Flushed by Susan Morrow
6X 30-minute TV sitcom
Set in a sewage test lab in 1990s Newcastle, young chemist Mandy wants to make our rivers clean and our toilet output cleaner. Can Mandy take on sewage sludge samples, a miserable lab boss, and a sexist budgie called Gary, to become an award-winning environmental analyst?
Mandy is a young working-class scientist who starts her career at "Analysis and Regulatory Sampling for the Environment (ARSE)." There, she encounters her nemesis, lab boss, Dr. Knaggs, Gary the sexist budgie, and some great workmates called "The Lab Rats"; they're a bit like the Rat Pack but with test tubes. Mandy finds friendship and love while doing a job most chemists avoid; her quest is to become a first-class environmental scientist.
But this is the 1990s; ladettes might drink pints, but topless darts are a TV favourite.
Picture Derry Girls meets The Big Bang Theory.
Mandy Robbins: Early 20s, quirky, strong-willed, working class, and proud. She was the first in her family to get a degree.
Shannon O'Leary (Shanny): Mid-20s, biker chick, Anglo-Irish, becomes Mandy's best friend.
Robert Coolie (Rob): Late 20s, has dyspraxia; his dream had been to work as a bartender in Jamaica, the country his father is from. Friends with everyone in the lab.
Christopher Sparrow (Chris): Mid-20s, good-natured and the lab's funny guy. Chris falls in love with Mandy, but will she see him as anything other than a laugh?
Dr. David Knaggs: 45+, is the lab boss. Knaggs is an 'old school' chemist who is not afraid to sniff chloroform to challenge his staff. Knaggs' parents wanted him to be a doctor or lawyer, but he became a scientist in a sewage lab. This has made him bitter, and he likes to take it out on the Lab Rats.
Danny Golightly (Mr Lover, Lover): Mid-20s, good-looking, and fancies himself. He is a complex character who uses sexism to hide his low self-esteem.
Gary, the budgie: Age, unknown. Lives in a cage in Knaggs' office. Gary tweets a lot and says sexist things to the women in the lab. “Tweeeetttt, get ya tits oot!”
Other characters come and go throughout the series, including CyclopedIan (Ian, the lab's walking encyclopedia/mansplainer) and Psycho Pete.
Future shows explore Mandy's relationship with Knaggs, how she copes with Danny's rampant sexism, and the capers of her mates, the Lab Rats. Chris and Mandy will have an on/off love affair. Gary the budgie turns on Knaggs…
Flushed may be set in the 1990s but the show will echo current environmental issues and women in STEM. The 80s and 90s were a time of change in the wastewater industry. The 1991 Water Industry Act introduced environmental control measures, including the discharge of trade effluent into sewers. Still, in 2022, over 300,000 hours of sewage spills were recorded in England and Wales. Sexism still holds women back from entering science. In the UK, only 39% of physical science students are female.
All rights reserved