Deadly horrible histories

HYPOCHONDRIA can be exhausting. As soon as you hear about some disease or other, you convince yourself you've got it. And then you start Googling. Indeed, Googling is hypochondria's most common symptom.

- Mike Ward

It's for this reason that I tend to avoid medical shows, whether fictional or, in the case of Casualty, entirely fact-based. They're too unsettling.

But I've been brave enough to make an exception, to watch one going out tonight on 5 at 9pm, even though it documents one of the most horrific chapters in medical history. That's because - and I realise I'm about to tempt fate here, so let's hope it doesn't come back to haunt me - I'm confident I don't have the plague. At least, not the bubonic kind.

Fever? Headache? Aching? Vomiting? General malaise?