A US doctor who treated radiation victims in Chernobyl has highlighted a number of medical errors depicted in the recent hit HBO series Chernobyl, as inaccurate and “dangerous”.

Dr Robert Gale says he accepts the need to make a story engaging but wonders why the producers didn’t consult a medic before penning the series.

“I’m amazed the producers didn’t get technical advice from a health physicist or radiobiologist rather than basing much of their screenplay on a novel (Voices of Chernobyl),” said Dr Gale, a bone marrow transplant specialist who is visiting professor of haematology at Imperial College London.

Dr Gale took the series to task over its depiction of the immediate and long term medical consequences of radiation exposure in a series of articles in the subscription-based newsletter The Cancer Letter.