A gripping full-cast dramatisation of Japan’s 2011 nuclear emergency, narrated by Romola Garai

When a tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, surging past defences and flood reactors, it triggered the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This immersive dramatisation tells the extraordinary story of those catastrophic events.

As alarm bells ring, explosions rock the power plant, politicians try to seize control and workers go to extraordinary lengths to avert catastrophe. The young are evacuated and a ‘suicide squad’ of older workers is sent inside… Pressure levels are rising and there is a chance of a second deadly explosion. Public panic reaches terrifying heights and battles rage inside and outside the nuclear plant. In the years after the event, workers and energy company executives alike look back on their role and the chilling legacy of the events that unfolded during those heart-stopping hours, days and weeks.

This tense drama, rich with high production values and a stellar cast, is narrated by Romola Garai (Emma, The Hour, The Crimson Petal and the White), and stars Togo Igawa (Johnny English Reborn, Memoirs of a Geisha), Ami Okumura Jones (My Neighbour Totoro, Midsommer Murders) and Matt McCooey (Agatha Raisin).

Cast and credits
Written by Adrian Penketh
Produced by Toby Swift and Sasha Yevtushenko
Sound designed by Peter Ringrose
Commissioned by Simon Pitts
Artwork by Yuko Shimizu
A BBC World Service Production

Suto - Togo Igawa
Akiko - Ami Okumura Jones
Yoshida - Eiji Mihara
Saito/Hosono - Sadao Ueda
Ito/Kojima - Matt McCooey
Shimada/Matsui/Mayor - Akira Koieyama
Narrator - Romola Garai
Reporter/Prime minister - Kevin Shen
Reporter/Keiko - Naoko Mori
Worker/Kaneko/Aide - Nino Furuhata

First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31st May - 12th July 2023

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