Lion Television’s Richard Bradley on Pompeii & Ultra-Processed Foods

Lion Television produces a broad range of programming, spanning factual, entertainment, children’s and scripted, for which it has won numerous awards. Its factual offerings range from series explorations of ancient civilizations, such as Pompeii: The New Dig, following the largest archaeological excavation in a generation, to films that delve into current issues, such as Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating. As Richard Bradley, the company’s co-founder and chief creative officer, tells TV Real Weekly, the film examines the origins of the obesity crisis present in numerous countries. He also talks about returning to Pompeii and working with a team of Italian archaeologists as they make new discoveries.

TV REAL: Tell us about your new film, Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating. How did it come about?
BRADLEY: All of us have been increasingly aware of the food we’re eating, that much of it probably isn’t good for us, and there’s a global obesity pandemic. In certain parts of the world, such as France, they would probably be better at resisting this food culture that’s emerged. They still sit down for a meal of freshly cooked food that takes time to digest. But in most of the world, that’s not the case. What’s happened is ultra-processing. Dr. Chris van Tulleken, a U.K. doctor, TV presenter and very significant researcher, wrote a book called Ultra-Processed People. It’s a fantastic, life-changing book—a history of ultra-processed food. We managed to get the rights to it and decided to make a film of it. Chris traced the roots of this development of the food industry. If you look at all the obesity statistics across North America, across all demographics, ages and ethnicities, they were all going along pretty flat, with only a slight increase. But in 1975, and thereafter, the levels of obesity increased and kept going up and up. So, the question is, as Chris says very well in the film, if you think it’s about the loss of willpower, then you have to believe that everyone in America, suddenly, across all demographics, all ages, all ethnicities, all lost willpower at the same time in 1975. That just isn’t credible.

Chris tracks Howard Moskowitz, who was looking at how you make food tastier. He created the concept of the bliss point—which is peak sugar, fat and salt—the moment when you put these ingredients together to make something irresistible and hyper-palatable. It’s this idea of, “My goodness, it tastes so good!” It’s the bliss point. These were very smart chemists who, at many levels, started with great intentions: making food more affordable, cheaper and more available. Working moms didn’t have time to cook. How do you feed a population with affordable, easy-to-access food? The problem is, once you’ve cracked this idea of the scientific formulation of foods, it’s almost like the beast is unleashed. You end up with a system in which they try to make food that lasts longer and has cheaper ingredients.

We do a little test in the film where we show a lemon cake that mom would make at home with lemons, flour, sugar and maybe a bit of baking powder. That’s it. Then we show a shop-bought lemon cake. It has 30 to 40 ingredients. It has anti-mold agents, but they taste like paracetamol, which is really bitter. So, you add flavoring to mask the anti-mold agents, and that creates funny colors. So, you put coloring in to turn it yellow and back to being a lemon cake. What you end up with is this out-of-control system.

Then there’s sonic branding. For example, Snapple, I think they’ve trademarked the sound [the cap makes when you open the bottle] because, in your head, it starts preparing you for the taste. Or packets of chips; when they make a rustling sound, they feel fresh, even though they may have been sitting on a store shelf for weeks or months.

For me, one of the scariest revelations was that one of the big food companies brings in brain scanners because one of the scientists decides, “Let’s not leave it to tasting panels to decide what tastes better. Let’s see what happens to your brain.” So, they bring brain scanners into the companies to look at the impact of food on your brain. When parts of your brain light up, they double down on [certain ingredients].

Another interesting part is about Carlos Monteiro, who framed the idea of processed food. He was in Brazil, wondering why there was a massive growth in obesity. He looked at it, and the increase in obesity was coming with a decline in purchases of salt, sugar and fat in the supermarkets, and wondered what was going on. We thought salt, sugar and fat were things that made you obese, but sales were going down. They were going down because fewer people were cooking at home. Everyone was buying processed food and ready meals. It’s been absolutely fascinating.

It’s very powerful. What makes this show different is that everybody in it is a food industry insider. They’re talking about what they do, the challenges of creating cheap food and how this has happened. It’s got something very powerful to say about the obesity crisis.

TV REAL: On a completely different topic, you have gone back to Pompeii and have Italian archaeologists working with you for Pompeii: The New Dig.
BRADLEY: We have made several programs in Pompeii over the years. It’s endlessly fascinating because it’s an extraordinary time capsule of Roman life. And it’s the best place in the world to see that. We heard that a third of Pompeii is still to be uncovered and excavated. The reason they hadn’t done it is because everything you excavate, you then have to restore. So, they had stopped because they have so much still to restore. But in this case, part of the site was crumbling, and they wanted to neaten the edge. They decided to excavate the equivalent of a city block. It was the biggest excavation in a generation. Because of our ongoing relationship with Pompeii, we were able to get access to the excavation. Our pitch to them was that rather than having an outside historian coming in, we would foreground their archaeologists. They have a fabulous team, and, of course, they deal with it day to day. They were very excited to have their team front and center of an international series. But it did mean that there would be some Italian in it. One of the challenges for us was to go to broadcasters and say, You’ll have to live with some subtitles. I didn’t think that would be a problem because I thought of the interest in the subject area, but also, the younger generation doesn’t care about subtitles. And when you’ve got somebody discovering the body of a slave or whatever, and they’re going, “Mamma mia!” it adds a frisson of excitement! So, that was our pitch to them. We said, rather than paying a daily rate, let us be there for a significant chunk of time. That way, we can do our job better, and we’re not getting in your way.

The pitch to the broadcasters was that we’ve got access to this wonderful dig. And they all said, What are we going to find? They always ask that when we’re doing archaeological projects. But our answer is that we don’t know. That’s the process of archaeology, but it will be interesting. And, of course, in Pompeii, they will find something because daily life stopped in an instant. The BBC came in first and substantially, then ARTE in France, and PBS in the U.S. It has sold very well; All3Media International has done a wonderful job with it.

We have a British-Italian team behind the camera, which is fantastic. Elena Mortelliti, the series’ director, is an Anglo-Italian. Our DOP was Italian, and our producer was Italian. It means that they understand all the nuances of what’s going on. It came together really well. They found a bakery, a laundry and the first-ever fresco of the pizza.

TV REAL: Which really wasn’t a pizza; more of a focaccia!
BRADLEY: Yes, a focaccia! On the other side of the bakery wall, we found a dining room with black walls but with incredible frescoes. It was stunning. They think that on the other side of the bakery, there was a posh villa. That was very exciting.

Very early on, we found the skeletons of two women and a little child. They think those were possibly slaves working in the bakery who couldn’t escape. It’s incredibly moving and so poignant. The archaeologists feel connected at that moment with the common humanity. The program got 3 million viewers on BBC Two. Each episode did really well on ARTE, with viewing figures up about 30 percent in France and double the audience in Germany. It did well on PBS, and everyone has come back in for the continuation.

TV REAL: When you film, are you seeing archaeologists finding things in the moment?
BRADLEY: It is absolutely key to us that this is an authentic process. In many archaeological digs, that can be quite painful. If you’re digging in a muddy Scandinavian field looking for a Viking longship, it takes forever. In Pompeii, the volcanic lapilli [fragments of lava that fall to earth during an eruption] come away and are very light. It’s like polystyrene beads used for packaging. So, archaeologists make incredible progress very often in a day.

We plan our filming around moments when we know they’re getting closer to ground level. The secret is to be on board with the archaeological team so that if they feel like they’re getting to something, they call you in rather than try to keep you out, which can happen in other situations because they want to get on with their job. It was crucial that they felt able to bring us in at critical moments. If they found something, we would extend the shoots for several days to keep going. You get a sense that you, as the audience, are there, too. It’s a ringside seat. What we’re trying to do in some of these premium archaeological programs is give the audience the privileged access of being there when discoveries are made. And it is thrilling!

TV REAL: I also find these shows to be thought-provoking. We are surrounded by chaos today, but past civilizations were, too, and they were able to move on.
BRADLEY: That would be Mary Beard’s line. She would say that the Romans or the Ancients had to face almost all the issues we face today. They came up with solutions and answers and, as you say, got through it. So, these shows give some reassurance, but also a sense of understanding that we’re not the first people to deal with these issues.

TV REAL: So, technology drives progress, but people have not progressed? Are we just as greedy, power-hungry and selfish as we’ve always been?
BRADLEY: That’s exactly right. But we are also as creative and inventive, so it’s not all negative. One good example: I was there on the day they were pulling the volcanic lapilli back in one of the ruins, and they uncovered a set of workmen’s tools—picks, shovels and whatever—all neatly lined up. The archaeologists who were uncovering them were using exactly the same tools today! So, you got the sense of two workmen having a conversation over 2,000 years! Then, you have wonderful restorers and artists looking at the frescoes in the black room with these exquisite pictures of Helen of Troy. Artists today would struggle to render things as beautifully as this. So, even with all the chaos and the challenges of running a society, these programs also remind you of all the good things about the human spirit and what we’re capable of.