"They fell in love ... as he was talking about all the miners' diseases he wants to cure - psitticosis [sic] and things" - Lucy Fleming discussing the plot of Brief Encounter on Radio 4's Today programme
As more informed readers will know, psittacosis (not psitticosis) is a disease of parrots that humans can catch; miners get silicosis.
Perhaps I am expecting too much of an actress (sorry, actor), but this level of general knowledge is just so depressing. Lucy is Celia Johnson's daughter, so one might have assumed she knows the dialogue quite well. Still, they both begin with a sibilant and end in "osis" and are boring science-y stuff - so who cares?
You may be able to hear her repeat this live, tonight.
Aside: psittacosis is an example of a zoonosis - a disease of animals that humans can catch - like bovine TB, brucellosis, avian flu, and the wonderfully-named glanders and farcy, sounding like a music-hall duo - but a nasty horse disease. I particularly like its plural: zoonoses - one of those words that is so irresistibly easy to mispronounce. Like bed-raggled, misl-ed and reus-ed!
More about zoonoses.