The characters on "Downton Abbey" rarely share physical contact with one another, but not because they don't appreciate each other's company. The people of the early 20th century avoided touching for sanitary and health reasons.
Alastair Bruce, who works on etiquette and historical accuracy for "Downton Abbey," keeps the actors at arms-length to keep with the times when diseases spread easily and could not be treated with antibiotics, according to The Telegraph. People abstained from physical contact and hugging, and Bruce makes sure the show, set in the early 1900s, reflects that practice.
"I tell the actors not to touch each other," Bruce told the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show. "I don't want any hugging, no physical contact; they just didn't do that in those days.
The show makes exceptions where specific scenes require contact such as weddings, romances or the death of Lady Sybil, "in which her family were seen nursing her," according to The Telegraph.
Today's common greeting of kissing the cheek would never have happened during that time. The first antibiotic, Penicillin, wasn't created until 1929. "Downton Abbey" currently sets in time frame in 1923.
"We hug, kiss - good Lord you meet somebody now and they kiss you within minutes - and it's because we've got antibiotics," Bruce said. "But I don't think people realize how distant natural life was for the British in that period."
Bruce and crew work to make sure viewers cannot point out any historical inaccuracies. So far, the only glaring mistake on screen came during the first season when the camera caught a television antenna on top of a house.
A publicity shot for the show's fifth season also had a plastic water bottle sitting on the fireplace mantle. The plastic bottle was invented in 1947 but the expensive material kept it from the mainstream until the early 1960s. The cast used the mistake to shine a light on the water charity WaterAid and shot a cast photo of everyone holding a water bottle.
