Few figures in television changed the way we thought, ate and behave like Michael Mosley. But then again, he was almost uniquely placed to achieve this.
Mosley, a medical school graduate who joined the BBC as a trainee assistant producer in 1985, quickly found himself able to communicate groundbreaking scientific and medical ideas to mass audiences, a skill he used to great advantage time and time again.
This was forged behind the cameras, as he worked on shows including Tomorrow’s World and weather-based programmes such as Superstorm and Could We Survive a Mega-Tsunami?
In 1995 the British Medical Association named him medical journalist of the year thanks to his Horizon episode Ulcer Wars, spotlighting the medical profession’s hesitancy to follow research that ulcers were caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (not stress, as previously thought) and could be treated with antibiotics rather than surgery.
But Mosley’s career did not really take off until he made the decision to step in front of the camera.
His presenting career began with 2006’s Medical Mavericks, a history show in which he traced the story of medical progress in the realms of vaccination, anaesthesia and beating infections. One episode looked at doctors who deliberately infected themselves with diseases to study their effects. It set off a theme that ran throughout Mosley’s career.
In 2014, for example, he mimicked their approach to research by swallowing three tapeworm cysts that he obtained from infected cattle to see what they did to his body, for a BBC Four series. He remained asymptomatic but gained a kilo in weight, possibly due to his increased appetite.
By this point, however, Mosley was already a household name. Thanks to regular appearances on BBC Breakfast and The One Show, and medical documentaries where he was often smart enough to make himself the subject as well as the presenter, his face became one of the corporation’s most familiar.
The show that would really change his life, however, was a 2012 Horizon episode entitled Eat, Fast and Live Longer. This was the show that popularised the 5:2 diet, a method of intermittent fasting whereby people commit to consuming only 500 calories a day for two days of the week. In the show, Mosley claimed the 5:2 diet was not only useful for weight loss, but also reducing insulin levels and decreased inflammation.
Although the 5:2 diet was not his discovery, Mosley popularised it to such an extent that he was able to write a number of highly successful books on the subject. His ideas would later evolve to become what he termed the Fast 800 diet, a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet that also included intermittent fasting. Again, the books he wrote on the subject became minor publishing sensations, thanks in part to Mosley’s willingness to walk the walk when it came to sharing big ideas.
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Although he continued to make shows for the BBC, including Are Health Tests Really a Good Idea? and E-Cigarettes: Miracle or Menace?, he had become such a name that other broadcasters naturally came knocking. In 2021, he began hosting shows for Channel 4. One of them, Lose a Stone in 21 Days, brought Mosley the first and only controversy he would encounter throughout his career. The show, in which he sought to rapidly slim a group of subjects who had put on weight during lockdown, caused a firestorm on social media; one eating disorder charity said it had been forced to increase the opening hours of its helpline due to the show’s content.
However, this is unlikely to be what Mosley will be remembered for. Throughout his screen career, he was able to reach audiences thanks to his spry, inquisitive presence. A show presented by him was a show that effortlessly walked the line between the academic and the populist. But Mosley was skilled enough to be able to make complex ideas look breezily simple, something you cannot do unless you have the right qualifications and experience.
Very few people can do this successfully. Carl Sagan could do it. Hannah Fry is extremely good at it. But Mosley was one of the very best.