Please Remain Calm (Chernobyl)

When Craig Mazin expressed interest on creating a show based on the Chernobyl disaster, he wanted to portray it as accurately as possible, leading him to read books and interview nuclear scientists.[1] While researching for the show he stated: "Well, at the heart of this story is a question about what happens when we disconnect from the truth. And the Soviet system was essentially an enormous monument to the useful lie. They made lying an art: They lied to each other, they lied to the people above them, they lied to the people below them, and they did it out of a sense of survival. Ultimately, it just became expected, and the truth was debased. When it did kind of peek its head out, it was attacked. So I thought the worst possible thing I could do in telling a story like that would be to contribute to that problem by over-fictionalizing, over-dramatizing."[2] The show entered development in 2017, when HBO and Sky UK ordered the production of the series with Johan Renck set to direct the five episodes of the show.[3][4]

Despite the show portraying the events mostly accurately, some artistic licences were taken for dramatic purposes. In the episode, a helicopter crashes while attempting to throw sand on the exposed reactor. While the crash indeed happened, it was two weeks after the explosion. Mazin stated: "I wanted people to know that this was one of the hazards that these pilots were dealing with — an open reactor. Radiation was flying over it."[5] The scene of the crash was not originally in the episode, as it was added during the post-production of the series. Lead actor Jared Harris said, "It's something that's not there, but you both need to be doing it in synchronicity, so you have to be doing it at the same time, looking at the same thing, and you have to understand what's happening."[6]

Emily Watson was confirmed to have joined the series as Ulana Khomyuk, along with Stellan Skarsgård. This would make the second collaboration of the actors after working together in the 1996 film Breaking the Waves.[7] Skarsgard expresses: "Nobody would see it as a privilege to spend five months in a dilapidated nuclear plant, unless it was to play in a script like this by Craig Mazin, work with a director like Johan Renck, collaborate with a producer like Jane Featherstone, jam with an actor like Jared Harris and finally be at the feet of Emily Watson whom I have been missing for some 20 years."[8] Unlike other characters of the series who existed in the real-life, Watson character is a fictional character created for the television series. This was with the intention of honoring all the scientists that aided Legasov during the investigation. Mazin stated: "One area where the Soviets were actually more progressive than we were was in the area of science and medicine. The Soviet Union had quite a large percentage of female doctors."[9]

Principal photography began in April 2018 in Lithuania, whose architecture still resembled that of the Soviet Union.[10] In order to portray the city of Pripyat for the series, filming took place at the residential district of Fabijoniškės in the city of Vilnius.[11] Several scenes of the meeting of the council were filmed at the former Government Guest House in Vilnius, which also kept its Soviet architecture.[12] Scenes set at the hotel were also filmed at the Government Guest House, while the interior was filmed at the Cultural and Sports Centre of the Lithuanian Ministry.[13]

The episode's title refers to the famous phrase "please remain calm", which is used in cases of emergency to keep people calm. This phrase, however, was not used until the evacuation of Pripyat concluded, through the loudspeakers on the military vehicles. It is still unclear if the broadcast said "please remain calm" or "please keep calm".[14]

"Please Remain Calm" was first released in the United States through HBO on May 13, 2019, where it was seen by 1 million viewers.[15] It was followed by its release in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland through Sky Atlantic on May 14, 2019, where it obtained a total of 891,000 viewers.[16]

"Please Remain Calm" received acclaim from critics. Lorraine Ali from the Los Angeles Times lauded Jared Harris's performance commenting that "Harris is hands down the most deserving of an award for his performance in Chernobyl. The miniseries was a dramatic success of nuclear proportions, a grim story turned into a must-watch historical drama by a team of folks at the top of their game."[17] Euan Ferguson from The Guardian lauded the show for Harris's performance and its atmosphere, saying "[t]his enthralling, quietly spectacular, meticulously researched five-part series landed a mite irritatingly on Sky Atlantic, which many people don't have. But I would still urge you – leapfrog your qualms, and invest at least in a Now TV stick, which will let you get it (and Game of Thrones)."[18] Pat Stacey from Irish Independent rated the show with 5 stars and stated "Writer Craig Mazin, best known before now for writing the comedy The Hangover and its sequels, and director Johan Renck have crafted an unflinching, devastatingly powerful drama with the tautness of a thriller and the chilling veracity of a documentary."[19]

Charles Mudede from The Stranger praised the show for its historical accuracy. "It is likely that the future will see that Chernobyl left a much deeper and longer impression on culture than Bill Nye's burning of the iconic schoolroom earth. In fact, it is not hard to believe at this point that the total cultural impact of Chernobyl will be associated with that made in the Cold War era (when the world continuously faced nuclear holocaust) by the three-hour 1983 television film The Day After."[20] Alison de Souza from The Straits Times praised the episode for accurately recreating all the events that happened during the catastrophe, giving it 4 stars of 5. "The gripping five-part miniseries, Chernobyl manages to viscerally recreate it - the horror, heroism and sheer folly of it all."[21] Ben Travers from IndieWire praised the performances of Harris and Skarsgård by rating it with a grade of A- and stated "Chernobyl won't be for everyone. With constant, low-simmering intensity and an all-too-visible air of death, the vivid recreation of an unimaginable disaster can be uncomfortable to say the least. But Mazin and Renck do an impressive job of inviting the audience into a story filled with so many horrors. Each nauseating moment, be it a shot of decaying human flesh or a decision made for the wrong reasons, has a purpose — and pays back the viewer for their investment. Chernobyl is a stunning dramatization, and one worth admiring on many levels."[22]