Licensed to Sell Intoxicating Liquors...

So, if James Bond was a real person, then the level of drinking he indulges in during the course of the Ian Fleming would leave him impotent and incapable of doing his job.  Whilst this 'study' in a medical journal doesn't mention the character's smoking, I'm pretty sure that his daily intake of cigarettes would probably have left him gasping for breath in response to any physical exertion.  Whilst I know that the article in question was intended as a jokey seasonal piece, I can't help but feel that it misses an important point.  No, not that James Bond is a fictional character in a series of popular novels and films, meaning that his drinking (and smoking) habits aren't necessarily meant to be realistic, but rather that during the period the books and earliest film adaptations originally appeared in, similar drinking (and smoking) habits probably wouldn't have seemed unusual.  Nowadays people seem to take for granted our current obsession with alcohol awareness and healthy living, accepting lower levels of alcohol consumption and the demonization of tobacco as being the norm.  In reality, these are relatively recent phenomena.  I remember that when I was a child in the seventies, (long before I started drinking alcohol, I hasten to add), nobody seemed to think twice about downing half a dozen pints even at normal social occaisions.  Drinking in pubs was even more hardcore - and let's not forget that opening hours then were severely restricted compared to now.  Oh, and adults who didn't smoke were considered weird. 

Back then it was considered normal to have a drink and a smoke, not just at social gatherings, but at meals, when watching TV or just when you were lounging around at home and generally relaxing.  I remember that earlier this year I got quite a shock when I watched some reruns of seventies sitcom Man About The House, and saw the amount of casual drinking and smoking that went on.  Characters were rarely without a drink and/or a cigarette in their hands in any given scene.  But, looking back on my own memories, I realised that it was simply reflecting the social norms of the times.  That said, people probably a bit more aware of the potential health risks posed by excessive alcohol consumption - certainly the drink-driving campaign was gaining momentum in the seventies - so all this boozing probably wasn't  up to Bond's levels.  Indeed, by all accounts alcohol consumption in the fifties and sixties was even worse.  So, if the Bond article is to be believed, it is amazing that people were able to function at all during this period as the entire population of the UK must have been staggering around in an alcoholic stupor.  Yet they did function, perhaps because all that boozing have them a higher tolerance to alcohol.  And when they weren't drinking, they were smoking.  All of which was reflected in the popular culture of the day - just watch films and TV series from the period.  Not to mention print media: I recently bought several copies of Lilliput magazine from the forties and fifties and was amazed by the number of advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products.  It really was a different time - an era when people with drinking habits which would now mark them down as alcoholics, such as Errol Flynn or John Barrymore, were considered heroic male role models for their antics.