With just 12 days remaining for Englanders to light up legally in enclosed public places, Mariella Frostrup explores the cultural significance of smoking throughout the last century. Her non-judgemental survey recalls Hollywood's contributions to smoking iconography in artistically noteworthy films such as Now, Voyager (1942) and The Big Sleep (1946). and considers the impact a ban would have made to the pose-fuelled rock 'n' roll stances of Keith Richards, Joe Strummer, Pete Doherty and countless others.
Frostrup hears from old smokers, writers, artists and commentators such as Terry O'Neill, Peter York, Alan Coren, Guy Garvey, Christopher Frayling and David Hockney, who recently has publicly poured scorn on the upcoming ban.