The Flu That Killed 50 Million

Overview

It is 1918 and the end of WWI. Millions have died, and the world is exhausted by war. But soon a new horror is sweeping the world, a terrifying virus that will kill more than fifty million people - the Spanish flu. Using dramatic reconstruction and eyewitness testimony from doctors, soldiers, civilians and politicians, this one-off special brings to life the onslaught of the disease, the horrors of those who lived through it and the efforts of the pioneering scientists desperately looking for the cure. Narrated by Christopher Eccleston, the film also asks whether, a century later, the lessons learnt in 1918 might help us fight a future global flu pandemic.

Directed by Andrew Thompson

Top cast

Christopher Eccleston

Narrator

Paul Birchard

William Welch

Iain Davie

Ernest Gibson

Jeremy Edwards

Basil Hood

K

Kenny Fullwood

Alexander Jamieson

A

Amy Kennedy

Katherine Garvin

H

Hannah Macphail

Ada Berry

I

Isabel McClelland

Mary Dobson

Brian Pettifer

Victor Vaughan

A

Allan Tall

James Niven

Anita Vettesse

Catherine MacFie

Finlay Welsh

Arthur Newsholme

Details