Storm Theunissen’s Joe Wicks documentary grabs the nation’s attention

The stand-alone documentary JOE WICKS: LICENSED TO KILL directed by Stern & Wild filmmaker Storm Theunissen has made headlines for nearly two weeks as debate around food safety standards has raged across the press and social media.

The provocative show, which premiered on Channel 4 on Monday, follows fitness coach Joe Wicks and doctor and scientist Professor Chris van Tulleken as they create the UK’s most dangerous protein bar – Killer – to highlight the potentially harmful ingredients permitted by food regulators to be sold on our shelves.

It was previewed extensively across the press and was pick-of-the-day in the Daily Mail, the Observer, The Times, The Mirror and the Sun; a must-watch pick in The Guardian, The Telegraph, the i-Paper and the Yorkshire Post; and critics’ choice in the Sunday Times and the Daily Star. The issues raised in the show generated massive press attention including features in the Sunday Telegraph, the Times, the Metro, the Daily Express, Women’s Health and LadBible, while Joe hit the interview seat for Good Morning Britain and Loose Women and a host of radio shows including on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Scotland and LBC.

Review coverage was huge. The following extracts give a flavour:

“It pulled zero punches... This was brave television and not your average health documentary.”
Carol Midgley, The Times ★ ★ ★ ★

“It’s frightening viewing that refuses to hold back... Licensed to Kill, with its unabashed anger at rampant commercialism and its belief that the problem has gone far enough to demand radical, even reckless political action, feels like it might be part of something wider than an argument about snack food.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian ★ ★ ★ ★

“Whether his novel take on healthy television will do for protein snacks what Jamie Oliver’s campaigning did for turkey twizzlers remains to be seen. Either way, it was clever of Wicks to come at the topic from a different angle… ”
Ed Power, The Telegraph ★ ★ ★

JOE WICKS: LICENSED TO KILL is available to stream now on Channel4.com.

Joe Wicks and Chris van Tulleken. Photograph: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock for Channel 4