Above image: Still, ‘Chernobyl’ (2019) dir. Johan Renck

The Spanish-based costume company that worked on the award-winning HBO miniseries Chernobyl has announced they will be donating its collection of face masks and other protective equipment used on-screen to front line staff battling Coronavirus.

The company, Peris Costumes, will also use its workshops in Lisbon and Madrid to produce additional masks, robes and helmets for keyworkers at a time when Spain has the second-highest confirmed cases of the virus and the second-highest number of deaths.

For obvious reasons, much of the TV series involves large numbers of people, including many extras, wearing full protective gear as they fight to control, and later assess, the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. Odilie Dicks-Mireaux, who worked as the head costume designer on the project, received a Primtetime Emmy nomination for outstanding period costume design.

Speaking on behalf of everyone who works at Peris Costumes, the company’s CEO Javier Toledo referred to the contribution as, “a drop in the ocean” but insisted that, “everyone at Peris Madrid and Peris Lisbon is playing their part so that this aid becomes a reality.”

“We want our donation to be a humble contribution to this Dante-esque situation on behalf of the film industry, television and theatre as a whole. If this confinement has taught us anything it is the need for entertainment and its importance in times like these and specially in the future, even though it may sometimes lack the recognition it deserves.”

Watch Chernobyl on Amazon here.