By Annabel Rackham, Ian Youngs, Culture reporter
BBCMichael Mosley, who has gone missing while on holiday on the Greek island of Symi, is one of the best-known presenters on British TV and radio.
Mosley has been a fixture on the airwaves for almost two decades, known for his engaging and likeable style in shows that delve into diet, exercise and medicine.
With series like Trust Me I’m a Doctor, The Truth about Exercise and Lose a Stone in 21 Days, he often puts himself through the regimes he is testing out.
Millions more know him for appearances on BBC One’s The One Show and ITV’s This Morning.
He is also famous for popularising the 5:2 and the Fast 800 diets, which advocate for intermittent fasting and low-carbohydrate meals.
Meanwhile, the simple, accessible health tips in his BBC Radio 4 series Just One Thing have attracted 25 million listeners around the world, with a TV version announced earlier this year.
Mosley launched Just One Thing in 2021, with each episode focuing on a single idea for listeners to improve their health and lifestyle.
He has now presented more than 100 episodes, exploring easy life hacks ranging from taking an early-morning walk and meditating to skipping and eating chocolate.
He recorded an edition of the show at last week’s Hay Festival, and the most recent episode – about the benefits of eating slowly – was aired on Radio 4 on Thursday morning.
Behind the scenes
Mosley was born in India in 1957, moving to England at the age of seven to attend boarding school.
The presenter started out his adult life as an investment banker after studying PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) at Oxford University, but became bored of finance after two years in the job.
He retrained as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in London, but rather than using his skills in a medical capacity, he joined the BBC as an assistant producer in 1985.
He worked his way through the ranks, becoming producer of science shows like Tomorrow’s World, QED and Horizon.
Other behind-the-scenes credits include The Human Face, which was presented by John Cleese and featured Elizabeth Hurley, Pierce Brosnan and Sir David Attenborough, and was recognised with an Emmy nomination in 2002.
Mosley received Bafta nominations for his work as executive producer on Leonardo, which starred Sir Mark Rylance as the painter, and Pompeii – The Last Day, both in 2003.
He then moved in front of the camera, becoming a household name thanks to programmes like BBC One’s Make Me… in 2009, in which he experimented on himself to find out if he could make himself smarter, stay awake and delay ageing.
He also gained popularity for pulling stunts such as injecting snake venom into his own blood and eating tapeworms to see what impact they have on the body.
Weight loss series
His 2012 BBC documentary The Truth About Exercise explored who benefitted the most from different types of aerobic training, while 2013’s The Truth About Personality followed a similar format but focused on different outlooks on life and how to change them.
The same year, he helped bring back Trust Me I’m a Doctor, a programme he had originally produced in the late 1990s.
This time he was leading the line-up of presenters who examined a variety of health claims, attracting more than three million viewers.
Some of his work has been seen as controversial, including his 2021 series Lose a Stone in 21 Days for Channel 4.
He said in the three-part series that it was possible to lose a stone in three weeks by extreme calorie restriction.
This received backlash on social media, with eating disorder charity Beat stating they extended the hours of their helpline to support anyone affected by the show.
The broadcaster addressed this on social media at the time, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Channel 4 spoke to Beat long before the programme went out.
“More than 800 people who are overweight or obese have taken part in randomised clinical trials of the 800 calorie approach with striking improvements in health,” he added.
Mosley’s diets have advocated for a similar approach, with his Fast 800 Diet recommending those wishing to lose weight undertake an 800 calorie-a-day meal plan that is low in carbohydrates and includes Mediterranean foods.
His diets have attracted a lot of attention in the past, both for their methods and scientific accuracy.
While qualified as a doctor, Mosley is no longer registered as a medical doctor.
He is married to Clare Bailey, also a doctor and author, and has four children.
