Critics and viewers on both sides of the Atlantic have lined up to acclaim ‘Chernobyl’, a dramatization of events surrounding the world’s worst nuclear accident - but the reactions of some of the survivors are less rose-tinted.
The accident killed 31 within weeks and forced tens of thousands to flee. The final toll of those killed by radiation-related illnesses such as cancer is subject to debate, and estimated by the World Health Organization to be in the thousands.
Chernobyl’s Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoliy Dyatlov, interpreted by English actor Paul Ritter as tyrannical and arrogant, “did not behave as terribly with people as the show portrays,” Sergii Parashyn, the then chairman of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’s Communist Party Committee, said.
