As you know, I have been somewhat obsessed with Downton Abbey. I had watched all of the episodes when they were broadcast on PBS and then I watched the movie when it came out.  The movie reminded me how much I loved the characters and the stories.  So I asked for the Downton Abbey Cocktail Book  and The Official Down Abbey Cookbook for Christmas.  To my eternal delight I received both including ingredients for the first cocktail in the book, Old Pal. Since then I have been on a roll of Downton eating and drinking.

As you also know, I have also been long been fascinated by the influenza epidemic on 1918.  So then I got curious about how it was portrayed in Downton Abbey.  I had forgotten.  I had run across this critique of it.

Their concern were the timing of the illnesses on April 2019, the fact that the worst outcome was on a young healthy adult, the rapidity of the death and the lack of fear.

I know from my previous research that this virus came in multiple waves, killing people each wave.  I also know that it preferentially killed young healthy adults.  And I know that it killed rapidly, often in the matter of hours.  But I couldn’t comment on the lack of fear.  I know there was plenty of fear in portions of the United States including Seattle, but I wasn’t sure about Britain

So I watched the episode that depicted the development of the “Spanish flu” in Downton Abbey in April 1919.  It was Season 2, episode 8.  Mr. Carson, Cora, Lavinia and 2 unnamed maids became ill.

And Lavinia died quite quickly.