The Documentary Podcast

The untold story of a young couple falling in love and getting married against the backdrop of disaster. Serhiy first laid eyes on Iryna under the swirling lights of the best disco in town. She was wearing a cool jumpsuit with a bright red belt, which drew attention to her waist as she wiggled to the pulsing beat. Serhiy was freshly discharged from the Red Army and was happy to be able to let his hair down. He thought Iryna was beautiful and couldn’t take his eyes off her. He wouldn’t work up the courage to ask Iryna out until a few days later, but once they started dating, Club Edison 2 became a favourite haunt and they looked forward to the weekly discos.
The man behind the decks was DJ Alexander Demidov, a legend on the night life scene, known for his pioneering shows. He wasn’t just choosing tracks; he was the pilot, the chief guide, the organiser of the dance. He was constantly talking to the crowd to say how, what, and where they were going next. Club Edison2 quickly became known as the best disco in Ukraine. He did have to jump through some hoops first though. It was 1986 and DJ Alexander had to have his playlist approved by the Soviet state. Often he would sneakily play banned foreign records that had been illegally smuggled in for a rapturous crowd hungry for anything from the West, from beyond the Iron Curtain, from outside the Soviet Union. His disco became something more: a sanctuary where forbidden Western songs pulsed through speakers, fashions were improvised, and young people tasted freedom despite the watchful eye of the state.
It was risky, but a risk worth taking for this was no ordinary crowd. This was a dance floor full of the brightest and best from across all 15 countries that made up the Soviet union. This was a disco for the people of Pripyat, an ‘atom-grad’, or nuclear city, built especially for the scientists and workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was a place designed to embody the future.
It was in Pripyat that Serhiy and Iryna would fall in love. The city was one of the best places to live in the Soviet Union: good jobs, full shops, beautiful scenery and great nightlife. It’s where they planned their future together, in a city that seemed safe.
They planned to get married on Saturday 26th April 1986. But the night before the wedding, they felt the ground shake and heard a booming sound. It came from the direction of the nuclear power plant. On the morning of the wedding, as Serhiy went to pick up his best man from the station, he found the streets full of soldiers wearing gas masks and washing the streets down. Rumours swirled that there had been an accident at the Nuclear reactor, but nothing official was said. They called the authorities who told them they must still hold their wedding. As engineers and firefighters battled an unfolding nuclear catastrophe, the city’s residents were told nothing. Iryna and Serhei married, smiling for photographs, but stumbling during their much practiced waltz, as unease rippled through the room. By the end of the wedding reception, the celebration descended into chaos. Still in her wedding dress, Iryna ended up running barefoot through the streets as evacuation orders spread, leaving behind her home, her possessions, and the city where their love had begun.
The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl tells the story of DJ Alex, Serhiy and Iryna and what happens to them after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen. Jordan Dunbar follow’s their lives before and after, through forced exile, confusion, health fears, and the struggle to rebuild a life shaped by disaster. Jordan Dunbar traces the paths of Iryna, Serhiy and DJ Alex across decades, from the last dance floor in Chernobyl to new beginnings elsewhere. This is a story of love and music, of ordinary people caught up in history, and of a love strong enough to survive what felt like the sudden end of their world.
Presenter; Jordan Dunbar
Producers; Phoebe Keane and Neal Razzell
Voice over actors: Hanna Komar, Oleksandr Begma, Anatolii Panchenko and Gregory Zhygalov
The contributors all feature in the TV documentary What Happened at Chernobyl, directed by Paul Harris, Executive Producer Vara Szajkowski, Assistant Producer Ellie Jacobs. It’ll be available to watch on BBC iPlayer and the BBC World Service Youtube channel

Patti LuPone – three-time Tony and two-time Grammy Award winner – has long reigned as one of Broadway’s most formidable leading ladies. In this edition of In The Studio, we join her in New York for a highly anticipated solo concert at Carnegie Hall. Best known for defining roles in Evita, Les Miserables, Gypsy, and Sunset Boulevard, LuPone has also sustained a decades-long parallel life on the concert stage – a career she says began simply to “offset unemployment” between Broadway runs. What started as late-night cabaret after Evita evolved into meticulously structured touring shows, each built around narrative, character and the power of lyrics. Her current programme, Matters of the Heart, weaves a tapestry of love stories – from romance and heartbreak to family and devotion – revealing her instinct to treat every song as theatre. Patti describes her routine on the day of the concert: the soundcheck, the balancing of quartet and voice in a hall famed for its natural acoustics, and the quiet rituals that precede performance. LuPone reflects on nerves, storytelling and the audacity of standing alone before 2,800 expectant faces. Alongside her collaborators, including musical director Joseph Thalken, she reveals the discipline and trust behind the scenes. This is a portrait of craft at the highest level – the artist, the venue and the alchemy of live performance.
Presenter and producer: Victoria Ferran
Executive producer: Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC World Service
Image: Patti LuPone (Credit: Emilio Madrid)

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year and armies on both sides have faced massive losses. Authorities in Ukraine regularly publish the numbers of their soldiers who have been killed, but Russian authorities haven’t released official numbers for their dead since 2022. Throughout the war, Olga Ivshina of BBC Russian has been using open-source information to keep track of how many Russian soldiers have been killed and trying to find out more about their lives.
 At the end of January, six people were caned in public for violating Sharia law in Aceh, Indonesia. Caning is a common punishment for breaking Islamic law in the religiously conservative state, although the practice has drawn criticism from rights groups. Aceh has a unique identity within Indonesia and is the only part of the country to practice Sharia. Astudestra Ajengrastri of BBC Indonesian explains more about Aceh's history and why it chooses to be different from the rest of the country.
The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.

Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.

If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.
Presenter: Faranak Amidi.
Producer: Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson
Presented by Faranak Amidi.
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Losing a child during pregnancy is a subject that is not often talked about but can be traumatic and, in some cultures, even lead to feelings of shame. We bring together two couples who share their experiences of miscarriage. They discuss the strain it has put on their relationships and the support offered – or not – to those grieving. Catharina in Sweden tells us. “So even though I try to be rational about it, it was very difficult because my feelings and my body was telling me something completely different.” Earlier this month, Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK where a woman and her partner are entitled to two weeks of paid leave if they experience a miscarriage at any stage of pregnancy. New Zealand, India, and the Philippines also have laws aimed at supporting grieving couples as they deal with the trauma of miscarriage and come to terms with the loss of their unborn child.

From historic buildings linked to emancipation to tiny village chapels, Jamaica is home to the world’s highest density of churches. The Caribbean Island faced a profound spiritual crisis after Hurricane Melissa devastated many of the 1600 sacred spaces where people gathered to worship. Journalist Nick Davis, who has returned to his family's roots and now lives on the island, takes us on an emotional journey back to Black River and Lacovia, in the heart of the hardest-hit areas. Nick joins volunteers as they continue to dig through the rubble and salvage what they can. Their places of worship may be razed to the ground, but those who once gathered here demonstrate how faith brings fresh hope and a resilience that reaches far beyond the bricks and mortar.