Tom Stoppard 84 on the BBC Last Night, Smoking!

[ck101]

Tom Stoppard docu on BBC last night, for those who don't know Tom is an 84 year old playwright and has won an Academy award & 4 Tony awards.

So there he was being interviewed fag in hand. I wouldn’t mind but he looks really well, very few lines and good hair, doesn’t look 84. He also sounded good!

The negative effects of tobacco on some and not on others never ceases to amaze me!

[Gladwyn]

Me too! It is weird isn’t it that some people can smoke like a chimney and get away without the extremely damaging effects that we suffer from for doing the same thing! 🍀🦋

[Badbessie]

My grandfather was gassed in the first world war, smoked 20 woodbine a day, his meals were fried in lard and lived until 89. I wonder if he would have lived until he was 100 if not for the fags. You can look at many people who smoked and reached a good age but I wonder how many would have reached a better age? Just a thought.

[Annie31 in reply to Badbessie]

Yes, a bit like the glass half empty, half full principle! We'll never know for sure! Two grandparents, one on each side, both in their nineties, died of dementia but both chainsmokers! Another grandma quit in her fifties and died in early 70s of lung disease!

[Snackjack in reply to Annie31]

Yes that reminds me my grandad smoked until he was 97 when he got a small skin cancer on one of his ears which was removed and he lived until he was 99 years and 6 months old. Really is a gamble isn't it. xx

[Kristicats]

Russian roulette comes to mind. Mum smoked 70 years she’s 90 now🤷‍♀️

[ck101 in reply to Kristicats]

Amazing really 👍

[MMaud]

I saw this too. He did say in passing that he'd been having a few problems with his legs and feet in recent times, and had noticed one of the graphic photos on a cigarette packet was of "his legs", so Scot free might be an over statement of affairs.

Sometimes, only in hindsight do we realise x, y or z has had an impact on our lives or health.

[ck101]

Yes he did say that, he seems like a decent type.

[Ergendl]

When I was in dietitians school, a lecturer said, someone always knows an Uncle Joe figure who smoked like a trooper, drank like a fish and ate rubbish, and survived hale and hearty into his 90s. Uncle Joe survived because of lucky genetics: the rest of us aren't so lucky and have to avoid fags and excess alcohol, and work on a healthy diet to help us compete with him.