At 1.24am on April 26th, 1986, a power surge in reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, led to a series of massive explosions. The force of the blasts blew the reinforced steel and concrete lid off the reactor and exposed its deadly atomic energy contents to the world.

A vast radioactive cloud from the Chernobyl disaster site was released into the atmosphere and blew across north and western Europe, even reaching as far as the United States. The accident remains the world's worst-ever nuclear plant disaster, and unlike the earthquake-induced meltdown at Fukushima in Japan, Chernobyl was caused by human error.

The deadly blast killed between 34 and 51 people that night, either from the original explosion or acute radiation syndrome (ARS). However, the long term effects are far more insidious, with estimates ranging between 4,000 and 734,000 lives lost as a result of radiation exposure from the power plant. Efforts are still ongoing to contain the site, with the original concrete 'sarcophagus' built over the exposed reactor beginning to deteriorate, meaning a new solution will have to be found.

The event is firmly back in public consciousness with the release of HBO's critically acclaimed mini-series Chernobyl, which gives a dramatized but fairly accurate interpretation of the explosion and its aftermath. In this list, we did a side by side comparison of the show's cast and their real-life counterparts, and as you can see, they really did a great job! Scroll down to check the then and now pictures for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments.