Rabies on The ONE Show

Fears of Rabies in the UK were resurrected on BBC1 last night, in a feature on The ONE Show, as part of their ‘Panic’ week.

In a segment shot in the Wellcome Library, Dr Neil Pemberton, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, discussed both UK Government Public Health posters which warned against Rabies in the 1970s and 1980s, and also the sensational novels of the period which played upon contemporary fears of the disease.

The episode will be available to viewers in the UK through the BBC’s iPlayer service for the next seven days. For more on the UK’s relationship with rabies, an article by Pemberton and Professor Michael Worboys on the topic is available through the website of History Today.

Image: Neil Pemberton and Michael Worboys, Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain, 1830-2000 (Palgrave, 2007)