0:00:04 > 0:00:07This is the River Clyde in Glasgow.
0:00:10 > 0:00:16250 years ago, this was one of Britain's great trading centres.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It was the hub of a huge empire
0:00:18 > 0:00:22that stretched from the Caribbean to China...
0:00:24 > 0:00:26..an empire founded on trade,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30in which simple plants were transformed by human labour
0:00:30 > 0:00:33to become hugely profitable global commodities.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40The trade in sugar...
0:00:40 > 0:00:41tobacco...
0:00:43 > 0:00:45..opium...
0:00:45 > 0:00:47and whisky
0:00:47 > 0:00:51transformed our society, our bodies, and our minds.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56Over the centuries, we've learned to love these products -
0:00:56 > 0:01:00their smell, their taste, the effect they've had on us.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02They've become increasingly guilty pleasures...
0:01:04 > 0:01:06..which are still with us, still part of us.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13Today, millions of us can't do without at least some of them.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17So how did we become so hooked?
0:01:19 > 0:01:23'The answer will take me on a journey across the world...'
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Oh, my God! That's powerful.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29'..and inside our minds and bodies too...'
0:01:29 > 0:01:30Bye!
0:01:33 > 0:01:35HE LAUGHS
0:01:35 > 0:01:36Gosh, that's good, isn't it?!
0:01:38 > 0:01:41'..in the pursuit of pleasure.'
0:01:51 > 0:01:55My name is Brian Cox and I am not a smoker,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59which is something of a miracle,
0:01:59 > 0:02:01considering when I was growing up
0:02:01 > 0:02:03in this very close on the streets of Dundee,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06when I was a teenager, I was surrounded by tobacco.
0:02:06 > 0:02:07It was everywhere,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10it was after me, and in those days, everyone seemed to smoke,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13my own family, my own close relationships.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17We were like some kind of tobacco test-bed,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19some sort of industrial demonstration
0:02:19 > 0:02:22of all the different ways in which tobacco could be consumed.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25I mean, I had relatives who smoked cigarettes, who smoked pipes,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28who chewed tobacco and snorted snuff.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30I mean, it went everywhere.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I mean, the bus... In the bus, it stank of smoke.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35I mean, I could smell it, smell it all over my clothes...
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Everywhere, particularly on the top floor of the buses,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41which is where every kid wanted to sit.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44And if I went to the local cinema, I mean, everybody smoked -
0:02:44 > 0:02:46off-screen, of course, in the audience,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50and if you could see what was on-screen through the smoky fug,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53there they were. Bogart smoked, Bacall smoked...
0:02:53 > 0:02:57I mean, cigarettes... Cigarettes were glamorous, cigarettes were...
0:02:57 > 0:02:58They were a shorthand for sex.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02I mean, cigarettes were what the movies allowed INSTEAD of sex.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Everywhere, ads for sophisticated cigarettes,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06ads for manly cigarettes,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08ads for cigarettes that were ladylike,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12cigarettes that were cheap, posh, filtered, Black Cat, Turkish...
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Black Cat, the cigarette for smokers suffering from bronchitis.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23How did we get there
0:03:23 > 0:03:26from a plant closely related to the potato?
0:03:27 > 0:03:30- And why don't- I- smoke?
0:03:30 > 0:03:33THUNDERCLAP
0:03:33 > 0:03:35FLIES BUZZ
0:03:38 > 0:03:41THUNDERCLAP
0:03:48 > 0:03:50RHYTHMIC CHANTING
0:03:56 > 0:04:00On the 11th of October, 1492,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04on a Caribbean island that no European had ever seen before,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Christopher Columbus carried out one of history's
0:04:08 > 0:04:11most baffling and pointless transactions.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17He and his landing party had met some natives
0:04:17 > 0:04:19who were blissfully unaware
0:04:19 > 0:04:23that Columbus had renamed their island San Salvador,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27and had claimed it on behalf of the Spanish monarchy.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31The natives gave Columbus beads, fruit and some dried leaves.
0:04:31 > 0:04:36In return, Columbus gave them a pair of red hats.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48The beads and the fruit needed no explanation.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50The leaves were just confusing.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Columbus had them thrown overboard, and sailed on.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59What the natives did with the red hats
0:04:59 > 0:05:00is not recorded.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08And it wasn't just the leaves.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10Geography was confusing too.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Columbus thought he was here, or hereabouts,
0:05:15 > 0:05:16near China.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Actually, he was here, on the other side of the world,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23amongst the islands of the Caribbean,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25near to his next discovery.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31We should forgive Columbus for being bad at navigation.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34After all, no-one else was any better.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Yet, when his ships arrived
0:05:40 > 0:05:43at what we now know as the island of Cuba,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Columbus, still thinking he was near China,
0:05:46 > 0:05:51sent two members of the crew ashore with letters for the Chinese Khan.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56When they returned,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00it was to report that the Great Khan was nowhere to be found,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04but they had met several more natives on the road
0:06:04 > 0:06:07with some more of those mysterious dried leaves,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12and these natives had rolled the leaves into tubes,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14lit them, sucked them,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16inhaling the smoky fumes.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26The two men had tried some and liked it.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30It filled them with a sense of energy, wellbeing.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Tobacco, the natives called it.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39At least, that's the word Columbus's men had heard.
0:06:41 > 0:06:42The name stuck.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46And so did the habit.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50What Columbus's men had seen and smoked
0:06:50 > 0:06:54was a kind of tobacco as domesticated as any dog.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59It only survives as a pure strain through cultivation,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02and archaeologists have traced its cultivation
0:07:02 > 0:07:06all the way back to the highlands of Peru in 2000BC.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It's part of a plant family, the nightshades,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17that includes deadly poisons, spicy peppers, chillies,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19aubergines and potatoes.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24From Peru, it had spread throughout the Northern and Southern Americas,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28and crossed the sea to Cuba with the Native American tribe
0:07:28 > 0:07:30that Columbus would have called the Caribs.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33In common with all other Native Americans,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36the Caribs believed that the gods had made tobacco
0:07:36 > 0:07:40as the very first step in the creation of the whole world.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44When people were given the plant, they were given a holy herb,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49and they had to treat it in a way to communicate with the gods.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And the only people who understood this relationship were the shamans,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57who consumed this stuff in vast quantities,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00in order to get, we would now say, as high as possible,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04in order to see through into the supernatural world, OK?
0:08:04 > 0:08:08So, if you were ill, right, you'd go to the shaman,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13the shaman would smoke up to... until his eyeballs fell out,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16and then he'd tell you what your problem is,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19and if it turned out to be, he said,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23that a malevolent force has put something in your body
0:08:23 > 0:08:26that's making you feel pain here,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30he would blow tobacco around the area
0:08:30 > 0:08:36and then suck up into his body the offending item,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39and then the offending item would disappear in the shaman's body
0:08:39 > 0:08:42because he's now got supernatural powers.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Smoking soon became common among the Spanish colonists.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52They even smoked during Mass.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Their priest disapproved of what was clearly a vice,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57and told them to stop.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The smokers replied that it was not in their power to do so.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04There was something mysterious going on.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Tobacco had its hooks in them.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11They were addicted, but to what?
0:09:13 > 0:09:16300 years later, an Italian scientist
0:09:16 > 0:09:22would extract what he described as tobacco's essential oil - nicotine.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27But it's only recently that science has begun to understand its power.
0:09:30 > 0:09:31What happens when we smoke?
0:09:34 > 0:09:37You inhale this burning leaf,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39which contains nicotine and other things,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42into the lungs, into the blood, into the brain,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and then it really seems to target this part of the brain here,
0:09:46 > 0:09:48this part of the brain we call the striatum,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50and I'll just show you an image of this here
0:09:50 > 0:09:52because it illustrates very well.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56This is an image of the human brain showing dopamine,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00where the dopamine receptors in the brain are.
0:10:00 > 0:10:01Dopamine does what, exactly?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Dopamine is the get-up-and-go transmitter.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08If you don't have any dopamine, then you can't move,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11you have Parkinson's disease, you can be completely immobile,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and what nicotine does is promote the function of dopamine here,
0:10:15 > 0:10:20so it gives people who perhaps don't have enough dopamine a little bit extra,
0:10:20 > 0:10:25to keep them functioning and thinking and feeling optimally.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28And I'll just show you this next image.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32We've done our own research on this and we've shown that, basically,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35when people are smoking, the more happy they are
0:10:35 > 0:10:38is associated with having more dopamine,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41and the ones who have less dopamine are less happy,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45so I think dopamine is involved in keeping your sense of well-being, and you...
0:10:45 > 0:10:48So it's like an anti-depressant in some kind of way?
0:10:48 > 0:10:50It is, actually. Absolutely. It's interesting.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54This image here shows that what smoking does
0:10:54 > 0:10:56is actually block one of the enzymes in the brain
0:10:56 > 0:10:59that some anti-depressants block too.
0:11:01 > 0:11:0316th-century smokers didn't know
0:11:03 > 0:11:07that nicotine was the source of tobacco's addictive power...
0:11:09 > 0:11:10..didn't know that nicotine,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13by increasing the amount of dopamine in their brains,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15made their brains more efficient,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19or that it amplified the pleasure they took in almost everything else.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27The nature of tobacco's power was hidden from them...
0:11:29 > 0:11:31..but impossible to ignore.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34For instance, it clearly suppressed the appetite...
0:11:36 > 0:11:38..a cure for the sin of gluttony.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42For several people who studied it,
0:11:42 > 0:11:45this power qualified it as a medicine.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50One Spanish doctor declared tobacco to be a cure for
0:11:50 > 0:11:53rottenness of the mouth and for them that are short of wind,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57an effective cure for any illness of any internal organ,
0:11:57 > 0:11:58for bad breath,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02especially in children who have eaten too much meat,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04for kidney stones, tapeworms,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07wounds from poison arrows, and...
0:12:07 > 0:12:09tiger bites.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Tobacco spread rapidly.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19There were smokers in England by 1571.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Some of them were household names -
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27They sold tobacco as well as smoking it.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Their only source of tobacco was Spanish suppliers
0:12:30 > 0:12:33who had grown it in their New World plantations.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Fools paid for it.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Drake and Raleigh got theirs for free
0:12:39 > 0:12:42by stealing it from Spanish ports and ships.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54In 1602, more than 16,000 pounds of tobacco arrived in London.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57The city was already smoking heavily.
0:13:00 > 0:13:01Along the banks of the Thames,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05amongst the pebbles, shells, bits of brick and tile,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07fragments of broken clay pipes abound.
0:13:18 > 0:13:19Amazing collection.
0:13:21 > 0:13:22Proof positive.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26People were smokers...big time!
0:13:30 > 0:13:35This was the London in which James VI of Scotland arrived a year later.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38As the nearest male relative of the dead Queen Bess,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42he was about to become James I of England.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Two crowns, one mantelpiece,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48and a throne room full of smokers.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58People wondered what sort of a king he was going to be.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04He was going to be a king who wanted London to smell better.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Well, it wasn't likely to have smelt nice in the first place,
0:14:10 > 0:14:16what with horse dung, human dung, urine of different species, and sweaty bodies.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20But these smells held no terror for James.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23I mean, after all, Scottish life was no different.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26No, what really got up his nose
0:14:26 > 0:14:30was a smell of an altogether different kind.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36James had arrived in London to find it addicted to tobacco.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40Its narrow streets were full of smoking dens.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45People smoked upstairs, downstairs, in m'lady's chamber...
0:14:45 > 0:14:48James really hated smoke.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50And he hated smokers even more.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Soon after coming to the throne,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57James locked the most famous smoker in either kingdom
0:14:57 > 0:14:59in the Tower of London.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06The evidence that Walter Raleigh was plotting to dethrone the king
0:15:06 > 0:15:08was less than flimsy.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12The evidence that he smoked a pipe was very strong indeed.
0:15:14 > 0:15:20And in 1604, James published an assault on smokers and smoking -
0:15:20 > 0:15:23the Counterblast against Tobacco.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Why did he write the Counterblast?
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Where did this stand against tobacco come from, do we know?
0:15:30 > 0:15:34I suspect that it was not much more than he hated the smell of it.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37The word "stink" appears 12 times in the Counterblast,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39the word "smell" appears five times.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41But there was no sign of this dissension
0:15:41 > 0:15:44when he was King of Scotland, was there? Or was that...?
0:15:44 > 0:15:46He never... There's no record of him
0:15:46 > 0:15:48being particularly antagonistic towards tobacco.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Possibly, London may have been a much smokier place
0:15:51 > 0:15:53than anywhere in Scotland, for one thing.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56I think it might have come as a real shock to him
0:15:56 > 0:15:59when he moved down from Edinburgh how much smoke was going on.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Foreign observers at the time commented at how amazed they are
0:16:02 > 0:16:05at people smoking everywhere - in theatres, in the streets,
0:16:05 > 0:16:06in the shops and in the bars.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10You didn't have smoking like this, really, anywhere else in the world,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12except possibly in Holland.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14But England, by the end of the 16th century,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17was almost uniquely associated with smoking.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19Other nations used snuff, or used it medicinally,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21or occasionally smoked,
0:16:21 > 0:16:25but nobody was smoking pipes at the same rate as the English were.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31James had declared war on tobacco.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33He raised the duty on tobacco imports
0:16:33 > 0:16:37from two pence to six shillings and ten pence a pound,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41a truly astonishing increase of 4,000%.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45But smoking continued to increase.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50For the rest of his reign, tobacco dogged his footsteps.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53For all his peaceable attitudes, he wanted an empire,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56but he didn't want one acquired by conquest.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Conquest was a risky business.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02And wherever he went, wherever he turned,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06he found that the answer lay in that detested leaf.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27In 1606, James was approached by representatives of The Virginia Company -
0:17:27 > 0:17:32intrepid fellows who wanted a royal licence to start an American colony.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38James granted the licence - after all, he had nothing to lose - and, in 1607,
0:17:38 > 0:17:43the company's first contingent of colonists sailed up this river.
0:17:43 > 0:17:44They needed a name,
0:17:44 > 0:17:48and the company's policies on names was simple...
0:17:50 > 0:17:52They called everything "James".
0:17:58 > 0:18:02As soon as they landed, they set about building Jamesfort,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05as protection against both natives and Spaniards.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10This was the beginning of the British Empire,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13the first colony in the New World...
0:18:16 > 0:18:18..an ugly beginning.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23The river's waters were undrinkably salty...
0:18:26 > 0:18:28..food supplies were sketchy...
0:18:29 > 0:18:33..the tribe on whose soil Jamesfort was built, the Powhatan,
0:18:33 > 0:18:35proved unfriendly.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Jamesfort was a death-trap.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44We dug down to the 17th-century level,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46which is down about 20 inches below us,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and found where there are at least 34 people buried here,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52all crowded in this corner of the fort,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56and so we immediately suspected it's from 1607.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58The first summer, more than half of the colonists died.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00So this is from one year?
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Yeah, this is from a couple of months.
0:19:02 > 0:19:03Couple of months? Wow.
0:19:08 > 0:19:09Worse was to come.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15In the next two years, the colonists ate their dogs...
0:19:16 > 0:19:17..they ate their horses...
0:19:18 > 0:19:21..and then they ate their enemies.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24They get really desperate.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27They say that they dug up an Indian that had been buried three days
0:19:27 > 0:19:29and ate him.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31You know, pretty grotesque.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36So what was the chink of light that made everything change?
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Well, really, it was the tobacco
0:19:38 > 0:19:42that really saved Jamestown, and that's acknowledged.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48In one of our wells that we excavated, a quite early well,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51we found several seeds of tobacco.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55You can see it in there, it's just minuscule, and...
0:19:55 > 0:19:58I have to take your word for it that there's a seed in here, is there?
0:19:58 > 0:20:00- Assume that it is.- Oh, there it is!
0:20:00 > 0:20:02I see it. God, it's so tiny.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06So what we're saying here is that the whole British Empire
0:20:06 > 0:20:08- grew out of this seed? - Of that tiny little seed.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10That's phenomenal.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12That's truly, truly phenomenal.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28S it was tobacco that saved the first British colony on American soil,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32tobacco of the same smoothly smokeable variety
0:20:32 > 0:20:37that the Spanish had monopolised for over 100 years.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43The first planting in Jamestown was in 1611,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46the work of a colonist called John Rolfe.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53He had almost certainly obtained the seeds whilst shipwrecked in Bermuda.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57A mile to the west of the original Jamesfort,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00the Americans have raised its ghost,
0:21:00 > 0:21:04where they re-enact those days in which, year on year,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09the amount of tobacco produced grew and grew and grew.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17At Jamestown Settlement, the original strain is still grown.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21It was milder than the Spanish weed, more pleasant to smoke...
0:21:21 > 0:21:23COCK CROWS
0:21:26 > 0:21:28..although these things are relative.
0:21:32 > 0:21:33So, Sammy, have you tried it?
0:21:33 > 0:21:35- Yes!- Is it good?
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Very strong. Very strong.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39How strong?
0:21:39 > 0:21:40Stronger than a Marlboro.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45I don't smoke, so I wouldn't know what that is.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47On a scale to one to ten?
0:21:47 > 0:21:48Ten.
0:21:49 > 0:21:56In 1618, the colony sent 20,000 pounds of tobacco back to the mother country.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59In 1622, the yield was 60,000 pounds.
0:21:59 > 0:22:07By 1624, the words "Virginia" and "tobacco" were inseparable,
0:22:07 > 0:22:08and they still are.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12And James had faced the facts.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16The profits from tobacco would give him the empire he had always wanted.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18He took control of The Virginia Company.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24He outlawed domestic production of tobacco, banned the Spanish product,
0:22:24 > 0:22:29and made money hand over fist from sales and import duties.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36James fell ill shortly afterwards,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38but thanks to the most vigorously anti-smoking king
0:22:38 > 0:22:42that the thrones of England and Scotland would ever see,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46smoking tobacco was now an act of loyalty.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Every puff and every pipeful
0:22:49 > 0:22:52increased England's power and imperial reach,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54but the truth was inescapable.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56James will have been horribly aware
0:22:56 > 0:22:58as he took his final, smoke-free breaths
0:22:58 > 0:23:01that he had done a deal with the devil.
0:23:01 > 0:23:02But what had he done?
0:23:02 > 0:23:05What would the future hold?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11He had created a new world, an empire of addiction.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Within four years of his death,
0:23:15 > 0:23:20Virginia was sending 1.5 million pounds of tobacco
0:23:20 > 0:23:22back to the motherland each year.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30It's 1772, 150 years since James' death.
0:23:33 > 0:23:39His Stuart dynasty is history, ejected from the throne in 1688...
0:23:41 > 0:23:45..but his deal with the devil is still monstrously profitable.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50Tobacco is booming.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Some Britons still smoke pipes, but snuff is far more popular...
0:24:02 > 0:24:06..and in some places, it's more popular than food.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08- Good morning, Robert.- Good morning.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13First question, why is there a Highlander outside your shop?
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Well, a Highlander is an old-fashioned, traditional way
0:24:17 > 0:24:21of indicating that the shop sold snuff, in particular Scottish snuff,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24because there was a strong tradition of people taking snuff in Scotland.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Right. Why would that be?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Why did they take snuff in Scotland as opposed to anywhere else?
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Well, I think there's a few reasons,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36but one of the reasons is actually just the climate in Scotland,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39the fact that Scotland is quite famous
0:24:39 > 0:24:41for sort of strong winds and lots of rain,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44and it's therefore quite difficult to actually smoke or keep something...
0:24:44 > 0:24:46- Harder to light up.- Yeah.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48My kind of memories of actually...
0:24:48 > 0:24:51I always remember women in my family, my mother...
0:24:51 > 0:24:53I found out recently my mother took snuff.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56My mother started to take snuff after the war, which was kind of weird,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59I never knew this, and it helped her with headaches.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Well, snuff was prescribed, was suggested to people
0:25:03 > 0:25:08- as a way of alleviating the problem they had with migraines.- Really?
0:25:08 > 0:25:12You know, tobacco in all sorts of forms has been given in the past
0:25:12 > 0:25:14for medical conditions,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17but certainly in terms of clearing the head and sort of dealing with headaches.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Perhaps you'd like to try some snuff?
0:25:20 > 0:25:23I just happen to have here my Jock's Choice snuff,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25which is an old Scottish recipe.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27- Jock's Choice?- Jock's Choice.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Well, that's a bit obvious, isn't it?
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Oh, right. Well, I'll give it a go.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34OK.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37- So it's just a little pinch at a time?- Just a pinch in your hand,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40and that part of your hand is actually called your snuff box.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42Here we go.
0:25:48 > 0:25:49Oh!
0:25:49 > 0:25:52- And then we have a snuff handkerchief ready...- Yeah.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Oh, dear! That's...
0:25:56 > 0:26:00That's a little...more potent than I imagined!
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Wow!
0:26:05 > 0:26:08- Gosh, that's good, isn't it? - He'll be hooked on snuff now.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Yeah, I know, I've got to watch it. Yeah, I've got to watch it.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27All the snuff being sniffed in 1772 was coming from Virginia...
0:26:30 > 0:26:34..now just one of 13 British colonies in America.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40The state is entirely given over to tobacco production.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45Some of the estates are large, such as those of Thomas Jefferson,
0:26:45 > 0:26:50one of America's founding fathers, who disapproves of slavery...
0:26:50 > 0:26:52in theory.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54But not in practice.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Some estates are small, but they depend as much as Jefferson's
0:26:58 > 0:27:01on the labour of negro slaves.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04And there's something else that Thomas Jefferson has in common
0:27:04 > 0:27:07with those smaller, less substantial tobacco planters.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12He shops here, or somewhere very like it.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Brian, welcome to British Virginia.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22We are in front of the best surviving tobacco store in all of America.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27This kind of structure was dotted all over the colony.
0:27:27 > 0:27:28How many would there be of these?
0:27:28 > 0:27:31I mean, this...this is... More than one, right?
0:27:31 > 0:27:32There are hundreds.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35There may have been 350, 400 of these,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38from this part of Virginia going west.
0:27:38 > 0:27:39Wow.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44At these stores,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46all of the requirements for life and tobacco farming
0:27:46 > 0:27:48can be bought on credit.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Most of the planters are now so deeply in debt
0:27:53 > 0:27:55that their tobacco for years to come
0:27:55 > 0:27:59is promised to the owners of these stores, all of whom are Scots,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03the so-called Tobacco Lords of Glasgow...
0:28:04 > 0:28:08..sharks in frock coats and scarlet cloaks,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13with rolled wigs, canes, hats laced with gold.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16All they really care about is money.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18They don't care about political interests,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20they don't care about constitutional rights,
0:28:20 > 0:28:22they don't fold down on one side or the other.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25- They're on their own side. - So what happens?
0:28:25 > 0:28:28So, by the time you get to 1775,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32when the wheels really start coming off of the British Empire in America,
0:28:32 > 0:28:38then it's the Scots merchants that are bearing the brunt of the abuse.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Would you say that would have contributed considerably to the Revolution?
0:28:42 > 0:28:45I think it unquestionably contributed to the American Revolution.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50A lot of Virginians felt that what the Scots represented
0:28:50 > 0:28:53was an empire that wasn't working in their interests,
0:28:53 > 0:28:57which is why Virginia actually, in 1776,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01specifically kicks out every Scottish merchant in the colony.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Wow!
0:29:04 > 0:29:08In 1776, the most militant colonists,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11many of them tobacco planters from Virginia,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15banded together and signed a Declaration of Independence for the 13 colonies.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21The American War of Independence wasn't caused exclusively
0:29:21 > 0:29:24by the mother country's greed for tobacco,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27but it loomed very large.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29And it proved central to the war itself.
0:29:29 > 0:29:35The American colonists secured a loan from France to fund their war,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39using their tobacco as a guarantee, and the British armies in Virginia,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42realising that tobacco was now an important war resource,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45took to attacking the tobacco itself.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48Hundreds of acres,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52thousands of barrels of fine Virginian tobacco, went up in smoke.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05Peace came in 1783.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08The American colonists had won and went,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11as Americans always have and always will,
0:30:11 > 0:30:13straight back to business.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18British snuffers returned thankfully to the consumption of snuff,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22and the tobacco lords went to court to try and recover
0:30:22 > 0:30:25the debts that had helped start the war.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Many of them succeeded, but the sweet deal was history.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Over the next 20 years, their wealth gradually dissipated,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39like the slowly clearing smoke of a fine, fat cigar.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48It was far from being the last time that smoking and war crossed paths.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53During the Napoleonic wars, British soldiers came across cigars,
0:30:53 > 0:30:59tobacco leaves wrapped into a dense and aromatic tube,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03and Papillotes - minced tobacco rolled up in maize leaves,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and smoked by Spanish peasants.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13And during the Crimean wars, they met cigars again...
0:31:15 > 0:31:21..and something else - small tubes of tobacco wrapped in paper.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25By the middle of the 19th century,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27the choices available to the would-be tobacco consumer
0:31:27 > 0:31:29had multiplied enormously.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Every class consumed,
0:31:33 > 0:31:38but did so in ways appropriate to their station in life.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41The working classes, both men and women,
0:31:41 > 0:31:43took snuff or smoked clay pipes.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Middle class men smoked briar pipes.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Men of the upper classes smoked cigars,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57and women of both the middle and upper classes...
0:31:57 > 0:32:01disapproved of a habit which society considered unfeminine.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06It was absolutely not acceptable for women to smoke.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08It really was totally improper,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11because Queen Victoria, who everybody followed anyway, you know,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15she didn't like anyone smoking in her presence, so...
0:32:15 > 0:32:17But her husband smoked. Albert smoked.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Yes, and also, at one point,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23- Queen Victoria's said to have actually tried smoking... - Oh, really?
0:32:23 > 0:32:26..in the grounds of Balmoral, with one of the ladies in waiting, to ward off midges.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Of course, Edward VII was a notorious smoker.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32He was! And the irony was,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35he wasn't allowed to smoke anywhere near his mum.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39This was a man who had to lie on his back in his bedroom in Balmoral
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and blow smoke up the chimney, with a coal fire,
0:32:42 > 0:32:44so his mother couldn't smell it, you know...
0:32:44 > 0:32:47And he was nearly 60 then!
0:32:47 > 0:32:48I know. Sad!
0:32:48 > 0:32:50And then he had to wait till she'd died,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54and the first appearance he makes in court, he comes out,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57"I'm now the King, Mum's dead, the anti-smoker's gone,"
0:32:57 > 0:32:59and he looks around and says,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02"Gentlemen, you may smoke,"
0:33:02 > 0:33:04and they go, "Thank God!"
0:33:04 > 0:33:07And everybody went, "Right, OK, then, la-de-dah-de-dah!"
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Everybody's all together now, all dancing around. Wonderful!
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Smoking men in smoking rooms,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22non-smoking ladies outside,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26henpecked husbands nursing their cigars, stoking their pipes,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30making sure they had an excuse to hide away from married life
0:33:30 > 0:33:31as long as possible.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35It's alien. It's completely different
0:33:35 > 0:33:38to the sort of nicotine consumption I grew up with.
0:33:38 > 0:33:44But the point is, I suppose, pipes and cigars -
0:33:44 > 0:33:46well, you have to devote time to them.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48They're practically a hobby.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50In fact, they are a hobby.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54But now, at about this time,
0:33:54 > 0:33:57the cigarette arrives in the UK from France,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59and it's not what you think.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01It's not a little cigar.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06It's small, light, finished in minutes.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Time for another.
0:34:09 > 0:34:10Not just a hobby.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12It's a habit.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14CLOCK TICKS
0:34:22 > 0:34:24I think the way to think about the cigarette
0:34:24 > 0:34:27is as a nicotine delivery system,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30and it's as though it's been optimised to delivering nicotine
0:34:30 > 0:34:35in a way which makes it more rewarding and more addictive.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43When a smoker inhales tobacco smoke into the lungs,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46the nicotine passes to the brain very quickly,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48so there is an association
0:34:48 > 0:34:51between the behaviour of inhaling the tobacco smoke,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53and the effect in the brain.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56So these associations can be learned very quickly.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58Also, when a smoker inhales tobacco,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01there's an irritation in the mouth, the bronchi, the throat.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04It's called the scratch, and, again,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08the brain can associate that sensory irritation
0:35:08 > 0:35:10with the effects of nicotine in the brain,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15so the very habit of smoking a cigarette, the very process,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18becomes a very rewarding, pleasurable process
0:35:18 > 0:35:22and, indeed, the tobacco companies have manipulated the smoke.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26For example, they make the smoke alkaline by adding ammonia
0:35:26 > 0:35:30and, in doing so, when you inhale tobacco smoke into your lungs,
0:35:30 > 0:35:32the nicotine transfers much more quickly into your bloodstream,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35so it gets to your brain much more quickly.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42So the cigarette delivered more nicotine more swiftly,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46was more addictive than anything that had come before.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Now it was simply a question of making more of them.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57In 1880, the Americans mechanised cigarette manufacture.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02The British Company WD & HO Wills bought this new technology,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07a machine that made 211 cigarettes a minute,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11and by 1900, cigarettes had cornered more than 10%
0:36:11 > 0:36:14of the British tobacco market.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17With equal speed, cigarettes acquired critics.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19Something about these little cylinders
0:36:19 > 0:36:23was more troubling than any other form of tobacco consumption.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25In both America and Britain,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Christian Temperance societies were absolutely certain
0:36:29 > 0:36:31that smoking cigarettes was the first step
0:36:31 > 0:36:34towards complete moral disintegration.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40Nicotine ruined marriages, one pamphlet claimed.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Nicotine destroyed the capacity to love.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48Smoking caused nervous depression and suicide.
0:36:48 > 0:36:50Smoking caused a terrible condition
0:36:50 > 0:36:53which the campaigners christened "cigarette face".
0:36:53 > 0:36:56- SCREAMING AND RETCHING Eww!- Yuck!
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Sometime in the early years of the 20th century,
0:37:03 > 0:37:10a young Viennese man concluded that cigarette-smoking was indeed a vice,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13that the benefits it offered were dubious,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17and its effect on health entirely negative.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22He was a heavy smoker, up to two packs a day,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25but he threw his cigarettes into the Danube,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27and he never smoked again.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34And so it was that Adolf Hitler,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38unlike the vast majority of soldiers who fought in World War One,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40did not smoke in battle.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48Cigarettes became part of the standard rations for soldiers.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50The cigarette habit began to dominate.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55The sensible British captain
0:37:55 > 0:37:58bought extra packs of Woodbines for soldiers
0:37:58 > 0:38:00on the night before the big push.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09The Americans joined the war in 1917,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12armed with Lucky Strikes and Camels.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19In time, the temperance campaigners would be proved correct.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23Cigarettes were very bad for the health,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27but not as bad for the health as bombs or bullets.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40When Hitler came to power in 1933,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44German scientists already suspected that there was a connection
0:38:44 > 0:38:47between cigarette-smoking and lung cancer.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Their investigations were revolutionary in their simplicity.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Simply by analysing the lifestyles of cancer victims,
0:38:55 > 0:39:01the link between heavy smoking and lung cancer was made brutally clear.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06Hitler adopted and adapted this new research
0:39:06 > 0:39:08for his own ideological ends.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Years of political in-fighting
0:39:11 > 0:39:14had made him an accomplished and theatrical speechmaker
0:39:14 > 0:39:16with a taste for metaphor...
0:39:19 > 0:39:23..and cancer now became his favourite metaphor of all.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Jews were a cancer in the body politic.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Hitler blamed them for Germany's loss of the First World War.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Bolshevism was a cancer in European culture.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39He blamed communism for almost everything
0:39:39 > 0:39:41that he didn't blame the Jews for.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45As for cancer itself, Hitler saw it as a sign of bad citizenship,
0:39:45 > 0:39:47moral weakness.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49It was a German's duty to keep himself fit
0:39:49 > 0:39:51for service to the state.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53Jews, Bolshevism, cancer -
0:39:53 > 0:39:58Hitler dedicated himself to eradication of all three.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04The Nazis, of course, made no attempt to share their discoveries
0:40:04 > 0:40:06about the causes of lung cancer.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Their research was merely medical.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14It was also a military secret, one worth keeping.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18Every cigarette smoked shortened the enemy soldier's lifespan.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25The Allies' attitude to cigarettes was entirely different.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27Tobacco was essential for morale.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32All their leaders smoked.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Churchill and his cigars were inseparable.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Roosevelt smoked two packs of Camels a day.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Stalin smoked both pipes and cigarettes.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47All Allied forces received cigarettes
0:40:47 > 0:40:50as part of their daily ration.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54Field Marshal Montgomery disapproved of both drinking and smoking,
0:40:54 > 0:40:59but still made a point of being filmed handing out free cigarettes
0:40:59 > 0:41:01to the men of his command.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07During the war,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11both the servicemen of the US and servicemen of the UK
0:41:11 > 0:41:14were given cigarettes.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16Now, that was to alleviate stress.
0:41:18 > 0:41:19Would that be the case?
0:41:19 > 0:41:22That's a fascinating question!
0:41:22 > 0:41:24Soldiers were really...
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Really thought that cigarettes were very, very helpful to them
0:41:28 > 0:41:30and they almost all used them.
0:41:30 > 0:41:36That immediate hit...increased clarity, probably also calming...
0:41:36 > 0:41:39Cigarettes, nicotine, is the only drug we know
0:41:39 > 0:41:43that actually improves performance but also reduces anxiety,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47so I think there was a significant psychological benefit
0:41:47 > 0:41:49to using cigarettes in wartime.
0:41:49 > 0:41:55But, unfortunately, that created the tradition of smoking,
0:41:55 > 0:41:57and it wasn't just the soldiers.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02In fact, we discovered that that fed back into the women at home,
0:42:02 > 0:42:05particularly those who were working in industry.
0:42:05 > 0:42:06They also started smoking.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10So the whole rise of smoking really came in the second war,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13when it became not only acceptable to do it
0:42:13 > 0:42:15but also seen as being helpful.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Cigarettes helped keep the home fires burning
0:42:21 > 0:42:23and cross-hairs steady,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26helped both combatants and non-combatants
0:42:26 > 0:42:31to live with the ever-present fear of imminent destruction.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35By the end of the war,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39that fear had come remarkably close to making smokers of us all.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45A survey of 1949 revealed that 39% of British women
0:42:45 > 0:42:49and 81% of British men were smokers -
0:42:49 > 0:42:5360% of the adult population.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01To say nothing of the kids.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07When did you start? Can you remember when you started?
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Yeah, I can. I was becoming a regular smoker when I was seven.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13- Seven?!- Seven.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15Can you remember your first fag?
0:43:15 > 0:43:17Can you remember the first moment
0:43:17 > 0:43:19that you actually put it in your mouth?
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Uh...
0:43:21 > 0:43:26I can't remember the first one, I remember the first several.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29THEY LAUGH
0:43:29 > 0:43:33It was during the... God, was it during the war?
0:43:33 > 0:43:37Just after the second war, just after the Second World War.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40- You'd find fag ends in the gutter. - Oh, aye.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43- Some guy had flung them away. - Dowpies, we called them.- Aye.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49Douts, we called them. You'd just go and pick up a dout and sort of...
0:43:49 > 0:43:51If it was still lit, you were happy as a bee, you know.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Pass it round, and smoked it till the tobacco fell out
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and you were left with a wee tiny bit of black paper.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03You just sort of lay in the long grass at the back door...
0:44:03 > 0:44:06No, it wasn't grass at the back door,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08it was all worn away, hard earth...
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Cinder! Earth and cinder.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12Yeah!
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Oot the washing green. Nothing green about it.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Hmm, happy days!
0:44:26 > 0:44:27But even in those happy days,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30there were a few places where you couldn't smoke...
0:44:32 > 0:44:34..where it simply wasn't safe,
0:44:34 > 0:44:36like the Dundee jute factories
0:44:36 > 0:44:39where my parents and many of my relatives worked.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43Smoking wasn't an option.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46The jute was highly inflammable.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Every mill was a powder keg.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57But also what wasn't an option was to be without...
0:44:57 > 0:45:00I mean, life without some kind of tobacco.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06So, whereas they would maybe smoke at home,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08they'd take snuff at the mill.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12In fact, all my relatives had some kind of tobacco habit.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Uncle Geordie chewed tobacco, Auntie Sarah took snuff,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20and Auntie Susan smoked a wee Willy Woodbine, ken?
0:45:35 > 0:45:38In 1950, the medical authorities in both Britain and America
0:45:38 > 0:45:42published new studies of the long-term effects of cigarette smoking.
0:45:47 > 0:45:53Neither report cited the research done by the Nazis in the 1930s...
0:45:53 > 0:45:57but both came to the same unavoidable conclusion.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04Which was this - smoking causes lung cancer.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06The British Health Ministry advised the government
0:46:06 > 0:46:10that what had been shown was not cause, but an association.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12"Nothing need be done," they said.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16And the British government took their advice, and did nothing.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22I guess we have to wonder why.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24But I think the answer's fairly simple.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27The year before, the government had produced a report,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30in which it admitted that for most people, cigarettes
0:46:30 > 0:46:34"made good the inadequacies of life".
0:46:35 > 0:46:37And that rings true.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40After all, this was the Britain I grew up in,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44a world of post-war austerity, in which cigarettes were still doing
0:46:44 > 0:46:46what they had done during the war itself,
0:46:46 > 0:46:48for my family as much as anyone else -
0:46:48 > 0:46:53stress management, a mild but smelly anti-depressant.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56But I still have questions.
0:46:56 > 0:46:57How could nicotine have captured
0:46:57 > 0:47:01as many as 60% of the British population?
0:47:01 > 0:47:04And why did it never capture me?
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Perhaps there are some answers hidden in my genes.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11- Hi, Brian, how's it going?- I'm fine.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13So I hear you're keen to have my sputum.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Yes, your sputum, that's how we're going to take your DNA
0:47:16 > 0:47:19- to test which genes you may have... - All right.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22..which may or may not pre-dispose you to nicotine addiction.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27I'm taking this test for all the wrong reasons, to be honest.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31It's been devised to help smokers learn what might be the best way to stop...
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and I want to know why I've never started.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38But perhaps it can tell me something about that too.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43This test studies three groups of genes,
0:47:43 > 0:47:46a total of seven genes in all.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50One group affects the nicotine receptors in my brain,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53the neurons that light up when nicotine is present,
0:47:53 > 0:47:57how sensitive my brain is to the presence of nicotine...
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Another group of genes controls how actively my brain responds
0:48:02 > 0:48:04to rewards, to pleasure.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08It's to do with that get-up-and-go chemical, dopamine.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11If my brain makes too little dopamine,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14cigarettes will make it make more,
0:48:14 > 0:48:17and I will be more likely to be nicotine-dependent.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21And the third group of genes
0:48:21 > 0:48:26controls how quickly I break nicotine down in my body.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31If I break it down fast, then I'll want another cigarette...
0:48:31 > 0:48:32and quick.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36If I break it down slowly, the next cigarette can wait.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41It'll take some time for the test to tell me about myself.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45But what about that smoking majority back in 1949?
0:48:45 > 0:48:49Now, if we go back to the end of the Second World War,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52we had something like 60% of people smoking,
0:48:52 > 0:48:56so there must have been this huge kind of influx of smokers.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59What would be the conditions for that?
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Well, I think that's very interesting.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04The genes which we're testing you for are pretty common,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08so most people would have one or more of the genes
0:49:08 > 0:49:10which make them likely to smoke.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13So the general population is actually predisposed to smoke.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19I'll have to wait for my test results,
0:49:19 > 0:49:21but that's one mystery solved.
0:49:21 > 0:49:2460% people smoked in 1949
0:49:24 > 0:49:30because most of us have the genes for nicotine dependency.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33As the '50s progressed,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35scientists moved beyond the lifestyle analysis
0:49:35 > 0:49:39that had shown an association between smoking and lung cancer.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42Every so often, news of their progress
0:49:42 > 0:49:47reached the front pages of the national press,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51and in 1962, a new report announced the definite demonstration
0:49:51 > 0:49:57of a causal link between smoking and carcinogenesis.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00NEWSREEL: 'Today, the Royal College of Physicians
0:50:00 > 0:50:04'published their report on smoking and lung cancer.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07'They say conclusively and authoritatively
0:50:07 > 0:50:11'that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15'causes bronchitis and contributes to coronary heart disease.'
0:50:17 > 0:50:21It was the by-products of smoking tobacco that killed -
0:50:21 > 0:50:26tars, carbon monoxide, cyanide, assorted carcinogens.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30Further research revealed that all forms of tobacco consumption
0:50:30 > 0:50:33came with associated cancer risks.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37But cigarettes were the most lethal by far.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42Smoking became a paler, more guilty pleasure.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47It began a 50-year retreat from the public eye,
0:50:47 > 0:50:53with bans on ads in cinemas, on TV, eventually in print.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58And in 2006, at last it began to retreat from public spaces too.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Stewart, tell me the sort of process you had to go through
0:51:05 > 0:51:10to really achieve your goal, because - correct me if I'm wrong -
0:51:10 > 0:51:12but this was the first time this had happened.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16I mean, there was no smoking legislation in England, it was...
0:51:16 > 0:51:19You sort of started the ball rolling...
0:51:19 > 0:51:22Yeah, there was certainly no smoking legislation of any sort
0:51:22 > 0:51:24throughout the UK. I was very keen to do it.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26I was elected in 2003,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30and the press here thought that it was the craziest thing, that it would never happen.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32Scotland was a society where smoking was normal,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35the mere idea that you couldn't smoke in a pub
0:51:35 > 0:51:38was seen as completely bizarre and would never happen and, in fact,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41the very first interview that I did about it at the time,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43the first question I ever got on the ban was,
0:51:43 > 0:51:45"So you're not interested in a political career, then?"
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Because the assumption was that this would be so unpopular,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52you wouldn't be re-elected, it'd be very unlikely to get passed,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55and just the nature of people in Scotland
0:51:55 > 0:51:57was that they wouldn't obey such a daft law.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59There was no need for nerves.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Astonishingly, the ban took.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06But then, perhaps, we shouldn't all have been so surprised.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Everybody now knows how damaging tobacco is.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14The list of serious or fatal illnesses that it causes
0:52:14 > 0:52:16is terrifyingly long.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21In 1992, an analysis of mortality in the developed world
0:52:21 > 0:52:25concluded that almost 20% of deaths could be attributed
0:52:25 > 0:52:29to the ill-effects of active or passive smoking.
0:52:30 > 0:52:35So the ban did Stewart's political career no harm at all.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37England followed suit a year later.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43Smokers, of course, are still quite visible,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45almost more visible than before -
0:52:45 > 0:52:48on street corners, outside receptions, in goods-ins,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51huddled together in the rain and wind.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54I mean, it's hardly glamorous.
0:52:54 > 0:52:55A very far cry indeed from the days
0:52:55 > 0:52:58when publicity pictures for people in my profession
0:52:58 > 0:53:02included cigarettes as a standard accessory.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Once, we thought that tobacco was a medicine.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Now we know that it's a killer.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40But nicotine itself is not the fatal agent.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44It increases blood pressure, but is otherwise relatively innocent.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50And the final irony, it may even be useable as a medicine
0:53:50 > 0:53:54to treat the troubling diseases of old age.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01Professor Paul Newhouse came to meet me
0:54:01 > 0:54:04where Britain's long love affair with a fatal leaf began.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09So there's two possible ways that nicotine might be helpful.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14It seems to stimulate parts of the brain that need to be more active,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18and maybe even shut down other parts that don't need to be active.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22And what we think it's doing is making the brain more efficient.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25So you don't need to have activity in all these different areas
0:54:25 > 0:54:28to get what it is you're trying to do.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31So that's one way that we think nicotine works.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33The other possible way is more longer term.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35And we think that nicotine may actually have
0:54:35 > 0:54:38what we call neuro-protective effects.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42It may actually protect nerve cells from degenerating
0:54:42 > 0:54:46in things like Alzheimer's disease, or early pre-Alzheimer's disease.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49And so nicotine may be able to be helpful
0:54:49 > 0:54:52in kind of two directions at once.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56What we're hoping for is that it improves symptoms,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00it delays the onset, perhaps, of more severe symptoms,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03and it maybe pushes back the whole disease process.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07- But you're not suggesting I should start smoking?- No.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09Good drug, bad delivery system.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19Sadly, that was how my parents, and yours, likely enough,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22took their nicotine - by cigarette.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Cigarettes never tempted me,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30and I'm still wondering why.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35The results of my genetic test have arrived.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37But they might as well be written in Greek.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41So I've got the...the report.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43Of course I don't understand a word of it.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45You're going to have to explain it to me.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Well, it's really interesting.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Out of these seven different genes,
0:55:49 > 0:55:53you've only got three which are linked to smoking
0:55:53 > 0:55:55and that's really very unusual.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57- Really?- I reckon...
0:55:57 > 0:56:01It's difficult to know exactly what the odds are,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05but I reckon between one in 1,000 and one in 10,000 chance
0:56:05 > 0:56:08of having this particular combination of genes.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Wow. So I'm unusual, then, am I?
0:56:11 > 0:56:12You're special!
0:56:12 > 0:56:16I'm special! Oh, good God.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22So I don't smoke because I'm one of the lucky few
0:56:22 > 0:56:26who don't have the genes for nicotine dependence.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31But what my parents gave me was the experience of passive smoking,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33which I came to hate.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37I can't blame them for smoking.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41They were surrounded by a smoking majority.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44They lived through two world wars and the Great Depression...
0:56:46 > 0:56:49..the sort of stressful times that have always boded well
0:56:49 > 0:56:51for cigarette sales.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58For 400 or 500 hundred years, we magnified our pleasures,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01dosed our nerves and fears with nicotine...
0:57:04 > 0:57:07..a mildly psychogenic drug
0:57:07 > 0:57:10that made the grind of daily life supportable.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16We weren't to know, of course, that the ways that we took it
0:57:16 > 0:57:19were all toxic, cancer-causing, life-threatening,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22and we had no real idea of the role that nicotine was playing
0:57:22 > 0:57:25inside our bodies and our brains.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27And now that we do, you know,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30I think I understand my family a little bit better,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32particularly my mother.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36My mother, when she smoked, always had a beatific look on her face,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40as if she was at one with the world, at peace.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43It gave her a sense of well-being.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45And remember our friend, Sir Walter Raleigh,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48when we left him in the Tower of London a while ago?
0:57:48 > 0:57:51King James had him executed in 1618.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Raleigh smoked his pipe on the way to the axe man's block,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58and after his death, the pipe case was found,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01and inscribed on it was a little Latin motto.
0:58:01 > 0:58:07Translated, it read, "My companion in that most wretched time."
0:58:07 > 0:58:13Now, I believe that's a phrase that almost any smoker will understand.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20Turned out nice again!
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd