Joe Lycett sewage: Comedian to investigate water companies in new 'provocative' Channel 4 documentary

Joe Lycett will investigate water companies in a new “provocative” and “revealing” documentary coming to Channel 4 next year. The investigative special is titled Joe Lycett vs Poo and it will look into “how our waterways have become so polluted and why water companies have been allowed to taint one of our most precious resources”.

Lycett previously took on the oil industry and former England footballer David Beckham, to highlight the true cost of the Qatar World Cup, in different Channel 4 specials. But this new hour-long documentary will put the water industry under the spotlight.

It comes as water companies continue to face scrutiny over sewage spills, crumbling infrastructure and governance issues. In its latest annual report campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) found that raw sewage has been discharged into UK rivers and seas almost 400,000 times last year. They added that this figure is actually a “huge underestimation” of the “scale of the UK sewage scandal” as in Scotland a “miniscule 4% of sewage overflows have reporting requirements” and in Northern Ireland there is “virtually no monitoring at all”. 

As part of his new programme Lycett took part in a stunt to launch his latest fake podcast, Turdcast, where a giant inflatable toilet dubbed the Turdis accidentally leaked fake sewage into Liverpool Docks. It was confirmed that the stunt had no environmental or biological impact on the area and the spillage was marine mud.

Lycett, 35, said: “I spilled fake sewage because I wanted to get people talking about the billions of litres of real sewage that are released every year by our water companies. Last year, according to one analysis the water companies paid shareholders £1.4 billion in dividends. That’s a lot of money that could have been used to improve the sewer network and reduce spills.”

He is calling on people to “write to your water company” to sign up to Joe’s Poo Promise. He added: “We’re asking the water companies to stop paying dividends and instead invest the money in solving this problem.”

Tom Beck, head of live events and commissioning editor for Channel 4, said: “Joe is our leading mischief maker; he uses humour, wit and absolute fearlessness to call out companies, celebrities and even our politicians. He’s taken on the oil giants and David Beckham; now he’s highlighting one of our biggest environmental issues by diving into the murky waters of the utility companies polluting our seas and rivers. It will be provocative, revealing, important and feature lots of poo jokes. Who else could promise all of that?”.

Iain Wimbush, joint managing director of Rumpus Media, added that Lycett has “an innate ability to find new ways to get people engaged with subjects that might not be getting the attention they deserve, and we look forward to a day when we can all enjoy waters in the UK without fear of finding they’re filled with excrement.”