Channel 5 has greenlit The Chernobyl Disaster, a new three-part documentary series which will be “the definitive look at the Chernobyl Disaster timeline.”

Produced by Remarkable Factual (a Banijay UK company) and ordered by Commissioning Editor (VP) Guy Davies, the series, fronted by Ben Fogle, follows Remarkable Factual’s award-winning 2020 documentary Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle.

In the new three-part series, audiences will be taken on a journey through each pivotal moment on the Chernobyl Disaster timeline, from the momentous but deeply flawed build of the plant itself, to the immediate aftermath, to the unprecedented and wide-ranging impact on the world for the following 36 years, including the latest threats posed to the plant by the Russian invasion.

The series will make use of archive footage and interviews with experts, as well as unseen footage from Inside Chernobyl.

The series brings together first-person testimony from key players, such as a helicopter pilot involved in putting out the fire and liquidators who risked their lives to decontaminate the nuclear waste, and declassified Soviet documents released earlier this year.

Ben Fogle said: “Making Inside Chernobyl was such an enlightening experience so I’m thrilled to be able to continue that work with this new series and I’m also pleased that some of the unseen footage from Inside Chernobyl will now see the light of day in The Chernobyl Disaster as there is so much more of this tragic story to be told.”

Kitty Walshe, CEO at Remarkable Factual and RDF Television said: “This is a timely and necessary documentary series to be bringing to audiences in the UK. It’s a story of cover ups, corruption, and a countdown to disaster which needs to be told now more than ever.”

The Chernobyl Disaster series will be broadcast in three parts: The Chernobyl Disaster: Meltdown, The Chernobyl Disaster: Firestorm and The Chernobyl Disaster: Fallout, with the first part airing in May 2021.

Jon Creamer

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