Jo in the Water | movie | 2026 | Official Teaser - video Dailymotion

A passionate sea swimmer turned reluctant activist, Jo Bateman takes on one of the UK’s biggest water companies in a D | dG1fTGd3VUxSa203SmM

Transcript

00:00it's just about the cold and the sea when you're in there whatever else is going on anything that

00:16might be in my head or worrying me or anything at all I just don't think about it it's just me

00:20and the sea and the cold and then when I get out I'm just buzzing I just feel so good

00:30I absolutely love Exmouth I love going down to the beach I love going in the sea myself I love

00:38seeing all those other people down there families on the beach all the different water users but we

00:46do have a problem and that is the sewage this beach here this is where I like to swim this is where I

00:56almost always come and the sewage pipe is literally just there you can practically see it under the

01:02it's just where those rocks are and the sewage is going out raw sewage is going out there it's only

01:07a few meters really from where I swim but not just me lots of people families children it's

01:14a beautiful beautiful beach and to not be able to go in it is awful hello my name is Jo Bateman and I'm

01:25suing Southwest Water because I'm sick of their endless dumping of raw sewage into our rivers and seas

01:34why can't we have a sewage system that disposes of our waste without polluting the rivers and oceans

01:42Jo is amazing she's amazing because she's championing the rights of people like her to be able to swim

01:48where and when they want and this is vital and Jo is such a massively great advocate because she's such

01:53a warm and generous human being so it's brilliant to be out on the road with Jo but at marches and

01:59things like this bringing this to life for everyone I'm on antidepressants I've been on

02:06antidepressants for literally like decades but since I started swimming in the sea I've cut my dose right

02:11down to the basically the minimum dose that I that I can take and when I can't swim I can feel myself

02:19kind of sinking and not not feeling just quite so good with me here in Sidmouth is Jo Bateman you

02:27moved to Exmouth and you had no interest at that time in campaigning on beach cleanliness until it

02:33hit you that you were swimming in sewage exactly yeah that's exactly what happened so I moved to

02:39Exmouth

02:45just about five miles in that direction is is my my my are my in-laws so my wife's family and so for

02:51ever since we had kids 20 years ago we've been coming to this beach but now I can't when I get

02:57to be honest with you I just ran in the sea and I have this thought now don't open your mouth and

03:03don't put your head under it's really scary isn't it you expect to be able to just go into the sea and

03:08it'll be clean don't you you know why not why shouldn't it be I know listen I'm getting angry

03:12now yeah good well kind of yeah you've got me yeah I know thank you to all of you for turning up today

03:20this is the only thing that's really open to sort of ordinary person is to make a claim through the

03:26small claims court I'm only claiming just over 300 pounds that's unimportant but if I win it will

03:33open the floodgates and that would enable so many more people to take action and I think if that

03:38happened they would really really have to sit up and take notice and do something about it we are all

03:47dependent on the oceans the oceans are crucial to the survival of the planet so it should matter to

03:53all of us that we don't actually pollute them

04:23you

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