Ripping into the Central Committee on the phone was a high point too!
Are we allowed to call it a meltdown?
The '90 second mission' was particularly grim. I wonder what the rate of early death in those thousands of comrades was?
That really was grim.
The 90 seconds sequence was utterly draining to watch.
The sound of the radiation detector / Geiger counter is so chilling. Took me back to the guys working the valves in the dark. Properly compelling TV.
On a lighter note, is good to see 'Finchy' getting a prominent role now. Reminds me (a lot) of Zhukov in the Death of Stalin.
Another excellent episode.
I guess 90 seconds was a lifetime safe dose. Assuming they'd done their homework correctly (that's a large assumption given some of the other mistakes in their homework).
For anybody who likes motorbikes this is a fascinating site, it belongs to Elena Filatova, the daughter of a Chernobyl scientist. She rode her motorbike on the deserted roads of the dead zone.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
"The roads are blocked for cars, but not for motorcycles. Good girls go to heaven. Bad ones go to hell. And girls on fast bikes go anywhere they want."
She's not very complimentary about the Soviet system, is she?
I find the election day stuff especially comic. Or tragic. I'm not sure which. The election house building where you could go to vote. For any candidate from a choice of one. Attendance was bought by supplying free drinks and having a public holiday the next day.
Just an excellent show that was. Great stuff.
Fantastic end to a great series.
The shouting in the control room went a bit Ray Winstone if I was being picky about authenticity.
I thought the last episode was the best and overall one of the best things I've seen in a very long time. Anyone now what the music was that was playing over the final sequence of images and updates?
A masterclass in how to be powerful in just 5 episodes too.
Aye, that was absolutely tremendous telly start to finish. Utterly terrifying, sad and fascinating in equal measures. Superb. Already reading one of the books mentioned on page 1.
Aye, that was absolutely tremendous telly start to finish.
Up there with Band of Brothers for my all time favourite viewing - fact is better than fiction?
Fabulous TV. Not sure that I'd want to watch it again in a hurry though.
That was a gripping final episode, and I thought they managed to get just enough of the technical stuff into the courtroom to make the control room scenes both comprehensible and more horrifying. Definitely some of the best TV I've seen and all the better for being 5 episodes rather than spread thinly over a longer series. The podcast following each episode has been a great companion piece too.
The really depressing thing about the scenes in the control room is how familiar the failures were. I don't work in the Nuclear Industry but after seeing the failures around the people (rather than the technical failures of the design) my response was along the lines of "so all the usual suspects then".
Poor planning
Poor procedures
Poor management of change
Inadequate training
Poor understanding of the risks associated with the task in hand
Basically whenever you see an industrial accident chances are that most if not all of those points will be part of the problem.
Going to struggle to find anything else on the telly box as compelling. I watched ep1 to get a taster and immediately followed it with 2-4. Then kicked myself that I’d have to wait a week for ep5.
I've actually enjoyed waiting a week at a time to watch it, It's given me more time to think about it and recall its effect at the time.
I’ve actually enjoyed waiting a week at a time to watch it, It’s given me more time to think about it and recall its effect at the time.
Agreed. I don't like this binging.
How do I watch this without Sky? I have Apple TV, Netflix, Prime etc but no Sky channels.
Bittorrent? or [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chernobyl-2019-Sky-Atlantic-Drama/dp/B07RR73LT6/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=chernobyl&qid=1559745422&s=gateway&sr=8-6 ]Amazon[/url]
Now TV
How do I watch this without Sky? I have Apple TV, Netflix, Prime etc but no Sky channels.
Cheapest legit way is to get yourself Now TV, I think they do free trials which will probably be enough to see off the 5 episodes. It'll be available for the next 28 days or so.
That, or the more dubious routes which are available.
It was also good for showing the fall of the Russian state and how badly it was run. The country was on it's knees but kept up the false news and facts of how good or bad everything was. Great programme and thoroughly enjoyed. To add I'm also reading a book about the Chernobyl incident and the facts make dire reading indeed.
Which book?
What a fantastic five hours of TV. Right up there with the very best of recent years.
(rather than the technical failures of the design)
gonefishin
I'd hazard that
the whole socialist government approach to life
the culture of never questioning / being able to question superiors
the gov/kgb locking up anyone who questioned their superiors
the gov/kgb hushing up everything and anything that was discovered
using the nuclear biz as a flag waving political willy wave
are also contenders for 'things that were not right' about the whole sorry story
a lot of the technical failures were direct results of many of the above cultural problems as well as a result of your list
What a fantastic five hours of TV. Right up there with the very best of recent years.
Hear hear, absolutely stellar. I love me a good post script at the end of a TV show, and the Chernobyl one was superb, in a terrifying way.
Actual footage of 'bio-robots' clearing the roof. Pretty much indistinguishable from the HBO version...
Bloody hell. I wondered if there was were going to be more about that bloke who cut his boot on the lump of graphite in ep4.
There is a good podcast where they interview the series creators and actors, good companion
that roof footage, wow
Best tv ive seen for a good while. My own complaint was there wasn't more... couple of extra episodes before the trial in last episode would have been good as there was certainly potential for further events to be expanded like the miners for example.
Wondering if there could be a second season, maybe the difficulties in building the sarcophagus...not likely to have the raw impact of the first season but definitely been on my watchlist
Not the same by any shot but it's worth digging out the original Edge of Darkness if you want a powerful fictional take on the nuclear industry gone awry.
Has the same desaturated feel of dread.
The late Bob Peck in his prime.
Incredible TV - caught the last episode last night.
Ghastly, compelling, shocking.
One of my main memories of the disaster as a child was seeing the radiation cloud movement on the news or the weather. That & the 90 second guys on the roof. When they sent in the firefighters in the first episode I was I'm sure they had men on the roof for 90 seconds at a time.
Wondering if there could be a second season, maybe the difficulties in building the sarcophagus…not likely to have the raw impact of the first season but definitely been on my watchlist
I'm sure I've watched a documentary about the new one - on something like superstructures on channel 5 or somewhere similar.
I thought five episodes covered it just about right. More would have diluted the impact. It's not the top rated TV on imdb (ever) for nothing, the team behind the show got just about everything right.
I’m sure I’ve watched a documentary about the new one – on something like superstructures on channel 5 or somewhere similar.
Yeah, ive seen that, very interesting, particularly the way they 'slid' the new sarcophagus over the old one 😮
Apparently it was written by the same guy who the Hangover II & III
PrinceJohn
Member
Apparently it was written by the same guy who the Hangover II & III
That makes sense, I thought they had a similar feel.
I thought it was a fantastic piece of gripping tv, best thing I've seen in ages.
Looks like the Russians have a different take on the world (msn.com)
Best TV series I've seen in a long time. The timeline in the final episode was just heartbreaking seeing how the Soviet machine lead to the failings.
10/10. One to keep on the box forever.
Food for though. (Where’s Jivehoney when you need him?)
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/07/chernobyl-hbo-russian-tv-remake
Where’s Jivehoney when you need him?
Working on the script for the Russian version.....
I read a lot about the incident since 1986 - I was twelve when it happened.
The Soviet system allowed for colossal technological improvements in the space of half a century the country went from being semi-feudal to soft-landing space probes on Venus.
I found this from 1994, it gives a sobering assessment of how much money we paid to help prop up a rapidly decaying nuclear infrastructure. Imagine what would have happened if we hadn't?
Once upon a time, I was very much in favour of nuclear power. Now I'm not so sure - I recently saw a documentary by Jim Al-Khalili on Sellafield and the processes there they use to recycle and entomb the waste - they vitrify it in glass that won't crack under humidity like concrete or slowly leech out. Fact is, it'll need careful management for centuries yet.
Then there's the necessity of access to vast amounts of water in all nuclear plants. What could go wrong?
And sleep well after reading this:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/05/national/nuclear-operator-seeks-restart-despite-active-fault-plant/#.XQA1_ohKh3g
Back to Chernobyl, it's compelling watching and the pace is superb.
Not sure if any of yous have read THIS?
Of course it was over dramatised for effect. Still enjoyed it though.
Russia Today is my go-to source for impartial views on this matter. 🙂
TBH, if the only fault that RT could find was that the old lady's cow wouldn't have been shot in front of her, and that he didn't actually see the miners getting bollock naked, then I guess HBO were pretty much on the money with the things that mattered.
If RT reported that the sun was shining over London today, I'd be sure to bring an umbrella to work.
