Curiosities about “Chernobyl”, the series considered the best in history

When the series’ millions of fans believed that the end of game of Thrones would leave them in deep helplessness, HBO had an ace up its sleeve. On May 6 it launched Chernobyl and it’s safe to say, without sounding an exaggeration, that the fans’ desolation didn’t last long because this release, which depicts the biggest nuclear accident ever, is well on its way to becoming one of the most important series in history.

O awesome.clubalways attentive to everything that may interest readers, brings some information about Chernobylthe series of the moment.

divided into five episodes, Chernobyl is based on the April 26, 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located in Pripyat, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. Like the 2001 accident at Fukushima I, Japan, the Chernobyl case is considered one of the most serious nuclear tragedies in history.

The scale of the catastrophe forced the government of the Soviet Union to urgently evacuate 116,000 people and there was an international alarm when radioactivity was detected in at least 13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

For the decontamination, containment and mitigation work, around 600,000 people had to work in the regions surrounding the accident site and a 30 km radius around the nuclear plant had to be isolated – this isolation remains in place today.

The series is directed by Johan Renck, the director of bloodline and some episodes of vikings🇧🇷 breaking bad and The Walking Dead🇧🇷 The 5 chapters were written only by their creator, Craig Mazin, screenwriter of the comedies If You Drink, Don’t Marry! part II and Everyone in Panic 3. Most of the series was filmed in Vilnius, Lithuania. For the scenes inside the nuclear power plant, the team moved to the Ingalina Nuclear Power Plant (also in Lithuania), decommissioned and bearing a striking resemblance to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Lithuania, as you probably know, was also part of the Soviet Union. Cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, who has already created works for The arrival, Sicario: No Man’s Land🇧🇷 the return and The Suspects, c.works with the soundtrack. It is the highest rated series in history on the IMDb movie and series review site. With a score of 9.7, it surpasses breaking bad (IMDB 9.5) and game of Thrones (IMDB 9.4).

Given that it is a historical drama, the following question arose among viewers: which characters in the series are real? Below, we answer that question to help you better understand real history and fiction.

Valeri Alekséyevich Legásov, who in the series is played by British actor Jared Harris, was a Soviet scientist dedicated to the field of inorganic chemistry, a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. He was put in charge of the tragedy investigation committee. He committed suicide in 1988 as a result of depression caused by radiation exposure.

Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina, played by the great Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, was a Soviet politician who served as vice-president of the Council of Ministers between 1984 and 1989. During this period, he oversaw crisis management after the Chernobyl accident. He died in 1990.

Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov, played by British actor Paul Ritter, was the deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and supervisor of the fatal experiment that led to the accident. For your responsibility in the tragedy, was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, of which he served four. He died in 1995 of a heart attack.

Vasili Ivanovich Ignatenko was the commander of the second independent paramilitary fire department for the protection of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. He is considered a national hero in Ukraine. His role was played by British actor Adam Nagaitis.

Spoiler alert: died contaminated by nuclear radiation two weeks after the accident.

Lyudmilla Ignatenko was the wife of firefighter Vasili Ignatenko. Despite being pregnant, she accompanied her husband until the last moment, risking her life and that of her baby. She is one of the most moving characters in the series, and is played by Irish actress and singer Jessie Buckley.

To learn more about the real Lyudmilla, we recommend watching the documentary Ljudmilas röst, in which she tells her story and that of her husband.

It is documented that the Soviets tried to use robots to decontaminate the site and perform cleanup tasks, but these machines could not withstand the toxic atmosphere and quickly stopped working. Therefore, it was necessary to appeal to people to carry out these tasks.

The miners’ participation was also real, as was the ban on residents of the evacuated areas taking their pets, which had to be euthanized by soldiers to prevent them from spreading the contamination.

Between the dramatic licenses used by the screenwriter, we can mention the character played by British actress Emily Watson, as nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk. It is a fictional character, which summarizes the work of a group of scientists who worked on the process after the accident.

It is also untrue that the fire at the Chernobyl Power Plant emitted twice as much radiation as Hiroshima. The two tragedies are not comparable. In Chernobyl, the biggest danger was exposure to radiation. In Hiroshima, on the other hand, the greatest destruction was caused by the bombings and the range of radiation.

As for the helicopter crash, which took place some time after the episode featured in the series, the modification was made, according to the screenwriter, for strictly dramatic reasons.

Have you seen some chapters of Chernobyl🇧🇷 Did you know any of this information? Do you also consider it the best series in history? Please leave your opinion in the comments.