Legislation that restricted smoking at work and in public in the UK now alters how readers and viewers perceive the fictional tobacco habit
In July 2007, it became illegal to smoke in enclosed public spaces and shared workplaces in the UK. That, as they say in Doctor Who, is a fixed point in time. You can now tell in an instant whether a book, film or a TV show made in this country is set before or after that date, simply by noticing whether the characters, if they smoke, go outside to do so.
Smoking used to be significant, especially on film and TV. It is now even more so. At first, it was a prop; famously, or so it was said, a way of giving actors something to do with their hands. I prefer to think that it is a way of expressing, or evading, some deep inner turbulence. It signifies nonchalance and its opposite, while providing for the camera and our gaze a curling backdrop of smoke with which the cinematographer can make play.
Related: 'It has had a real social impact': readers on the smoking ban ten years on
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