I have always hated the idea of smoking, and plan (along with alcohol - which I don't like yet, and drugs) not to try, because if you never start, you never continue. Anyway, the day they finally decided to ban cigarettes/smoking in all public places, and make it illegal, and anyone who breaks this law will get fined, was July 1st 2007, and that is the day that this special documentary-type programme was broadcast. Basically it looked back on all the "good" and bad times of the cigarette in the media, mostly TV and film), as it progressed towards this decision. Celebrities, including Bernard Manning (ex-smoker, who had died shortly before this programme was broadcast), Neil Morrissey (smoker), Bob Mortimer (smoker), Vic Reeves (smoker), June Sarpong (non-smoker), Johnny Vegas (smoker) and Michael Winner (non-smoker) contributed their opinions of smoking, including in the media, and of the ban. The programme included brief history of the cigarette, e.g. for troops in the war, till footage of stars lighting up in classic films, e.g. Humpherey Bogart in Casablanca, many faces who had died smoke related deaths, smoking on mainstream TV, e.g. Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke as The Slobs "I am smoking a fag!", and how smoking used to look fun and attractive, i.e. celebrity endorsement. They even showed liars saying they were good for you, eventually, the signs of smoking being bad, and more deaths lead closer to some action, e.g. large warnings on packets, non-smoking sections, banning cigarette adverts and making more quitting ones, and finally, this huge decision. The smoking ban is basically to limit the amount of cigarette related deaths, and encourage smokers to quit. I am really glad of the ban, they should do the next best thing and take cigarettes off the shop shelves, that way I'll never have access to them if I wanted it (which I won't). Very good!
Review of Memoirs of a Cigarette
