To think that call the midwife is promoting smoking!

[ScottishJo31]

Just for the record I am no puritan or prude in fact I would consider myself a social smoker... Therefore I am not judgmental about smoking) however in the recent few episodes of Call the midwife... literally every other scene involves the cast and extras smoking... I can understand the need to show how life was in the 1960s ( more people smoked and fewer knew the dangers) but someone is lighting up in nearly every scene.. in the last episode a pregnant woman was offered a fag! ( again I get that pregnant woman didn't know the risks)
However It just seems like overkill, and almost like cigarette companies are advertising through the show!

What are other people's thoughts on this?

Plus Mrs Turner had a toddler sat on her lap in the car last week!

The Uk health campaigns re smoking didn't really start until the mid 60s and it wasn't til the 70s there were voluntary health warnings on cigarette products themselves.

People could smoke in hospital, including on maternity wards, in the 70s.

It wasn't;t until the 80s when people become more concerned over passive smoking, and the smoking ban for public places didn't kick in until mid 2007.

Cross posted @roarfeckingroar! Love that series. Also a big fan of CTM.

I have smoked and still do occasionally... maybe I have phrased my question wrong! I have noticed it more in the last 3 episodes than ever before and I thought there were restrictions on smoking in tv! Maybe there isn't! I'm not a snowflake honestly!!!

That is truly how it was - all lighting up with no consideration for others and rarely asking if ever. It was actually frowned onto smoke in the street. But they did have a thing about giving it up for lent etc

I remember being in hospital and there being a long table down the middle of a huge ward, where patients ate meals and smoked!

I remember my DM telling me how when you went to the cinema you could barely see the screen through all the smoke. It's interesting how something can go from normal to shocking in a relatively short time period.

And Doctors really did recommend smoking for nerves, PMT, coughs etc

@0blio We had a smoking room on the postnatal ward when I started midwifery training in 1992! I don’t watch Call the Midwife but I’d hazard a guess that there are a lot of things on there that would be frowned upon now, such are the increases in our knowledge.

They did have a couple of episodes a while ago where DrT discovered that it was harmful through an article in the Lancet. I think he gave up and urged Shelagh to give up too. There was rather a lot of smoking in yesterday's episode so I think they might be working up to something.

Dr Turner gave up smoking. One episode showed him being shown the lungs of a smoker who had died from lung cancer.

They also showed him shouting at his son for trying a cigarette.

If it was Love Island, which is popular and influential with young people and teens, showing smoking then I’d be with you, but I don’t think Call the Midwife is in any way aspirational.

You used to be able to smoke on buses, trains and planes!

I am extremely anti-smoking and always have been but on CTM it's showing how it was then, people didn't know it was bad for you to smoke like they do now and it was socially acceptable to smoke far more than it is now.

It’s how it was though.

There was smoking room on the maternity ward where me & Dh were born. Me late 80’s, him early 80’s. I know we’re both over 30 but that’s still fairly recent in the grand scheme of things. Smoking was still allowed on site (within the grounds) for 4 of my 5 dc not that the ‘ban’ had stopped many from smoking outside the entrances

Right I’d presume herbal cigarettes, like they use in theatres.

During the 50's even doctors encouraged their female patients to smoke. Smoking produced smaller - easier to deliver - babies and also was a weight-loss aid. Smoking dulled taste buds and decreased appetite.

They have done things to show the affects of smoking, but they’re showing how life was. My DM used to smoke over me whilst changing my nappy, and that wasn’t even that long ago

There are some rules and guidelines for depicting smoking on TV, but it is allowed.

OFCOM rules say that smoking in shows likely to be seen by under-18s "must generally be avoided and in any case must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorised".

I think some companies, such as Netflix, have their own guidelines - again though aimed at under 18s mainly, but they still allow smoking to be depicted, even on programmes for under 18s, where it is for historical or factual accuracy/relevance.

YABU - it's how it was then.

It's the same with a lot of programs set in different times. In the Downton Abbey film, homosexual men are referred to as 'dirty perverts'. Completely unacceptable now but sadly that was the attitude then and so it is shown in the film.

We joked that last night's episode was sponsored by Marlboro. Don't normally notice it so much. I think it was Shelagh smoking as I'm sure she nagged Dr Turner to give up in a previous series.

I agree with you that smoking has been much more prominent in recent episodes, eg the midwives smoking in their bedroom (yuck). I’m sure they never used to do that.

Going further back, most of the pregnant ladies would have been drinking the odd 1/2 of milk stout or Guinness for the supposed iron content but we don't see that in the show.
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The only thing unrealistic about this week was Lady Turner lighting up, she was a nun not more than 4 years ago.

@RightOnTheEdge They smoke herbal ones that don't contain nicotine.

Trixie has always smoked in her room.