Last night saw an episode of The Secret Millions, on Channel 4, featuring Gok Wan. The programme itself was rather lovely - but within the first 15 minutes it showed Gok smoking a cigarette in two separate clips. Call me old-fashioned, but I really didn't like it.
It wasn't the fact that I found out Gok smokes (although, I was a tiny but gutted about this) that I didn't like. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've watched all of Gok's programmes, and any fellow Gok fans will know that that's been a lot, but not once have I seen him smoking in any of them before.
I just wonder how many impressionable people will have watched it that are of the age where cigarettes are being passed around school behind the bike sheds. Resisting peer pressure at that age is difficult at the best of times - but if you saw Gok - who is definitely of role-model status - doing it on television the night before, giving in might be a bit more tempting.
We're well beyond a time where smoking is advertised and we've come a long way since thinking it's healthy - but is allowing these bits of footage to slip into a documentary just as bad and a little behind-the-times?
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