Costume company behind HBO's 'Chernobyl' donating protective equipment to coronavirus struggle

The costume company behind the award-winning drama Chernobyl is donating all of its protective equipment to key workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Peris Costumes, which is headquartered in Spain, is also using its workshops in Madrid and Lisbon, to make new protective equipment.

This includes masks, robes and helmets, which will be distributed to key working staff on the front line.

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Peris Costumes CEO Javier Toledo said in a statement: “We are living in a nightmare in which reality overcomes fiction. Our thoughts go out to the families who have lost a loved one and to the ones who are going through an uncertain situation with their elderly or family members fighting this illness.

“That is why we are certain that we cannot stand by right now and that this is the time to help. As time goes by, needs are greater and they are inexplicably not being met as promptly as they should.

“This is just a drop in the ocean, but it has already helped a lot of people. 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 especially in the future, even though it may sometimes lack the recognition it deserves.”

Chernobyl, a collaboration between HBO and the UK's Sister Pictures, starred Stellan Skarsgard and Jared Harris, and told the story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Peris has supplied costumes to movies like Waiting For The Barbarians, starring Johnny Depp, and Roman Polanski period drama An Officer And A Spy.

Meanwhile, Spain has been one of the countries worst-hit by the virus, recording 14,555 deaths at the time of writing, from 146,690 confirmed cases.

It has reported today that the outbreak now appears to be slowing, however.