Pastfinders

"Past Info" is a scientific agency from the the year 3046 whose job it is to look into Earth's past. Two young enthusiasts team up with a professor and discover something quite unique. What is it? Well their computer (Albert) goes bananas and a big flashing skull tells them it could destroy the world!! It certainly causes cancer and bronchitis - it has a lung death level of 86/100! Could this be the plague of Egypt? The Black Death? Can't be that, surely - they are going to have to investigate further. Well it's good news for us as it turns out to be a cigarette making device and these will all be banned from 2025! Using an "ancient" film projector, the three watch an anti-smoking film that warns of the hazards of nicotine. The characters now discuss just how daft the practice was and marvel at just how widespread participation was whilst we all now watch an even more bonkers video that illustrates the excuses people used for smoking and the industrial scale of production. The future folks can't believe the stupidity of their ancestors - and the actors, albeit a little too earnestly, manage to convey that incredulity quite effectively! It's presented in a sort of "Tomorrow People" meets "Dr. Who" fashion - indeed it looks like they used Jon Pertwee's very own quarry, and as they dig deeper into this mysterious disease, the audio becomes effective at demonstrating the shallow and hoarse breathing before they do a little bit of their own, very revelatory, time travelling. It's all a bit contrived, to be honest, and at just shy of half an hour it's also too long - but the message is clear and by ridiculing the whole principle of smoking it might have had some impact in 1974 on the kids watching from the school classroom. There's a quote at the end that serves as a potent punchline. One lad says to another, much younger one: "Go on, smoking don't kill ya!".