Polluted and POISONED!

Paul Whitehouse investigates the shocking state of our waterways...

- HANNAH DAVIES, NATASHA HOLT.

PAUL WHITEHOUSE: OUR TROUBLED RIVERS

Sunday, 8pm, BBC2 Factual (box set, BBC iPlayer)

Having spent most of his life around water, Paul Whitehouse, who stars in Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing with fellow comedian Bob Mortimer, says Britain’s waterways are ‘the closest thing to paradise we have’.

Sadly, however, much of this beauty is purely on the surface as our rivers are contaminated like never before.

‘Our most precious resource is under threat,’ warns Paul. ‘Pollution and neglect mean our waterways are in trouble.’

In a two-part documentary, Paul travels around England and Wales looking at the pressures our waterways are under, thanks to water companies, agriculture and our growing population.

In the first episode, he travels to northern England, where concerned residents claim water companies are legally, and sometimes illegally, pumping raw sewage into our rivers.