TV doc Nick Coatsworth wants to show us how to live forever says Norman Swan isn’t always right

Nick Coatsworth rose to public prominence doling out government health advice during Covid-19 and now as a TV doctor is about to debut a docu-series that aims to show us how we can live forever.

Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer and now TV guru Nick Coatsworth. Picture: Getty Images

It’s a poignant coincidence that Nine’s blockbuster documentary on longevity – hosted by physician-turned TV doctor Nick Coatsworth and Tracy Grimshaw – is hitting Australian screens just as the world grieves the untimely death of British celebrity medic Michael Mosley.

The four-part series, Do you Want to Live Forever, that debuts Monday, is Coatsworth’s first big project for Nine since being hired as the network’s in-house doctor late last year. It’s also Grimshaw’s first return to television since relinquishing the hosting gig of a Current Affair and calling time on a storied 40-year career in TV journalism.

Like Mosley, who trained as a GP and became a cherished and highly influential global science communicator, Coatsworth has recognised the power of television to make a difference in people’s health en masse. It’s the big reason he gave up a career as an infectious diseases specialist and senior Commonwealth bureaucrat (Coatsworth rose to public prominence as a deputy chief medical officer during Covid-19).

Another reason was Norman Swan. “I’d go as far as to say that Norman Swan was a motivating factor, probably not the No. 1 motivator,” Coatsworth says of the veteran ABC journalist and doctor who promoted hawkish policies on Covid-19 during the pandemic. “I think there was incredible value and power to what he was able to do with his Coronacast podcast and that sort of thing.

“But unfortunately, both my wife (a lung transplant doctor) and I still, on occasion, see patients who are fit and well and over 65 who stay at home and don’t do what they used to do.

The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan.

“I’m not in any way blaming Norman for that. But that was the philosophy that was being espoused. And, you know, it’s the antithesis of what this show is about.”

Coatsworth pitched the longevity docu-series to Nine shortly after arriving at the network, aware of the enormous popular interest in the concept but also convinced such a topic could be a powerful vehicle for positive health messaging.

The series follows four Australian couples from a variety of demographics and states of health, plots their biological age against their actual age according to fitness, diet, stress levels and sleep quality, and launches 12-week-long interventions that aim to extend lifespans by years.

“My entire career has been about speaking to patients one-on-one, so the opportunity to speak to a much broader audience was pretty appealing,” Coatsworth says of his switch from medicine to TV. “Even as a GP, but certainly as a specialist, you very rarely get to take people on a health journey. That’s just not our system structure. It’s about taking sick people and making them less sick, and that’s a very different proposition.”

The longevity series is produced by Lune Media, the same outfit responsible for the ABC’s War on Waste and Struggle Street. The talent choices are relatable and entertaining; Coatsworth is a practical and compassionate communicator of medical and lifestyle wisdom, and Grimshaw keeps it real, rigorous and loveable.

The big conclusions are being kept under wraps until the series’ full four weeks unfold, but Coatsworth is happy to give away one small secret.

“We wanted to show the value of acting to change your lifestyle five to 10 years earlier than when your disease might start,” he says.

“But longevity should always be about quality, living life as well as you can, and if you can add quantity to it, that’s great.

“But we shouldn’t be there trying to add quantity just for the sake of it.”