Michael Mosley obit

Michael Mosley: TV presenter found dead on Greek island, wife confirms

Dr Clare Bailey says her husband ‘almost made it’ after his body was found close to a coastal resort in Symi 

He was not on the list.

The wife of the British TV presenter Michael Mosley has confirmed the “devastating” news that her husband has been found dead on the Greek island of Symi.

Dr Clare Bailey said she and the couple’s four children took comfort in the fact that he “had almost made it”, after his body was found close to a coastal resort on Sunday.

“We’re taking comfort in the fact that he so very nearly made it. He did an incredible climb, took the wrong route and collapsed where he couldn’t be easily seen by the extensive search team.”

Mosley, 67, went missing after going for a walk on the island on Wednesday, sparking an intensive five-day search.

Confirming that he had been found, Bailey said she did not “know quite where to begin”. In a statement, she said: “It’s devastating to have lost Michael, my wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant husband. We had an incredibly lucky life together. We loved each other very much and were so happy together.”

Bailey, who met Mosley at medical school, said she was “incredibly proud” of the couple’s children and of their resilience and support. “My family and I have been hugely comforted by the outpouring of love from people from around the world. It’s clear that Michael meant a huge amount to so many of you,” she said.

She added that Mosley – who repeatedly tested scientific theories on his own body – was an adventurous man, which was “part of what made him so special”.

She added: “We are so grateful to the extraordinary people on Symi who have worked tirelessly to help find him. Some of these people on the island, who hadn’t even heard of Michael, worked from dawn till dusk unasked. We’re also very grateful to the press who have dealt with us with great respect.

“I feel so lucky to have our children and my amazing friends. Most of all, I feel so lucky to have had this life with Michael.”

On the fifth day of what had become an increasingly frantic hunt, Mosley was reportedly discovered by a camera operator working with the state broadcaster ERT.

His body was discovered on rocky terrain close to a fence, next to a small resort that is accessible only by boat or by foot. The resort is on the opposite side of the bay from where he had left his wife and friends and around 30 minutes’ walk from Pedi, where he was last seen.

Extreme weather warnings have been in place this week on Symi, where temperatures have reached above 40C (104F) in the afternoon.

“It is clear from his watch and clothes that it is Dr Mosley,” a police spokesperson, Konstantina Dimoglou, said. A police source told BBC News the deceased had been dead “for a number of days”.

A news camera crew said they had spotted the body from a boat in the bay of Ayia Marina, having zoomed in on an image they had captured.

“We located him [from a boat] when we went into the bay of Ayia Marina,” said the ERT journalist Aristides Miaoulis, who described how when the team’s camera operator looked back at his footage, he noticed “something strange”.

“Looking back at the material he had got, he saw something strange near a fence, about 50 metres from the sea, and then we could see, once we zoomed in, that it was this man, because his watch was glinting [in the sun].”

The island’s mayor, who was with the media team, said previously 200 people had searched the site and yet Mosley had not been found. The Hellenic coastguard was immediately called to the area, and it was taped off.

It was announced that a postmortem will be conducted at Rhodes’ general hospital on Monday. Mosley’s body was transferred to the bigger island within hours of its discovery.

In an initial assessment, a coroner who travelled to the island earlier on Sunday ruled out foul play, adding that there were no signs, beyond a head wound the Briton is likely to have sustained when he fell, of criminal activity.

The discovery was made on the day search teams had turned their focus to a set of caves belonging to a rocky outcrop close to Ayia Marina beach. Images that had been intentionally blurred showed the remains were found on rocky land by a chain link fence close to the beach resort.

At around 2pm local time (12pm BST) on Sunday, firefighters arrived at the marina by boat and carried an orange stretcher and large black bag to where the body was found; others in plain clothes and carrying briefcases went up the rocky hill, PA Media reported.

Five firefighters left the island by boat with the body on a stretcher at around 2.45pm local time. On Saturday, an emergency helicopter spent hours flying across the mountainous search site on Symi between Pedi bay and Ayia Marina. Mosley set off hiking from St Nikolas beach at 1.30pm local time on Wednesday, bound for the port town of Symi, where he was staying in a house with friends, a walk of a little over 2 miles.

Mosley attended a boarding school in England from the age of seven. 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, and studied at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (now part of UCL Medical School). He became disillusioned with psychiatry after a placement in the specialty during his degree course and decided not to practise medicine after passing his final examinations in 1985.

 

After graduating in medicine, Mosley elected not to begin working as a pre-registration house officer and pursue a career as a doctor, but instead joined a trainee assistant producer scheme at the BBC in 1985. Mosley was a joint executive producer for a number of science programmes, including programmes with Robert Winston, The Human Face presented by John Cleese, and the 2004 BBC Two engineering series Inventions That Changed the World hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. His career in front of the camera began in 2007, when he pitched a series for BBC TV called Medical Mavericks and, unable to find a suitable host, offered to present it himself. He went on to present numerous programmes for TV, including Blood and Guts, The Story of Science and Make Me.

 

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.

 

Mosley presented a two-part documentary, Frontline Medicine, in 2011, with episodes called "Survival" and "Rebuilding Lives". These programmes described the recent medical advancements that allowed for improved treatment of military personnel injured during battle in Afghanistan, and examined how these new techniques were being used in emergency medicine in civilian casualties in the United States and Great Britain.

 

Television

Year     Title            Channel           Notes

2007            Medical Mavericks            BBC Four    

2008    Blood and Guts            BBC Two    

2009    Make Me       BBC One     

2010    The Brain – A Secret History            BBC Four    

The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion            BBC Two     Six-part series.

Pleasure and Pain      BBC One     

The Young Ones    BBC One     

2011            Frontline Medicine            BBC Two    

Ten Things about Weight Loss     BBC One     

Inside the Human Body            BBC One      Four-part series and a Best of Series episode.

2012    Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach            BBC Four     Also referred to as Inside Michael Mosley.

Eat, Fast and Live longer            BBC Two    

Truth about Exercise            BBC Two    

2013    One Show   BBC One      Topical films about science.

Horizon Specials            BBC Two    

The Truth About...            BBC Two    

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines            BBC Four     Three-part series.

Winter Viruses and How to Beat Them            BBC Two     Co presented with Alice Roberts.

The Genius of Invention            BBC Two     Four-part series between 24 January and 14 February. Co-presented with Mark Miodownik and Cassie Newland.

The Truth About Personality            BBC Two     A Horizon (BBC TV series) documentary.

2013–2020            Trust Me, I'm a Doctor BBC Two    

2014            Infested! Living with Parasites            BBC Four    

Should I Eat Meat?  BBC Two     Total of two episodes as a part of Horizon 2014–2015 series.

2015    Is your Brain Male or Female BBC Two            Episode 7 of Horizon 2014–2015 series.

Countdown to Life: the Extraordinary Making of You            BBC Two     Three-part series.

Are Health Tests Really a Good Idea?            BBC Two    

2016    E-Cigarettes: Miracle or Menace?            BBC Two    

Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility BBC Four    

2017    Meet the Humans            BBC Earth    Five-part series.

2021    21 Day Body Turnaround with Michael Mosley            Channel 4        Three-part series.

Lose a Stone in 21 Days with Michael Mosley            Channel 4        Three-part series.

Australia's Health Revolution            SBS            Three-part series tackling type 2 diabetes in Australia.

2022    Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat?            Channel 4        Two-part series.

Horizon: How To Sleep Well            BBC Two    

2024            Australia's Sleep Revolution            SBS            Three part serieds. In partnership with Flinders University.

Michael Mosley: Secrets of Your Big Shop            Channel 4        Michael Mosley meets UK families and examines how they can reduce their health problems through simple changes to their diet. Four-part series.

Radio

Year     Title            Channel           Notes

2021–2024            Just One Thing            BBC Radio 4            105 15-minute episodes