Calling this short six-minute interview with the late Dr Michael Mosley a “lost tape” might be overhyping it. There hadn’t been too many people out searching for it…until now.
The original went out on the Sky News Business Channel in 2016. For a decade from 2008 Mediaweek provided content for a 30-minute weekly media show which was anchored by a series of talented TV presenters. And Mediaweek’s James Manning!
Across the years we had many great guests from all parts of the media and advertising sectors. One thing they all had in common was a desire to speak frankly about their industry and share their insights.
That’s certainly what Michael Mosley came armed with during a short interview in 2016. Mosley was in Australia on a promo tour for the BBC. One of those engagements was at the annual ASTRA conference which is where he spoke to Mediaweek co-host James Manning.
Don’t forget SBS on Wednesday 3 July at 7.35pm when the channel will broadcast the BBC tribute program Michael Mosley: The Doctor Who Changed Britain.
Interview highlights: Mosley’s media journey
I actually spent 10 years as a director, then 10 years as an executive producer, and then now it’s been 10 years as a presenter. [Remember, these are timelines for 2016.]
Did you ever think about being the ‘star’, building a brand?
Not in the slightest, no. It was completely random. I had this idea that I wanted to do the history of medicine told through self-experimenters, and so I was pitching that for about 14 years.
Eventually I got in front of the controller of BBC4 at the time, and she said, who’s going to present this series? And I said, no idea. She said, why don’t you do it? And that was 10 years ago.
I’ve been lucky and I’ve continued doing things since.
How BBC Worldwide [now BBC Studios] made it all possible
[At the time we spoke with Mosley, the Top Gear trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May had just exited BBC Worldwide. We asked Mosley if he might have moved up the ladder a little at the broadcaster.]
To be honest, I have absolutely not a clue what I am worth to BBC Worldwide at all. The relationship is a very much sort of mutual one, because Worldwide make my films possible.
They put the money into it. They make it possible for them to be distributed around the world. So it’s a very mutually beneficial arrangement.
Mosley indicated he enjoyed meeting his global broadcast partners
I absolutely love it. Really, really interesting. You get a completely different perspective on things, and you also learn a lot coming to conferences like this.
You find out what other people are doing, and that is incredibly energising, because the risk is obviously if you stay at home, you just get sort of domestic worries. And it is really, really thrilling, I have to say. People come and talk about your programs. You also see a lot of other programs.
Watch Mediaweek’s Michael Mosley interview
Programs that resonate globally with audiences
Certainly one of the programs I did, Eat, Fast, Live Longer, led to the 5:2 Diet. The Fast Diet was a book I wrote. So that as a single program really resonated.
I also do a series called Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, which is shown here, which has been sold to PBS, and is also popular in Scandinavian countries. I’m very popular in Sweden. I was actually surprised.
I was in the loo yesterday here, and somebody came up to me and said, I really like your shoes. I looked down at my feet, and he was saying, your shoes.
So yeah, it’s really good fun. New Zealand as well, I was in recently. I was surprised to discover a lot of people watch BBC Knowledge there, and therefore they’re very aware of what I do. People like the fact that I embrace it very wholeheartedly.
I do the experiments on myself and throw myself into it with a great deal of enthusiasm. I guess that stretches out the production time for some of these projects, because we sit down and consume it in an hour or something.
Spending time getting it right
Typically a production can last anywhere from three months to a year, depending what they are. I do quite a lot of programs simultaneously as well.
Some of the things, like the Horizon special I did, entailed my losing around 10 kilos. That actually took about three months, but part of that was just being in the edit. Sometimes what they do is they build it into the edit.
Editing is typically, say, two months. What you do is you get to a certain point. The thing about these programs is also we almost never know how they’re going to turn out.
Until pretty much the last day of the edit, you don’t quite know what the conclusion of this film is going to be, which is a little bit hair-raising. I did one, for example, which involved swallowing tapeworm cysts. And really right to the end, I didn’t know if I was infected or not.
It was only when I swallowed a pill camera, and you could actually see the little tapeworm down there. And this was actually in an Indian restaurant. I’m there, I’ve got my iPad out, which the pill camera is broadcasting live to there.
And suddenly I go, hey! The producer is completely thrilled, because as I said, until that point, we could have done the whole thing and nothing happened. That would have been something of a downer.
Global bestselling author too
The 5:2 Diet became an international bestseller. It became a New York Times bestseller.
It has sold very well here. I’ve written another book recently called The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet, which is also doing extremely well over here. I seem to translate well.
The thing I’m kind of banging on about at the moment is diabetes and pre-diabetes, because those are a major health risk in places like Australia, but also throughout the world.
Frankly, particularly in Asia, because Asians, Indians, for whatever reason, are at much greater risk of diabetes. And it is reversible.
It is treatable. And that’s kind of one of the messages I want to get out there.
See also:
The doctor down under: Artemis Media’s Celia Tait on working with Michael Mosley for SBS
Michael Mosley and Celia Tate