Chernobyl (miniseries) facts for kids

Chernobyl is a TV show that tells a true story. It was made by HBO and Sky UK. Craig Mazin wrote it, and Johan Renck directed it. The show is about the Chernobyl nuclear accident that happened in April 1986. It also shows the huge efforts made to clean up the area afterward. Famous actors like Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, and Paul Ritter star in the series. It first aired in the United States and the United Kingdom in May 2019. Many people liked the show a lot.

What is the Chernobyl TV Show About?

The TV show Chernobyl tells the real-life story of a terrible nuclear power plant accident. This accident happened in 1986 in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. The show focuses on the people who were involved. It shows those who accidentally caused the disaster. It also shows the brave people who helped to fix things.

The series shares some lesser-known stories from the disaster. These include the efforts of firefighters who were first to arrive. It also shows volunteers and miners who dug a very important tunnel. The show is largely based on stories from people who lived in Pripyat. These stories were collected by Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl.

Who are the Main Characters in Chernobyl?

The show features many characters, some real and some based on real people.

Main Characters

• Jared Harris plays Valery Legasov. He was a top scientist who helped with the cleanup.
• Stellan Skarsgård plays Boris Shcherbina. He was a high-ranking government official.
• Emily Watson plays Ulana Khomyuk. She is a fictional scientist. She represents the many brave scientists who helped.
• Paul Ritter plays Anatoly Dyatlov. He was an assistant chief engineer at the power plant.
• Jessie Buckley plays Lyudmilla Ignatenko. She is the wife of a firefighter.
• Adam Nagaitis plays Vasily Ignatenko. He was a firefighter from Pripyat.
• Con O'Neill plays Viktor Bryukhanov. He was the manager of the Chernobyl plant.
• Adrian Rawlins plays Nikolai Fomin. He was the chief engineer at Chernobyl.
• Sam Troughton plays Aleksandr Akimov. He was the night shift supervisor.
• Robert Emms plays Leonid Toptunov. He was a senior engineer at the plant.
• David Dencik plays Mikhail Gorbachev. He was the leader of the Soviet Union.
• Mark Lewis Jones plays Vladimir Pikalov. He was a commander of Soviet chemical forces.
• Alan Williams plays Charkov. He was a high-ranking official in the KGB.
• Alex Ferns plays Andrei Glukhov. He was a mining crew chief.
• Ralph Ineson plays Nikolai Tarakanov. He was the chief supervisor of the cleanup.
• Barry Keoghan plays Pavel Gremov. He was a civilian who helped with the cleanup.
• Fares Fares plays Bacho. He was a soldier who trained Pavel.
• Michael McElhatton plays Andrei Stepashin. He was the prosecutor in the trial.

Other Important Characters

• Adam Lundgren as Vyacheslav Brazhnik, a senior turbine operator.
• Karl Davies as Viktor Proskuryakov, a reactor control engineer trainee.
• Donald Sumpter as Zharkov, a local committee member.
• Billy Postlethwaite as Boris Stolyarchuk, a control engineer.
• Joshua Leese as Igor Kirschenbaum, a turbine control engineer.
• Nadia Clifford as Svetlana Zinchenko, a doctor.
• Jamie Sives as Anatoly Sitnikov, an engineer sent to check the reactor.
• Baltasar Breki Samper as Alexei Ananenko, a volunteer who drained water.
• Philip Barantini as Valeri Bezpalov, another water-draining volunteer.
• Oscar Giese as Boris Baranov, a third water-draining volunteer.

Guest Appearances

• Jay Simpson as Valeriy Perevozchenko, a foreman.
• Michael Colgan as Mikhail Shchadov, the Soviet Minister of Coal Industry.
• James Cosmo as a miner.
• Hilton McRae as Milan Kadnikov, the judge.
• Kieran O'Brien as Valery Khodemchuk, a pump operator.
• Natasha Radski as a Russian News Reader.

How Was the Chernobyl Series Made?

The making of Chernobyl involved a lot of research and careful planning.

Research and Writing the Story

Writer Craig Mazin started researching the Chernobyl disaster in 2014. He read many books and government reports. He also talked to nuclear scientists to understand how reactors work. To make the show feel real, he interviewed former Soviet citizens. This helped him understand what life was like in 1986. Mazin also read personal stories from people who were there. He said these stories made the event come alive for him.

To prepare even more, Mazin visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This is the area around the plant that is still dangerous. He also made sure that no American actors were cast. This was to help the audience feel like they were truly in the Soviet Union.

HBO and Sky announced they would make the series in 2017. It was the first time HBO worked with Sky UK on a show. The five-episode series was written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. The show first aired on May 6, 2019.

Choosing the Actors

A Soviet-era district in Vilnius, Lithuania, called Fabijoniškės, was used to film scenes of Pripyat.

When the show was announced, it was confirmed that Jared Harris would star. Later, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson joined the main cast. In May 2018, Paul Ritter, Jessie Buckley, Adrian Rawlins, and Con O'Neill also joined.

Filming Locations

Filming for Chernobyl began in April 2018 in Lithuania. Most of the filming happened in Fabijoniškės. This is a neighborhood in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Fabijoniškės still looks like a Soviet-era town. Because of this, it was used to represent the Ukrainian city of Pripyat. An area with many apartment buildings was used for scenes where people were evacuated.

Later, filming moved to Visaginas, Lithuania. Here, they filmed inside and outside the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. This power plant is no longer in use. It looks very similar to the Chernobyl plant. Both plants used the same type of RBMK nuclear reactor. In June 2018, some final scenes were filmed in Ukraine. The entire filming process for Chernobyl took 16 weeks.

See also

In Spanish: Chernóbil (miniserie) para niños