Cut! Films that show smoking could have a health warning

films and TV shows featuring smoking scenes should have an adult 18 rating and display health warnings on screen, an official report said yesterday.

The move could apply to classics like The italian Job – and even pipe-smoking cartoon character Popeye.

The report, commissioned by Health secretary sajid Javid, said: ‘All films, TV shows and online media that contain tobacco imagery on screen should... be classified as unsuitable for viewing by persons aged under 18 years’.

it added that TV programmes which include smoking should be broadcast after the 9pm watershed and display an on-screen health warning while ‘tobacco imagery’ is visible. The policy would switch daytime favourites like Columbo – featuring the cigarsmoking detective – to lateevening slots. The report also recommended stopping young people from ever smoking by raising the legal age for buying cigarettes every year. it proposed hiking tobacco taxes by 30 per cent and banning smokers from lighting up on beaches and in beer gardens.

it called for warning labels to be added to individual cigarettes and electronic cigarettes to be prescribed on the NHs. Report author Javed Khan said ministers must do more to slash smoking rates or they will miss the target of making England ‘smoke-free’ by 2030. The term means 5 per cent or fewer adults are tobacco users. smoking causes more than one in four cancer deaths each year in the UK. Almost six million people in England still smoke.

simon Clark, of smokers’ lobby group forest, warned: ‘Creeping prohibition won’t stop young adults smoking.’

Downing street said the review would be ‘carefully considered’ before it responds to its findings.