If you're after something cheery and light to watch in the weeks following Avengers: Endgame, our advice would not be running to HBO and Sky Atlantic's Chernobyl. If, however, you're after what looks like a haunting, well-cast and truth-based drama about one of the worst disasters to strike the world, this could be your thing.
The official synopsis for this one runs thus: "On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and western Europe. Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the 1986 accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, and the sacrifices made to save Europe from the unimaginable disaster."
Heading up this one are the likes of Jared Harris as nuclear physicist Valery Legasov, who was one of the first to grasp the true horror of what was unfolding, while Stellan Skarsgård is Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina, assigned by the Kremlin to lead the government commission on the incident in the hours following it. Emily Watson is Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist committed to unravelling the mystery of what happened to cause the explosion, and rising star Jessie Buckley plays Lyudmilla Ignatenko, wife of one of the firefighters called in to battle the flames and suffering with huge radiation exposure.
With John Renck directing from Craig Mazin's script, the miniseries also features Barry Keoghan, Paul Ritter, Adrian Rawlins and Con O’Neill. It starts on HBO on 6 May and launches here via Sky Atlantic on 7 May.
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