Cigar ban

HE MAY have saved the country from Nazi occupation but even Winston Churchill is not exempt from the tentacles of political correctness.

Because of the ban on smoking in public places, Britain’s greatest wartime prime minister will be without his trademark cigar when he is portrayed on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe festival later this year.

Mel Smith, the comedian and actor who will play him in a production of Mary Kenny's play Allegiance, about a little-known meeting between Churchill and Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary, could be forced to use a plastic replacement.

Producers believe Churchill’s lit cigar and the cloud of smoke which permanently surrounded him are so integral to his character that they plan to appeal to the Scottish executive for a special dispensation.

Smith is free to smoke real cigars onstage in England !