Do you know the feeling when you watch something and are transported into that moment, fully engaged and brought on a journey? Dr. Micheal Mosley and James Wong do just this in ‘The Secrets of your food’ a three-part docuseries. They engage the audience and educate us about the processes and transformations our food takes on from farm to fork, revealing some secrets along the way.

They use key components of good storytelling; An authentic structural narrative, scienticfic relevance, relatable analogies, a great protaganist, understanding the audience, a bit of humour and some interesting characters along the way.

Mosley and Wong have a background in science, health and science communication. Not only do they bring this to the docuseries, they also bring their passion. We, as viewers, are brought on many trips across the world to learn what happens to our food before it reaches our plate. The presenters are good examples of what protagonists are. Both are likeable, warm, trustworthy and clever. Dr. Mosley’s high energy is infectious and their plain talking, and clever analogies make the content accessible to the lay audience. The micro stories (smaller stories within a story) happening within each documentary have a definite beginning, middle and end. There are clear examples of ‘ABT’ (a framework for storytelling: ‘And, But, Therefore’, see our Toolbox for examples).

One of these stories takes us on a journey of a specific cheese and the ‘old rugby sock’ stink but they explain how it has a double taste effect, you can almost smell and taste it through the screen. The clear narrative leaves little room for misinformation. As the viewer, we learn not only where the food comes from, or how the cheese smells but the effect it all has, physically, biologically and chemically on our brain. The series leaves us viewers more informed to make better choices and motivated to fuel our body. You can feed ‘the greediest part of your body’ and find out more about this series and why it is a good example in storytelling in our handbook Page 52.

Author: Laura Rice, UCD