FILMS featuring people smoking could be slapped with 18 certificates in cinemas under plans backed by Greater Manchester health chiefs.

Council leaders will be asked tomorrow to use special powers to put `restrictive' ratings on films which could encourage youngsters to smoke. That could mean films rated PG in the rest of the country given a 15 or 18 certificate in Greater Manchester cinemas.

The long-term aim is to introduce a nationwide ban on anyone under 18 seeing a film - in the cinema, on video, or on TV - in which people smoke.

The region's 10 councils are also set to cut all funding to theatres that put on plays involving smoking, even though such performances are protected by law.

The proposals, branded `the worst kind of nannyism' by pro-smoking campaigners, are part of a new manifesto drawn up by the Greater Manchester Health Commission.

It will be discussed by the 10 council leaders at a meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).

The leaders will be asked to immediately sign up to three key proposals - cutting all council funding to theatres and sports grounds that allow smoking, using planning legislation to force stores to move cigarettes away from check-outs, and slapping higher certificates on films that show smoking.

Councils have the power to act as local censors and alter the official certification of a film by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Famously, a number of local authorities refused to show The Exorcist and Last Tango in Paris in the 1970s - despite both films being passed by the BBFC. More recently, in 2002, several councils allowed children under 12 to see Spider-Man despite its official rating of 12.

A report by the GMHC says the councils should for the first time `take into account smoking when giving a classification to film'.

"For example, if a local authority becomes aware that the tobacco industry has placed smoking in a film by paying for an actor/actress to smoke and that this looks as though the use of the role model could encourage children to smoke, then it would be reasonable to issue a more restrictive classification," it adds.

AGMA leaders will also be asked to 'strongly endorse' a submission to government arguing for:

*No smoking in cars with children present

*No smoking by drivers

*No smoking at outside tables in restaurants

*All films with smoking to be rated 18

*No smoking on TV

Challenging

GMHC bosses have described the manifesto is `challenging and audacious'.

But Neil Rafferty, spokesman for pro-smoking lobby group Forest, said: "This is really dangerous stuff.

"It is a deliberate attempt by anti-smoking extremists to control and limit freedom of speech. It is nannyism of the worst kind.

"There are much more shocking elements and potentially damaging things being shown in films."

Mr Rafferty also attacked plans to cut all funding to theatres that allow actors to smoke on stage. Currently, that is permitted everywhere in Britain except Scotland, provided `the artistic integrity of a performance makes it appropriate for a person to smoke'. That exemption was put in to protect plays where smoking is seen as an integral part of the drama.

Mr Rafferty said: "You will be hard-pushed to find any rational person who is seriously worried about the danger of passive smoking from someone standing on a stage some distance away."

Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton council, will introduce the paper at tomorrow's meeting.

He said: "The fact is that 60 per cent of smokers want to give up and it is our duty to help them. Smoking is the biggest determinant of ill health in Greater Manchester.

"If we can reduce smoking by just one per cent we can potentially save 200 lives a year."
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