SHAMELESS layabout Frank Gallagher and the rest of the Chatsworth estate are set to re-ignite the smoking ban debate.

The 2009 series of the award-winning Manchester drama sees regulars at The Jockey up in arms over the ban.

So they simply light up outside the pub - drinking cheaper booze bought from the local shop.

With the bar empty and facing financial disaster, staff at The Jockey decide to flout the law.

Tina Malone, who plays Mimi Maguire, explains: "The Jockey is one of those maverick pubs. Even though it's cheaper to smoke outside, it's that community thing where they all want to be inside."

The ban on smoking in virtually all enclosed public spaces and workplaces came into force in England in July 2007.

But the portrayal of smoking on stage or screen is allowed `where the artistic integrity of a performance makes it appropriate for a person to smoke'.

Even so, it's a real drag for some cast members at the Wythenshawe filming complex, including Tina: "I'm a non-smoker anyway, so I can't bear smoking. I'm four years off after 26 years of smoking 40 a day. I absolutely hate it."

"You have to smoke those vile honey-roast herbal cigarettes. But I don't inhale. You just see me holding it."

Off-screen, a pub landlord who allowed his customers to flout the smoking ban lost an appeal in September against his conviction. Nick Hogan, former landlord of The Swan Hotel and Barristers Bar in Bolton, is facing an £11,000 bill and has been declared bankrupt.

He became the first licensee in Greater Manchester to be convicted under the new law.

Businesses that fail to prevent smoking can face fines of £2,500, with those caught smoking risking fixed penalty notices of £50.

Click here to read Ian Wylie's TV blog.