Michael Mosley’s affection for his wife shone through as the BBC broadcast his last ever interview – about how to live a good life.
The Mail health guru’s poignant final programme was recorded before an audience at the Hay Festival just two weeks before the beloved health expert’s tragic death in Greece.
Time and again, Dr Mosley mentioned his wife Dr Clare Bailey with whom he has four children and worked closely on all his projects.
Before Radio 4 listeners heard him speaking for the last time, his friend and fellow TV doctor and presenter Chris van Tulleken paid tribute to him as ‘one of the most important broadcasters in recent decades’, adding: ‘Before Michael, doctors in white coasts told you how to live from their ivory towers.
‘Michael’s genius was to make himself the patient and guinea pig. We’ll never forget him infecting himself with a tape worm and having a camera put up his back passage – all for our benefit. He’s the reason so many programmes on radio and television adopted this style – he is the reason I adopted this style.’
Michael Mosley’s (pictured) poignant final programme was recorded before an audience at the Hay Festival just two weeks before the beloved health expert’s tragic death in Greece
Dr Mosley (pictured on the programme BBC Blood and Guts) said he sought pain and pleasure by having cold showers, joking that he masked the discomfort by singing loudly ‘which my wife really hates’
Referring to Dr Mosley’s acclaimed series Just One Thing to improve our health, Dr Van Tulleken said his legacy would ‘live on in our memories every time we brush our teeth standing up on one leg, fast a little longer between meals or do squats’.
The nutritionist, 67, died while he was holidaying with his wife on the Greek island of Symi last week.
He apparently got lost while walking in 40C blazing sunshine and collapsed just yards from salvation at a beach resort.
His final broadcast was filmed at the Hay Festival on May 25, in which Dr Mosley interviewed Professor Paul Bloom, an expert on pain and pleasure and asked him his five tips for living a good life.
Dr Mosley said: ‘I’ve been obsessed with the question on how to live a good life for a long time.’
He said he sought pain and pleasure by having cold showers, joking that he masked the discomfort by singing loudly ‘which my wife really hates’.
Fellow TV doctor and presenter Chris van Tulleken paid tribute to Dr Mosley throughout the programme, alleging his ‘genius was to make himself the patient and guinea pig’. He said viewers will never forget Mosley (pictured on BBC Infested! Living with Parasites) infecting himself with a tape worm
Michael Mosley’s affection for his wife shone through as the BBC broadcast his last ever interview – about how to live a good life. Time and again, Dr Mosley mentioned his wife Dr Clare Bailey (pictured with her husband at their home in 2013) with whom he has four children and worked closely on all his projects
Michael Mosley is seen alongside his wife Clare and others, including a camera crew, at Colwyn Bay, north Wales, on May 10 – just weeks before his disappearance in Symi, Greece
He also raised laughs from the audience when he revealed that when he built IKEA shelving badly, ‘my wife says, ‘why on earth didn’t you go out and buy it’,’ – but the pleasure of DIY is a tip for a good life.
Another tip on the special programme – an extended version of Just One Thing for an upcoming series on more in-depth health advice – was to ‘lose yourself’, by which the pair discussed getting out and doing something different to give their minds a break.
Dr Van Tulleken told listeners of the tribute programme, There’s Only One Michael Mosley: ‘You can hear just how happy Michael is in this encounter, how fascinated he was by the research and how he made sense of it for the audience too, all while making sure everyone had a good time.
‘How to live a good life – something that he most certainly did.’