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An hour of propaganda — 20 Comments

  1. I don't get it – tobacco and cigs have to be hidden under the counter from the poor little mites (think of the cheeeeldren!) in case they may be tempted to buy 20 Bensons or half an ounce of shag with their Curly Wurly and packet of Taytos, yet something far worse is on wide open display….alcohol.

    Now, I'm not the best driver in the world, but my driving is just fine after a couple of cigs. Also, I don;t have the urge to kick the lard out of anybody, become amorous with some shocking example of the female kind, or void the contents of my stomach in a shop doorway.

    My point is that alcohol's dangers far exceed those associated with tobacco yet it's "OK" to drink, but not smoke. Even "vaping" is verboten. It's a mad, mad world that we live in.

    • I could not agree more.  Give one bloke ten pints and another ten cigarettes and let 'em loose on society.  Who is going to do the most damage?

      I am not an advocate of alcohol control [too much like hypocrisy] but it does infinitely more damage than smoking ever did.  What's more it is far more likely to affect third parties such as traffic accidents, fights, murders etc.  When did anyone ever murder someone because he smoked a cigarette?  In fact there have been more deaths because of Tobacco Control.

  2. It ruined one of my favourite programmes, seems there is no escape even in the past and those of us around then don't remember it like that where smoking was concerned, doctors used to advertise cigarettes. Don't they know that smokers lungs are not black? Only seen in miners who inhaled coal dust. Should have read 'the black lung lie'. It will soon be a smoke free series like all the rest, unthinkable in the 60s.

    • I confess I gave a little cheer when the "Black Lung" was shown [annoyed the hell out of Herself!].  Once I saw the way the programme was heading I knew it had to surface sooner or later.

      The whole programme was nothing short of an hour long propaganda piece, though they did throw in a drop of Post Natal Depression which no one seemed to have heard of?

  3. It just goes to show how effective the propaganda drive has been when TV producers drag out the black lung fallacy and present it as fact, without being censured for it.

    If you tell a big enough lie, and keep repeating it….etc.

  4. If you haven't seen it check out a series called 'The Knick' with Clive Owen. Hospital / surgeon drama set in the very early 1900s New York. Really good production. The main character is a surgeon hooked on cocaine (which was a legal substance, and used as a pain killer), and when they realisde it's addictive and damaging one of the remedies was to prescribe heroin (also legal)!.

    Medical research, opium dens, corruption, prostitution, illicit affairs, moral ambiguity, toe-curling surgery scenes, a bit of everything and great fun altogether! 🙂

    (Available online, can send you a link if ye fancy it)

    • There seems to be a fondness for medical dramas where the main character is hooked on something?  Nurse Betty was one [dosed on anything and everything she could get from the pharmacy] and my favourite – House MD [Vicodin in vast quantities].  I'll take a look at your suggestion [have found series 1, episode 1 and that should give a flavour?].

        • Heh!  I have to run it past Herself first.  She's the television watcher in this houe.  At the moment we are working our wway through "The Borgias" – brilliant!  Even I am watching it.

  5. The more recent series are not based on the original memoirs, which finished when the dark-haired one left the story, so what is happening now is that 2016 agendas are being retrojected into a supposedly "period" drama

    • The switch was quite noticeable.  The early episodes were far more character based.  Now it has become far more formulaic, with the mandatory two storylines per episode each of which is nicely tidied before the end.  It's the old story – they get a great theme for a series and then flog it to death when they run out of the original story.

        • Indeed.  Wouldn't it be nice if every day we had a crisis, but could relax in the sure and certain knowledge that everything would be happily sorted by bedtime?

  6. People should complain about the program with the Black Lungs. I don't watch it.

    But quite often there is a wartime movie made by the BBC – or other pet TV program makers, without ANY smoking in them at all. They always feel "wrong". Not authentic at all.

    The sad thing is, that as us oldies die, the memory of how it was will evaporate. And films will get less and less authentic.

    Enjoyed your post – thanks

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