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Chernobyl(2019)
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2019 · TV SERIES
Chernobyl
A determined nuclear physicist races against bureaucratic denial and deadly radiation to halt an exploding reactor, risking his life to prevent a continent‑wide catastrophe.
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The film depicts the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history: the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl. It tells the story of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.
Original onHBO Original
Seasons & Episodes
Season 15 episodes · premiered May 6, 2019
- 1.011:23:45May 6, 2019Rate
April 26, 1986, in the Ukrainian SSR. Plant workers and firefighters risked their lives to contain the catastrophic explosion that occurred at a Soviet nuclear power plant in 1986.
- 1.02Please Remain CalmMay 13, 2019Rate
With millions of lives at risk in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk urgently tries to reach Valery Legasov, a prominent Soviet nuclear scientist, to warn him about the possibility of a second explosion that could have catastrophic consequences for the continent.
- 1.03Open Wide, O EarthMay 20, 2019Rate
Lyudmilla Ignatenko, a resident of Pripyat, disregarded warnings regarding her firefighter husband's contamination. Valery Legasov presented a decontamination plan, including an assessment of the associated human risks.
- 1.04The Happiness of All MankindMay 27, 2019Rate
Valery Legasov and Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina explore the possibility of using lunar rovers to clear radioactive debris, while Ulana Khomyuk encounters bureaucratic obstacles in her efforts to uncover the true cause of the explosion.
- 1.05Vichnaya PamyatJun 3, 2019Rate
Valery Legasov, Boris Shcherbina, and Ulana Khomyuk put their lives and reputations at risk to uncover and reveal the truth about the Chernobyl disaster.
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Cast & Crew
91 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Jessie Buckley
as Lyudmilla Ignatenko
Jared Harris
as Valery Legasov (5 Episodes)
Stellan Skarsgard
as Boris Shcherbina (5 Episodes)
Emily Watson
as Ulana Khomyuk (5 Episodes)
Adam Nagaitis
as Vasily Ignatenko
Paul Ritter
as Anatoly Dyatlov (5 Episodes)
Robert Emms
as Leonid Toptunov
Sam Troughton
as Alexandr Akimov (5 Episodes)
Karl Davies
as Viktor Proskuryakov
Con O Neill
as Viktor Bryukhanov (5 Episodes)
Michael Socha
as Mikhail
Adrian Rawlins
as Nikolai Fomin (5 Episodes)
Supporting cast
78Alan Williams
as KGB Chairman Charkov (5 Episodes)
David Dencik
as Mikhail Gorbachev (5 Episodes)
Mark Lewis Jones
as General Pikalov (5 Episodes)
Ralph Ineson
as General Tarakanov (5 Episodes)
Barry Keoghan
as Pavel (5 Episodes)
Alex Ferns
as Glukhov (5 Episodes)
Fares Fares
as Bacho (5 Episodes)
Michael Mcelhatton
as Prosecutor Andrei Stepashin (5 Episodes)
Laura Elphinstone
as Oksana (3 Episodes)
Jan Ricica
as Oksana's Kid (3 Episodes)
Nadia Clifford
as Dr. Svetlana Zinchenko (2 Episodes)
Ron Cook
as Old Maternity Doctor (2 Episodes)
Donald Sumpter
as Zharkov (2 Episodes)
Philip Barantini
as Bezpalov (2 Episodes)
Oscar Dyekj R Giese
as Baranov (2 Episodes)
Baltasar Breki Samper
as Ananenko (2 Episodes)
Gerard Kearns
as Pravik (2 Episodes)
Povilas Jatkevicius
as Kibenok (2 Episodes)
Darius Petkevicius
as Local Husband (2 Episodes)
Amanda Drew
as Kremlin Aide Female (2 Episodes)
Jamie Sives
as Sitnikov (2 Episodes)
Douggie Mcmeekin
as Yuvchenko (2 Episodes)
Cait Davis
as Local Wife at Bar (2 Episodes)
Michael Shaeffer
as Blond Man (2 Episodes)
Adam Lundgren
as Brazhnik (2 Episodes)
Billy Postlethwaite
as Boris Stolyarchuk (2 Episodes)
Jay Simpson
as Perevozchenko (2 Episodes)
Ross Armstrong
as Nikolai Gorbachenko (2 Episodes)
Paulius Markevicius
as Aleksandr Kudryavstev (2 Episodes)
Joshua Leese
as Kirschenbaum (2 Episodes)
Karolis Kasperavicius
as Viktor Degtaryenko (2 Episodes)
Sam Strike
as Misha (1 Episode)
Sammy Hayman
as Titenok (1 Episode)
Matas Dirgincius
as Vladimir Tishchura (1 Episode)
Caolan Byrne
as Day Shift Worker (1 Episode)
Stephen Bisland
as Night Shift Worker (1 Episode)
Alex Blake
as Petrovich (1 Episode)
Matthew Needham
as Dmitri (1 Episode)
Rosie Sheehy
as Nurse Pripyat (1 Episode)
Tomas Zaibus
as Soldier (Hospital) (1 Episode)
Peter Guinness
as Major Burov (1 Episode)
Laurence Spellman
as Commission Heli Pilot (1 Episode)
Alison Pargeter
as BCP HQ Aide Female (1 Episode)
Victor Mcguire
as Garanin (1 Episode)
Sakalas Uzdavinys
as Ilya Ivanovich Chulkov (1 Episode)
Aidas Jurgaitis
as Soldier (Shelter) (1 Episode)
Aiste S Gram
as Bartender in Polyissa Hotel (1 Episode)
Daniel Crossley
as Stasiuk (1 Episode)
Lucy Russell
as Marina Gruzinskaya (1 Episode)
Diarmaid Murtagh
as Zukauskas (1 Episode)
Natasha Radski
as Russian News Reader (1 Episode)
Yitzchak Averbuch
as General (1 Episode)
Joe Tucker
as Plant Employee (1 Episode)
Caoilfhionn Dunne
as Yenina (1 Episode)
Pandora Colin
as Dr. Vetrova (1 Episode)
Rachel Atkins
as Niyazova (1 Episode)
James Cosmo
as Miner (1 Episode)
Arnas Danusas
as Soldier (Miner's Bus) (1 Episode)
Michael Colgan
as Mikhail Shadov (1 Episode)
James Kermack
as Miner (1 Episode)
Karolis Vilkas
as Miner (1 Episode)
June Watson
as Old Woman Babushka (1 Episode)
Josef Altin
as Soldier (1 Episode)
Sergejus Ivanovas
as Survey Soldier (1 Episode)
Alexej Manvelov
as Garo (1 Episode)
Josef Davies
as Janek (1 Episode)
Velta Zygure
as Elderly Librarian (1 Episode)
Paulius Cizinauskas
as KGB Agent Library (1 Episode)
Mark Bagnall
as Jughashvili (Robot Operator) (1 Episode)
Ian Pirie
as Site Officer Masha (1 Episode)
Andrew Sheridan
as Biorobot (1 Episode)
Lukas Malinauskas
as Biorobot Soldier (1 Episode)
Marius Karolis Gotbergas
as Biorobot Soldier (1 Episode)
Simonas Dovidauskas
as KGB Driver (1 Episode)
Hilton Mcrae
as Judge Milan Kadnikov (1 Episode)
Kieran O Brien
as Khodemchuck (1 Episode)
Sarunas Datenis
as Soldier (Reactor Site) (1 Episode)
Deividas Breive
as Soldier (Mobile Office) (1 Episode)
Writers
1Awards & Nominations
20 wins · 1 nominationPrimetime Emmy Award
- Won2019Outstanding Art Direction for a Period Series, Miniseries or a Movie
- Won2019Outstanding Limited Miniseries
- Won2019Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie
- Won2019Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or Movie
- Won2019Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special
- Won2019Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special — Johan Renck
- Won2019Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special — Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Won2019Outstanding Special Visual Effects
- Won2019Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special
- Won2019Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special
- Won2019Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or Movie
Golden Globe Award
- Won2020Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film
- Won2020Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
- Won2020Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film — Stellan Skarsgård
Grammy Award
- Won2020Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media — Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Won2020Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media — Francesco Donadello
British Academy Television Award
- Won2020Best Drama Series
Critics Choice Television Award
- Won2020Best Movie/Miniseries Supporting Actor
- Nom2019Best Movie/Miniseries
More awards & festivals (2) — regional academies & film-festival prizes
Satellite Award
- Won2019Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
- Won2019Best Miniseries or Television Film
Technical specs
No technical specs (aspect ratio, sound mix, cameras…) documented yet. Know it? Add it →
Awards (2)
- 🏆 Won — Golden Globe Awards 2020: Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
- 🏆 Won — Golden Globe Awards 2020: Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film · Chernobyl
Connections
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Soundtrack
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Filming locations
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Spoiler-Safe Guide
medium confidencesource-verifiedThis guide covers all 5 episodes of the complete Chernobyl (2019) miniseries. No recency caveats apply — the show aired May–June 2019 and is a completed work. Episode 1, 2, 3, and 4 Wikipedia episode articles were fetched this session (Tier 1). The Episode 5 Wikipedia article returned a 404; Episode 5 relies on Tier 3 recap publications and search results. Charkov's debut has been downgraded from S1E2✓ to S1E2~ after fresh verification this session failed to find him in the Episode 2 Wikipedia article; his confirmed debut from a fetched source is Episode 3. Bacho's character description has been enriched with confirmed detail (Georgian soldier, Afghan War veteran) from sources fetched this session.
Showing everything up to nothing yet. 15 later beat(s) hidden.
Key: ★ notable · ★★ major · ★★★ series-defining · ✓ confirmed · ~ estimated · ⚠️ limited sources
Major events
Characters
Valery Legasov · Jared Harris · debut [S1E1✓]
A deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute pulled into the disaster response, Legasov spends the series trying to understand and communicate the true scale of the catastrophe — at increasing personal cost. The series opens with his death and works toward explaining how he arrived there.
Boris Shcherbina · Stellan Skarsgard · debut [S1E1✓]
A skeptical Soviet Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers sent to manage the political fallout, Shcherbina begins as an apparatchik prioritizing state interests and gradually becomes Legasov's closest ally and moral partner.
Ulana Khomyuk · Emily Watson · debut [S1E2✓]
A fictional composite character representing the many Soviet scientists who worked to uncover the truth. A nuclear physicist in Minsk, she detects the disaster independently and fights bureaucratic obstruction to gather accurate testimony from survivors.
Anatoly Dyatlov · Paul Ritter · debut [S1E1✓]
The deputy chief engineer who supervised the fateful safety test, Dyatlov is portrayed as a man who compounded a dangerous design flaw with denial and intimidation. Flashbacks in the finale humanize his motivations as careerist pressure rather than villainy.
Vasily Ignatenko · Adam Nagaitis · debut [S1E1✓]
A Pripyat firefighter who responds to the initial blaze with no knowledge of the radiation levels. His story, told partly through his wife Lyudmilla, depicts the human cost borne by first responders.
Lyudmilla Ignatenko · Jessie Buckley · debut [S1E1✓]
Vasily's pregnant wife, whose refusal to leave her husband's side despite the radiation risk forms one of the series' most intimate threads.
Pavel · Barry Keoghan · debut [S1E4✓]
A young civilian conscripted as a liquidator, paired with the experienced Bacho. Pavel's storyline humanizes the roughly 750,000 ordinary people deployed for cleanup across multiple episodes.
Bacho · Fares Fares · debut [S1E4✓]
A veteran liquidator who mentors Pavel in the grim work of the evacuation zone.
KGB Chairman Charkov · Alan Williams · debut [S1E2✓]
The KGB's representative throughout the crisis response, monitoring what information is shared with the public and ensuring state control over the narrative.
Viktor Bryukhanov · Con O'Neill · debut [S1E1✓]
The plant director whose reports drastically underrepresented the severity of the disaster in the immediate aftermath.
AI-assisted and cross-checked against multiple references. ✓ = confirmed from a cited source · ~ = season correct but episode unconfirmed · ⚠️ = limited sources. Spotted a mistake? Use the report button on this page.
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Trailers
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Chernobyl(2019)
Teaser Trailer
Chernobyl(2019)
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