Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story: a 'calmly scathing' documentary
'Human guinea pigs' share moving TV testimony of 'traumatic' fallout from UK's atomic tests in the 1950s

It is "grimly fortuitous timing" that "Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story" is being broadcast on BBC Two just as "Vladimir Putin's finger seems to be hovering close to the red button", said Carol Midgley in The Times.
The "weighty" documentary shines a light on the nuclear tests carried out by the British government in Australia and the South Pacific between 1952 and 1963, and the "terrible litany" of illnesses and deaths that have plagued the nuclear veterans ever since.
A "well-told reminder of the catastrophic, irreversible devastation" wreaked by nuclear weapons, the documentary suggests the extraordinary "brass neck of our Ministry of Defence", which continues to deny the link between the atomic testing and the veterans' subsequent health issues.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
While the US, Australia, France, Canada, China and Russia have all paid compensation to their nuclear veterans, the UK has not. Instead, the British government has been "gaslighting" the veterans for years, said Susie Boniface, the investigative journalist, interviewed in the programme, who has spent two decades delving into what happened.
The UK's nuclear-testing scandal should be added to the long list of "injustices where walls of silence and lies" have prevented the powerless from "telling their whole truths", said Jack Seale in The Guardian.
This "calmly scathing" documentary carefully sets out the case, starting with the selection of the unwitting "human guinea pigs". A group of local people and British and Commonwealth servicemen and scientists witnessed 45 atomic and hydrogen bombs being detonated. Many were stationed at blast sites, so the "effects on humans" could be recorded.
A handful of British veterans are interviewed during the show, sharing their "traumatic" memories. They had no clue what they were letting themselves in for. At first, arriving at a tropical archipelago off the coast of Australia and "living a life of sunshine, beer, seafood and beach football", they thought they were in paradise.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
But their painful recollections of "sitting on the beach and shielding their eyes" with their bare hands as they waited for a nuclear bomb to be dropped into the sea behind them is "eerie and nightmarish". One veteran recalls flying into the mushroom cloud in a plane, "looking down at the crimson inferno below before being flipped upside down by the force of the explosion".
Almost "more upsetting" is what happened next: many of the men's children and grandchildren were born with disabilities and genetic defects. The "official line" is that there is no correlation between this and the tests; "the veterans, bitterly and tearfully, disagree".
For the now-elderly surviving veterans "time is running out", and the lack of a public enquiry or any form of compensation feels deeply unfair. "Answering their questions honestly looks like the least we can do," said The Guardian's Seale.
The testing also had a devastating impact on the Indigenous Australians who lived near the testing sites, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. In one distressing scene, local journalist Colin James visits the Woomera cemetery in Maralinga, and counts the graves of 22 stillborn babies and 34 infants who died before their first birthday. "Officially, they died as a result of heatwaves."
The "truth does have a habit of coming out eventually", said Midgley in The Times. "Maybe, like the Post Office scandal, it will take a TV drama to help it on its way."
Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imagination
Feature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?
Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacy
Feature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
10 concert tours to see this fall
The Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
-
Video games to curl up with this fall, including Ghost of Yotei and LEGO Party
The Week Recommends Several highly anticipated video games are coming this fall
-
10 upcoming albums to stream during spooky season
The Week Recommends As fall arrives, check out new albums from Taylor Swift, Jeff Tweedy, the Lemonheads and more
-
A Spinal Tap reunion, Thomas Pynchon by way of Paul Thomas Anderson and a harrowing Stephen King adaptation in September movies
the week recommends This month’s new releases include ‘Spinal Tap II,’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘The Long Walk’
-
Don't fly by the seat of your pants. Do it the healthy way with these airborne tips.
The Week Recommends Yes to stretching. Even more yesses to hydration.
-
'The Office' spinoff, a 'Mare of Easttown' follow-up and the Guinness family royalty in September TV
the week recommends This month's new television releases include 'The Paper,' 'Task' and 'House of Guinness'
-
One great cookbook: 'Jam Bakes'
The Week Recommends A guide to pristine jam-making, plus the baked goods that love them
-
September's books tell of friendship in middle age, teachers versus fascists, and Covid psychosis
the week recommends September books include Angela Flournoy's 'The Wilderness,' Randi Weingarten's 'Why Fascists Fear Teachers' and Patricia Lockwood's 'Will There Ever Be Another You'