delves into the subterranean world to explore the state of the city’s ageing sewer network.

Building the super sewer is the biggest infrastructure project ever attempted by the UK water industry, designed to intercept sewage that currently floods out of the overstretched Victorian system and into the Thames - each year, almost 40 million tons of sewage has to be discharged directly into the river.

Abigail Priddle, BBC Commissioning Editor for Specialist Factual says: “The sheer scale, ingenuity and ambition of this project is remarkable and provides a thrilling insight into the incredible science and engineering going on beneath our feet to make the River Thames, one of the UK’s best loved landmarks, sewage free”.

Tim Wardle, Executive Producer at Raw, says: “As with most documentary subjects, where there’s muck, there’s brass. This is an extraordinary piece of access to a fascinating engineering project linking Victorian London to the future of Britain’s most famous river”.

The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer will air on BBC Two later this year.

The Five Billion Pound Super Sewer (3x60) is a Raw production for BBC Two, co-produced with the Open University. The Executive Producer at Raw is Tim Wardle. It was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Channel Editor, BBC Two and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, NHU and Specialist Factual. The BBC Commissioning Editor is Abigail Priddle. For further information visit https://www.tideway.london/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/super-sewer