History Never Repeats : Russian President Vlad ‘the’ Putin announced, via a press interview with Time magazine today, that his government had personally started filming the second season of TV hit ‘Chernobyl’.
“What me worry?” Mr Putin kicked off the Q&A with the entertainment media with a question of his own, “this is nothing to worry about. Do I look worried?”
When asked to confirm, or deny, if the smart phone footage being widely shared across social media over the last week was a leak from the production site, Mr Putin just shrugged.
“Maybe it’s just a taste of what’s to come?” he replied, with another question, “Russian special effects are just the greatest special effects. Really the greatest. Not many people know this, but we do the biggest pretend nuclear explosions in the world. Everybody says it. Ask anybody.”
But when pressed by reporters why he was clenching a bottle of iodine tablets, Mr Putin was less than impressed.
“What these? Oh, there is nothing to see here. These are stunt iodine tablets. You see, ask anyone who has ever worked with me, if they’re still alive, and they’ll tell you when I work on television shows I am a method director. So I take iodine because that is what I would do if there was a real nuclear explosion.”
But in spite of the ready explanation for the mysterious events at the distant TV studio, conspiracy theorists have already begun putting on their lead hats, lead t-shirts, lead pants and lead trousers and reaching for the implausible.
“They’re not filming season two of Chernobyl,” Mr Moon Landing posted on Twitter, “they’ve just blown up all the evidence they have of meddling in the Trump election and Brexit. Also what they’ve been up to with the Italians. It’s staring everyone in the face! Sheeples!”
Mr Putin refused to be drawn on such silly speculation, instead asking the reporters what they thought of the tagline for season two of Chernobyl.
“Chernobyl 2.0 – a small nuclear reactor blows up in a deadly explosion which hardly anyone noticed,” he tried it out, “do you like it or do you think it’s too understated? Do you think it should be more personal?”
Well get back to you just as soon as the radiation detectors across Western Europe have had a chance to read it…