Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle

It was natural for documentaries to follow on from the incredible TV series Chernobyl proved to be such a hit. This is incredibly interesting, presented by the incredibly likeable Ben Fogle.

The tour of the building was fascinating, but I found myself more intrigued by The Stalkers, and the story of Valentina and her little dog Dana.

It should serve as a chilling reminder as to what happened back in 1986, and it does, Pripyat is a chilling place, this documentary shows the lasting devastation, the bleak land that remains.

Credit to Fogle for doing it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, 9/10.

A lot of approximations and really a lot of exaggerations about the state of contamination in Pripyat.

This reality TV reporter forgets that he is not the only one who has access to this area, and the Geiger counters of the other visitors (including illegal ones) do not go crazy as much as his own in the different rooms of the hospital.

With its horror movie-like narration, Fogle's story is more like a ghost train ride than an objective documentary on one of the biggest human catastrophes. Sounds like he's trying to scare people away from nuclear power.

The 2019 HBO mini-series is far more factual and objective than this so-called documentary.

The documentary is a mess when it comes to conveying facts (example: we are first told that scientists have estimated that the zone will be contaminated for 20.000 years, but Fogel exaggerates this number and "rounds up" to 100.000 years), and could have benefitted from a few more historical facts and perhaps even pictures/video clips from "back then". Moreover, it's repetitive at times due to the editing.

Additionally, Fogel is not a very trustful storyteller, even though he seems to know some things about the subject; he is constantly exaggerating, being sentimental, and constantly puts himself and his emotions at the center of the story.

That being said, the documentary shows some interesting areas of Chernobyl (both the reactor, town, and nature), and introduces us to empathic people with interesting live-stories. Except for a few editing errors, it even has some beautiful pictures.

Watch it if you are curious on the state of Chernobyl, and then go read about it yourself.

This is not Ben Fogle's usual fayre, bordering much more on dark tourism than travel and adventure. However I really, really loved this. The insight into the inner workings of the Chernobyl power plant are great, but what really comes to the fore is nature's unexpected victory over a massive error of human judgement.