A Channel 5 documentary about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has been slapped with a ‘crazy’ trigger warning, alerting viewers to ‘imitable dangerous behaviour’. 

The environmental catastrophe on April 26, 1986 claimed the lives of 30 nuclear power plant operators and firemen.

Now, 40 years on from the explosion, in Pripyat, then part of the Soviet Union, Channel 5’s new documentary, Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle, will give viewers ‘privileged access to the doomed Control Room 4 where the disaster first began to unfold’. 

However the programme has been handed a bizarre trigger warning ahead of its release next week. 

In the listing for the documentary, on the Freeview app, viewers have been cautioned that it ‘contains easily imitable dangerous behaviour’, which has been branded ‘mad’. 

During the 90-minute anniversary programme, host Ben Fogle ‘spends a week living alone inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, gaining privileged access to the doomed Control Room 4 where the disaster first began to unfold’.

One viewer told the Daily Mail: ‘The programme has a mad trigger warning. I thought it was crazy putting that trigger warning as all tourism is banned there due to the fighting in Ukraine.’ 

The Daily Mail has approached Channel 5 and Freeview for comment. 

Channel 5’s new documentary Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle (pictured) will give viewers ‘privileged access to the doomed Control Room 4 where the disaster first began to unfold’

Pictured: A screenshot of the Freeview app warning that the documentary ‘contains easily imitable dangerous behaviour’

The 1986 disaster began when Reactor No. 4 blew up during a safety test gone fatefully wrong. 

A sudden increase in heat production ruptured part of the fuel and small hot molecules, reacting with water, caused a stream explosion which destroyed the reactor core. 

A secondary explosion then occurred two to three seconds later, adding to the destruction. 

The engineers at the plant had wanted to assess what would happen during a power blackout, not realising the reactor was already extremely unstable. 

The catastrophe saw Pripyat’s entire population of 50,000 people and thousands of others evacuated outside the 30km exclusion zone around the power plant. 

It resulted in the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, affecting more than 3.5million people and contaminating nearly 50,000 square kilometres of land.

Around 5,000 children and adolescents were diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and poisonous radiation spread to lots of European countries – including many parts of Britain.

Investigations concluded that faulty protocols in the plant’s design and poorly trained personnel were responsible for the explosion, which blew the 1,000-tonne steel lid off the reactor – the same weight as three Boeing 747s. 

The highly contaminated control room for Reactor No. 4 is seen inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (pictured in November 2000)

The caution for the new documentary comes after a stage adaption of John le Carré’s Cold War thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was issued a trigger warning over gunshots. 

Fans have been warned that the productions contains ‘derogatory language’ and ‘depictions of violence’. 

The play’s booking website reads: ‘This production contains strong and derogatory language prevalent in the period, including antisemitism, and depictions of violence including torture and gunshots.’ 

The Daily Mail had approached Mr le Carré’s estate for comment.