Forget politics, or anything that fills the mind with negativity - Earth from Space is essential and compelling viewing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072n2zr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Highly recommend it. On iPlayer at the minute.

Looks worth a watch. I've just started watching Chernobyl. Forget horror films, this is a gruesome tale that actually happened in (most of) our lifetimes. Even in the first few hours people put their lives knowingly on the line to save others. Some of them basically cooked alive to try to stop it getting even worse. A dark tale that would be bad enough even if it were fiction, the fact that this was real makes it a stark warning about the dangers of mixing nuclear power with dodgy safety regs. Gripping stuff even if slightly hard to watch due to it's content.

houseboy wrote:Looks worth a watch. I've just started watching Chernobyl. Forget horror films, this is a gruesome tale that actually happened in (most of) our lifetimes. Even in the first few hours people put their lives knowingly on the line to save others. Some of them basically cooked alive to try to stop it getting even worse. A dark tale that would be bad enough even if it were fiction, the fact that this was real makes it a stark warning about the dangers of mixing nuclear power with dodgy safety regs. Gripping stuff even if slightly hard to watch due to it's content.

Surprisingly It doesn't get much better

The clean up operation was brutal.

houseboy wrote:Looks worth a watch. I've just started watching Chernobyl. Forget horror films, this is a gruesome tale that actually happened in (most of) our lifetimes. Even in the first few hours people put their lives knowingly on the line to save others. Some of them basically cooked alive to try to stop it getting even worse. A dark tale that would be bad enough even if it were fiction, the fact that this was real makes it a stark warning about the dangers of mixing nuclear power with dodgy safety regs. Gripping stuff even if slightly hard to watch due to it's content.

Seen a few Chernobyl docs and have heard about this one. Will give it a go at some point.

Chernobyl is gripping...and horrifying at the same time.

houseboy wrote:Looks worth a watch. I've just started watching Chernobyl. Forget horror films, this is a gruesome tale that actually happened in (most of) our lifetimes. Even in the first few hours people put their lives knowingly on the line to save others. Some of them basically cooked alive to try to stop it getting even worse. A dark tale that would be bad enough even if it were fiction, the fact that this was real makes it a stark warning about the dangers of mixing nuclear power with dodgy safety regs. Gripping stuff even if slightly hard to watch due to it's content.

Im on eps 3. Great watch

theroyaldyche wrote:Im on eps 3. Great watch

Where can you watch it?

Found it now lol

bfccrazy wrote:Found it now lol

Sky atlantic or showbox

Also on skygo if you need to catch up its excellent viewing..

Watched 1st 2 episodes last night and it is brilliantly made - I love the bit at the end when the directors discuss how/why they did things they did.

CombatClaret wrote:Surprisingly It doesn't get much better

The clean up operation was brutal.

A lot of lies were told (probably) about what exactly happened, especially in the first 24 hours. Much of that down to it happening under the old Soviet regime who were not famous for telling the truth about anything. Even the programme makers admit in a note that some things in the series were based on educated guesswork in order to try to fill in the blanks. Having read about it over the years there are some obvious problems with what went on. One of the things was when three men went in to turn on the water pumps (not two as it shows in the programme) and rumour had it that they all died a few hours later. Apparently an investigative writer did some digging years later and found that two of the 3 are still very much alive and one at least is still working in the nuclear industry, whilst the third died a few years later from a totally unrelated heart attack. How they actually survived that hell know one knows. The guys clearing the debris from the roof after they had it under control apaprently only worked 40-second shifts before they had to come away for health reasons and most did about 5 shifts - thats 3 minutes twenty seconds work before it was considered lethal to continue.

The upshot of it all is that even if we think we live in a reasonably safe world we can't take that for granted. Two towns/cities are now deserted apart from a mere handful of hardy residents and no-one knows for sure how many died (although the 'offical' line is not that many). Had the meltdown not been stopped many experts believe that the catastrophe would have been on a global scale and the whole sarcophagus that covers the reactor has to be constantly monitered and repaired for many years (some have suggested hundreds). The most bizarre thing of all in the years since is that you can book yourself onto a Chernobyl holiday and stay in a local hotel. Now I don't mind taking risks on a holiday, it's part of the fun for me, but taking a long weekend break in a highly contaminated, radioactive poisoned city and taking in the sites is not my idea of a good time.