Smoke screen

There was a wonderful documentary on BBC2 on Saturday night.

Produced and directed by Julian Temple, Keith Richards - The Origin of the Species was a documentary about "Keith Richards's postwar childhood in Dartford and London, exploring the cultural undercurrents and transformative thinking which occurred between 1945 and 1962."

Having read his autobiography a couple of years ago I've become a big fan of Richards. He clearly has the constitution of an ox (there are very few people who could have survived his lifestyle) but what comes across in the book – and every interview – is his sense of humour and live and let live philosophy.

Like David Hockney Richards is rarely interviewed without a burning cigarette in his hand and Temple's documentary was no exception. In fact the director was so keen to highlight this endearing characteristic whole scenes were bathed in tobacco smoke.

It was beautifully filmed – some of the frames should be included in an exhibition on smoking. You can watch it on BBC iPlayer here.

Viewers are warned that it 'Contains some strong language'. Amusingly there's no mention of the devilishly alluring smoke that snakes and swirls across the screen for much of the documentary's 60 minutes.