With the Coronavirus death toll now surpassing 1,000 in mainland China it seems only appropriate that we take a look back in time to the year 1918. It was a year that saw the First World War come to an end, millions had died in the European trenches and the world was exhausted by war. However it wasn’t long until a new horror gripped the world, it was a terrifying virus that would eventually claim the lives of no less than 50 million people, the Spanish flu.

In this documentary we meet the survivors who describe what it was like to live through the 1918 flu pandemic. We delve into the reasons why this strain of the flu managed to kill so many people and why so many of these victims were young adults. Where did this version of influenza come from and most importantly, how can we prevent a pandemic like this from happening again?