Micheal Mosley

Michael Hugh Mosley[1] (22 March 1957 – June 2024) was a British television journalist, producer, presenter, and writer, who worked for the BBC from 1985, after graduating from medical school. He was a presenter of television programmes on biology and medicine and regularly appeared on The One Show. Mosley was an advocate of intermittent fasting and low-carbohydrate diets who wrote books promoting the ketogenic diet. Mosley went missing on the Greek island of Symi on 5 June 2024.

Early life and education

Michael Mosley was born in Calcutta, India, on 22 March 1957.[2] His father was a banker and his maternal grandfather an Anglican bishop.[3]

Mosley attended a boarding school in England from the age of seven.[3] He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at New College, Oxford, before working for two years as a banker in the City of London. He then decided to move into medicine, intending to become a psychiatrist, studying at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, now part of UCL Medical School.[4]

Career

Upon graduation from medical school, and having become disillusioned by psychiatry, Mosley joined a trainee assistant producer scheme at the BBC in 1985.[4]

Mosley produced a number of science programmes, including The Human Face, three series with Robert Winston, and the 2004 BBC Two engineering series Inventions That Changed the World hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.[5] He presented Blood and Guts, Medical Mavericks and The Story of Science for television, and was the subject of a television documentary, 10 Things You Need to Know about Losing Weight. He presented Make Me for BBC One. In April–June 2010 he produced and presented the television series The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion broadcast by BBC Two.[6]

In 2011, Mosley made a series titled The Brain: A Secret History on the history of psychology and neuroscience. During the series, while describing the methods that are being employed to identify the anomalies in brain structure associated with psychopathy, his personal test results revealed he himself had these candidate brain characteristics.[7]

Mosley presented a two-part documentary in 2011, Frontline Medicine with episodes called "Survival" and "Rebuilding Lives". These programmes described the medical advances in the treatment of military personnel during the 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and examined how these new techniques were being used in emergency medicine in civilian casualties in the United States and Great Britain.[8]

Mosley's documentary The Truth About Exercise, first broadcast in 2012, highlighted how different patterns of exercise might help achieve health benefits, the danger of sitting for prolonged periods and revealed how certain genotypes are unable to gain significant improvements in aerobic fitness (VO2 max) by following endurance exercise programmes. His own genetic type can gain many of the benefits of exercise, primarily improved insulin response, through short, high-intensity training sessions as suggested by the research of Professor James Timmons.[9]

In January 2013, Mosley presented The Genius of Invention. In the documentary named The Truth About Personality, which first aired on 10 July 2013, Mosley explored what science can tell people about optimism and pessimism and whether people can change their outlook.[10][11]

Mosley, along with a group of medical specialists, presented a documentary series titled The Diagnostic Detectives which aired in 2020. In the series, each programme is centred around the group of doctors who choose to tackle a patient's problem.[12][13]

In 2021, Mosley presented a three-part series, Lose a Stone in 21 Days for Channel 4. On the programme Mosley suggested that people could lose a stone (14lb, 6.4kg) in 21 days by calorie restriction to only 800 calories a day. This advice is considered dangerous by some medical experts and the programme received criticism on social media platforms.[14] Beat, a UK charity supporting those affected by eating disorders, wrote the following day that "the programme caused enough stress and anxiety to our beneficiaries that we extended our Helpline hours to support anyone affected and received 51% more contact during that time".[15]

Mosley presented the series Just One Thing on BBC Radio 4, of which each episode explored a single action a person could take to improve their health. Suggestions covered a wide range including reading poetry out loud,[16] taking hot baths in the evening,[17] playing a musical instrument, Nordic walking, and cooking tomatoes to increase their health benefits.[18] As of 9 June 2024, 102 episodes had been broadcast with three more, sharing the title "Exercise clever", scheduled for 13, 20 and 27 June 2024.[18]