Smoking in the show

I don't think it's too much at all; I think the ubiquitous smoking is very realistic.

I guess I didn't notice about the cigarette cases. Didn't everyone have them too?

Per capita cigarette consumption in the US in 1965 amounted to twelve cigarettes daily for every person aged 18+.

Half of all men smoked and a third of all women

My recollection is that one-pack and two-pack smokers were common, and three-pack smokers not unusual.

Every house had ashtray(s)

Use of cigarette cases is likely due to BBC be unable to advertise - thus it can't show the branded packets which, in reality, everyone kept their fags in.

For its time period, yes, heavy smoking was very widespread. I worked in offices in the seventies and eighties where smoking was permitted. When the smokers were asked, a few years later, to /not/ smoke at their desks during office hours, they reacted like they'd been assaulted. There were still ashtrays on every smoker's desk and there would be a frenzy of rushed smoking just before the clock turned eight o'clock, our office's morning official starting time. And more than a few of my coworkers immediately lit up right on the stroke of five o'clock, the official end of our office's workday. Even if it meant that they wouldn't be able to catch their first bus homeward, they still took time to smoke one or two cigarettes before going outside to catch a later bus. And of course for breaks and for lunch, the smokers lit up in the cafeteria and restrooms.
It was only after smoking in buildings was permanently banned entirely that the smokers started huddling outdoors to smoke. A friend who worked then in a hospital had exactly the same conditions -- yes, the nurses, doctors and staffers, even in the respiratory ward caring for emphysema and asthma hospitalizations, were still smoking up a storm in the wards and while noting patients' charts, and while going from patient to patient, and so forth.

Perhaps to us now it seems too much but it's a sign of the times. Smoking in the 50's, 60's and 70's was common and more people were smokers than non smokers.

I have to admit though I think Gently smoked way too many cigarettes in Gently Between The Lines(first episode of season 6), he's no sooner lighted one then he's getting another outI wonder if they're real cigarettes or herbal ones like they use on Mad Men?

It is my business to protect your majesty.... against all things.

Its quite amazing to look back on it now, as quite accurately portrayed in "Gently".
People smoked everywhere; in hospital, in aircraft, in doctor's waiting rooms (indeed GP's were often notable for having a burning cigarette in their hand and a full ash tray on their desk when you consulted them).
I find it amazing to see everyone lighting up INSIDE their homes. Such a short time really and how people's thinking and behaviour has changed!
"Gently" not only has it right but underplays it if anything.

I'm an asthmatic, so really glad that smoking is not so prevalent now. However, I LOVE antique cigarette cases (go figure!), and have several.

Very beautiful objects, when done right.

They have the smoking right. The figures given for the US look low for 60's Britain, but maybe the non-smokers kept out of sight. In 1979 I was about the last smoker in an office of about 40, and the last of my social circle to give up.
There were cigarette cases, but they were not common. Older people such as Gently probably had them as presents from the time before smoking began to be seen as a bad idea, which was long before the US fronted up with the stats.

Funny to think of it now. I smoked in my hospital bed and nurses would pop in for one as they passed. My doctor smoked while doing a procedure on me. We smoked on trains and airplanes, everywhere anytime. How the world has changed.