0:00:02 > 0:00:03For centuries,
0:00:03 > 0:00:06explorers have travelled to the ends of the Earth
0:00:06 > 0:00:09in the name of discovery.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Along the way, they created our maps...
0:00:13 > 0:00:15..captured our imagination
0:00:15 > 0:00:18and became rooted in our history.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Exploration has given us some of our greatest heroes
0:00:23 > 0:00:25and most memorable tales.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29But discovery is not all romance and glory.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32As exploration has been studied and re-examined,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35the very notion of discovery has been called into question.
0:00:38 > 0:00:39In this film,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43I'll be digging through the BBC's incredible archive -
0:00:43 > 0:00:46nearly 70 years of documentary footage -
0:00:46 > 0:00:51to pinpoint the monumental shifts in the story of exploration.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Along the way, I'll discover why some explorers
0:00:58 > 0:01:00have remained our heroes...
0:01:01 > 0:01:03..but others have been reinterpreted.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09One immediately takes issue with the cult of the hero.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13I'll examine the changing face of the first-hand account...
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Had I been facing the other way, it would have killed me.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19..and follow the rise of the amateur explorer.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24We crossed by a horrifying bridge about 400 feet long.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29In this programme, I'll discover not only how television has followed
0:01:29 > 0:01:31explorers and told their stories,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34but also how film has actually changed
0:01:34 > 0:01:37the entire enterprise of exploration.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42This is the Timewatch Guide to Explorers.
0:01:46 > 0:01:47Discovery -
0:01:47 > 0:01:52the word alone conjures up wooden ships sailing across the globe,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56a captain at the helm poring over a map and compass.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00For centuries, that was the enduring image of the explorer -
0:02:00 > 0:02:04fearless, full of ambition, poised for glory.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08But over the last 50 years
0:02:08 > 0:02:13our attitudes towards the heroic navigators of old have shifted,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16starting with Christopher Columbus.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20In 1492, he sailed from Europe to the Americas,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23discovering the New World and claiming it for Spain.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31The BBC reconstructed his voyage and landing in 1963,
0:02:31 > 0:02:37telling the age-old story for a growing television audience.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40In the name of Their Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44King and Queen of Castille, Leon and Aragon,
0:02:44 > 0:02:49I now take possession of this land and name it San Salvador.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51THEY CHEER
0:02:51 > 0:02:55I declare that this is Spanish soil for all time,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59drawn up this 12th day of October in the year of Our Lord,
0:02:59 > 0:03:021492.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09In the traditional tellings of the explorers' story,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13it's generally from the point of view of the explorer.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17So you will see the classic trope of an explorer arriving on the beach,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20falling on their hands and knees, giving praise to God,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and claiming the land.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24It's always about planting a flag.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Or if not planting a flag, extending the influence of your people.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34The British answer to Columbus was Captain James Cook.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36He sailed across the world,
0:03:36 > 0:03:38mapping new lands and claiming them for empire.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42He also brought back hundreds of artefacts -
0:03:42 > 0:03:46trophies of his encounters with exotic far-away cultures.
0:03:47 > 0:03:48Two centuries later,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51The Cook Legacy joined curators,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53only now taking on the challenge of
0:03:53 > 0:03:56understanding what these objects actually were.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Their first stop was the British Museum's Museum of Mankind.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04It is one of the unfortunate accidents in the history
0:04:04 > 0:04:07of museums that although the Museum Of Mankind
0:04:07 > 0:04:11probably has the most extensive collection of objects
0:04:11 > 0:04:15collected on Cook's voyages, much of it cannot be identified.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20The problem is not that the objects are missing, lost or dispersed,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22as might have happened in other museums.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25The problem is missing documentation.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29What the experts really needed was a paper trail
0:04:29 > 0:04:32that would give them more information.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34They finally found one in Oxford.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39The Forster Collection here at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford
0:04:39 > 0:04:42is important to our research for two reasons.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Firstly, the material is of very good quality indeed.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Secondly, we have a great deal of documentation,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52both published and unpublished.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57And this means that we are able to tie down the date of collection
0:04:57 > 0:05:01very precisely, we sometimes know from whom it comes,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and we can even localise the specimens,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08in many cases, to particular parts of the island in question.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Pinning down where the objects came from was the first step towards
0:05:13 > 0:05:16understanding the people they had once belonged to.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20So the search goes on,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22for every piece that can be documented
0:05:22 > 0:05:25to collection on Cook's voyages
0:05:25 > 0:05:28tells us something more about Pacific Islanders
0:05:28 > 0:05:32as they were before the voyages of Captain Cook and others
0:05:32 > 0:05:34irrevocably changed their lives.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39The Cook Legacy was not about Captain Cook at all.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42It was about discovering the people he'd met on his voyages,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46as revealed through the objects that Cook had taken from them.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52The material artefacts of voyages of explorations like, for example,
0:05:52 > 0:05:57James Cook's, they become very important because they, in a way,
0:05:57 > 0:06:02are a physical reminder that these objects have a creator,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04they have a history of their own,
0:06:04 > 0:06:05they have a biography.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11The artefacts now told a new and forgotten story.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Scholars have begun to pay more and more attention
0:06:15 > 0:06:17to the other side of exploration.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21The story of the people already living in the places
0:06:21 > 0:06:22being discovered.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28In the 1990s, the BBC decided to tackle this other side directly.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33For the 500th anniversary of Columbus's crossing,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35film-makers travelled to the USA
0:06:35 > 0:06:37to find out what ordinary people thought
0:06:37 > 0:06:40of the so-called discoverer of their continent.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51In New York City on October 12th, Columbus Day, he is an Italian hero.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54It's something to be proud of, an Italian heritage,
0:06:54 > 0:06:55that an Italian discovered America.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58With no Christopher Columbus, we wouldn't be here right now.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02And irrespective of whether or not you hear about other people
0:07:02 > 0:07:04that discovered America,
0:07:04 > 0:07:09Columbus was the man that opened up the Americas to the world.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14But the programme also revealed that while Americans celebrated Columbus
0:07:14 > 0:07:18as a hero, local people in Mexico had a rather different take
0:07:18 > 0:07:21on his actions.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23To many of the Americas' native peoples,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26contact with Europe is still seen as having brought with it
0:07:26 > 0:07:29little but disease, servitude and deprivation.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37The Mayans who live here share the view of many Native Americans
0:07:37 > 0:07:41throughout the Americas towards the quincentenary.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45The Indian point of view is that it shouldn't be celebrated,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49because the conquest, it means domination,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53the end of our own history as Indians.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59And that, of course, is not an occasion of celebration.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04As indigenous people finally got to tell their own story,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07the traditional European narrative was forced to change.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11Over the last 40 years,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15we've increasingly realised that if we want to tell
0:08:15 > 0:08:17the story of exploration,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21we've got to pay much more attention to the people who were
0:08:21 > 0:08:23already there,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26who were living in these lands that the Europeans went
0:08:26 > 0:08:30to discover and colonise.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34One then immediately takes issue with the cult of the hero.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37From an indigenous point of view, from a post-colonial point of view,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40this is just a tale that Europeans tell.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45A growing suspicion of the European explorer had emerged,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48and that's led to a startling shift on television too.
0:08:50 > 0:08:542002's The Ship was a very different type of documentary -
0:08:54 > 0:08:56a living history experiment
0:08:56 > 0:08:58that invited members of the public to recreate life
0:08:58 > 0:09:00as one of Captain Cook's crew.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03During their gruelling weeks-long journey
0:09:03 > 0:09:05up the east coast of Australia,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09the film-makers explored the full picture of Cook's legacy,
0:09:09 > 0:09:10warts and all.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17This is the story of an 18th-century voyage and a 21st-century adventure.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Our volunteer crew includes Royal Navy sailors, scientists,
0:09:27 > 0:09:28medics and historians.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Also part of our crew,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34some of the people most affected by Cook's arrival in this part
0:09:34 > 0:09:38of the world - New Zealand Maori and Australian Aborigines.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Along the way, audiences got a taste of the dangers and discomforts
0:09:45 > 0:09:47that Cook and his crew had experienced.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Sailing a tall ship is a 24-hour operation.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Alex, an Australian historian,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57is now clinging to a yardarm 130 feet above a rolling ocean.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02I've always felt that it was a dangerous temptation
0:10:02 > 0:10:06for historians to get their history exclusively from books,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and coming here to a place like this to think about history
0:10:09 > 0:10:12is an extraordinary experience.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16It's certainly an extreme context in which to think about history.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- BELL RINGS - Down to lunch. Go, go, get.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23The programme also didn't shy away from the contentious aspects
0:10:23 > 0:10:25of Cook's journey and his legacy.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28In fact, it embraced the complexity of the story.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31I don't see him as a hero,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35but I certainly acknowledge what he achieved.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38- His accomplishments. - His accomplishment.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40But the story is about Cook.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43But what about the people that were affected,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46and what about the amount of massacres that went on?
0:10:46 > 0:10:49- You mean after Cook?- After Cook.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54And how the Aboriginal people were affected, and the Maori people?
0:10:54 > 0:10:57The film interwove the indigenous perspective
0:10:57 > 0:11:00with the traditional story of Captain Cook.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07Bruce had hoisted the Aboriginal flag on the first day of our voyage.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10It's a moving symbol.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11I mean...
0:11:13 > 0:11:17..Cook's too easily been assimilated to a kind of white myth,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20but the story is also a story of...
0:11:21 > 0:11:27..of colonialism, of dispossession of indigenous peoples,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29and it's very important that we don't elide that.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Post-colonialism has meant for historians the need to,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41in a beautiful phrase, provincialize Europe -
0:11:41 > 0:11:44to look from the wider world back at Europe
0:11:44 > 0:11:47and to make it a rather little place.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51What we're now dealing with is a much more richly textured history
0:11:51 > 0:11:52than we had before,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55when you've got the points of view and the experiences of the different
0:11:55 > 0:11:57groups who were encountered.
0:12:00 > 0:12:01Back in the 1960s,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05the BBC had presented discovery as a heroic, white,
0:12:05 > 0:12:06European tale.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09But by the 21st century,
0:12:09 > 0:12:13film-makers not only saw a more complicated and ambiguous story,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17they'd also created new ways of telling it.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27The past doesn't change, but the stories we tell about it,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29they change all the time.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32What we choose to remember from history is not really about
0:12:32 > 0:12:35the past at all, it's about the present.
0:12:37 > 0:12:38Nothing shows this more clearly
0:12:38 > 0:12:41than which explorers we exalt as heroes.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45They fall in and out of favour as our own society evolves
0:12:45 > 0:12:48from decade to decade.
0:12:48 > 0:12:49In 1965,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52the young David Attenborough set out to follow in the footsteps
0:12:52 > 0:12:56of David Livingstone, the quintessential Victorian hero.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Livingstone was one of the first Europeans to explore
0:13:01 > 0:13:03the interior of Africa.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07His journeys made him into an iconic British explorer,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09even into the 1960s.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12For Attenborough, retracing Livingstone's journeys
0:13:12 > 0:13:15was an opportunity to show the beauty of his greatest discoveries
0:13:15 > 0:13:17to a new television audience.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21As he travelled in the canoe,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24he had with him this small pocketbook.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27These figures are the hours that he took as he went down river.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31Up here, he's noted the nature of the rocks he passes -
0:13:31 > 0:13:33porphyry with crystals covered with copper.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35And then, on the next page,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38come the details of his approach to the falls.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Not surprisingly, Attenborough paid special attention
0:13:42 > 0:13:44to the natural world
0:13:44 > 0:13:48and to Livingstone's most famous geographical discovery -
0:13:48 > 0:13:49the Victoria Falls.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57And so he came to this spot and looked right over the very edge
0:13:57 > 0:14:02of the falls, the first white man ever to do so.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Livingstone's own comment is a typical understatement.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07"For a moment," he wrote,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10"I thought we were going to go right into the gulf.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12"And I felt a tremor,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14"but I said nothing,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17"believing that I could face the difficulty as well as my guides."
0:14:19 > 0:14:21Until now, he had never used anything
0:14:21 > 0:14:25but the local African name for all his geographical discoveries.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29But here, for the first and last time, he broke with this rule,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32and he called these the Victoria Falls.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Livingstone is still famous for his discovery of the Victoria Falls,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44but by the 1960s, he was starting to feel like an old-fashioned hero,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46partly because his main purpose was actually
0:14:46 > 0:14:48not science or inspiration,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50but a very Victorian one -
0:14:50 > 0:14:53to convert Africa to Christianity.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55The people say that it was under this tree,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57which blew down only a year ago,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00that Livingstone pitched his tent.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Already, before his journey had really begun,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04he was stricken by fever,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06and so weak that he hadn't the strength
0:15:06 > 0:15:09to go out and hunt for meat for himself.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12But the chief of Sesheke hospitably sent him gifts
0:15:12 > 0:15:16of honey and milk and fruit and maize.
0:15:16 > 0:15:17Weak though he was,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Livingstone nonetheless found the strength
0:15:19 > 0:15:22to preach both in the morning and the afternoon,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26and was listened to by audiences of over 600.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28By the 1960s,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31the religious culture which had really sustained
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Livingstone's reputation,
0:15:33 > 0:15:38I'm talking about Sunday schools, missionary organisations, etc,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41well, that has really ebbed away.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42It hasn't disappeared,
0:15:42 > 0:15:46and Christianity is still an important force in public life,
0:15:46 > 0:15:48but it has nothing like the power
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and authority that kept Livingstone at the centre
0:15:52 > 0:15:55of the public stage through the 19th century.
0:15:58 > 0:16:04In 1975, Attenborough was again at the helm, introducing The Explorers,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08an epic series highlighting ten of the most important heroes of exploration.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13This time, Livingstone the missionary did not make the list.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Instead, reflecting the priorities of 1970s Britain,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20the producers included a woman explorer, Mary Kingsley,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23who transformed how the British viewed Africa.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Here now is the remarkable story
0:16:28 > 0:16:30of one of the shortest important journeys
0:16:30 > 0:16:32in the annals of discovery.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35It lasted barely a week in 1893,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39and covered no more than 60 or 70 miles.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43And yet it was a journey which had enormous impact on white Europeans,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45for through Mary Kingsley's eyes,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50the blinkered world of Victorian Britain was to see an interpretation
0:16:50 > 0:16:54of the African that was as new as it was startling.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Through her experiences,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Mary Kingsley came to question many of the attitudes Victorians
0:16:59 > 0:17:01held about the people of Africa.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07And her observations were just as powerful for viewers in the 1970s,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09when The Explorers dramatised her diary.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14I stayed with missionaries in the Gaboon.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18I have a profound personal esteem for several missionaries,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20but often they fail to recognise the difference
0:17:20 > 0:17:23between the African and themselves.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26The black man is no more an undeveloped white man
0:17:26 > 0:17:28than a rabbit is an undeveloped hare.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34My route was to lie in the unexplored territory
0:17:34 > 0:17:36between two rivers,
0:17:36 > 0:17:41the Rembwe and the Ogowe, territory inhabited entirely by the Fangs,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45a tribe notorious for their ferocity, treachery and cannibalism.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51The film revelled in Kingsley's refusal to let the inconvenience
0:17:51 > 0:17:54of being a woman get in her way.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01It was just my luck to go and fall into an elephant trap.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Get a bush rope and pull me out!
0:18:05 > 0:18:07- VOICEOVER:- Kiva established that I was alive,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09and went and selected a bush rope
0:18:09 > 0:18:11suitable to haul an English lady of my exact complexion,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15age and size out of that one particular pit.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20It is at times like this that you realise the blessing of a good,
0:18:20 > 0:18:21thick skirt.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26While the film paid homage to Kingsley the explorer,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30it also had fun drawing out her prim Victorian values.
0:18:32 > 0:18:33One should never go about in Africa
0:18:33 > 0:18:36in something one would be ashamed of at home.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41I hasten to assure you that I don't even wear a masculine collar and tie.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43And as for trousers, well,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45I would rather perish on a public scaffold.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51It's not surprising that, in making a ten-part series,
0:18:51 > 0:18:53they wanted to include one woman.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Mary Kingsley as the choice?
0:18:55 > 0:18:57That's a very intriguing choice.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59She was a very intriguing woman.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03She approached exploration in a very different way to most
0:19:03 > 0:19:06of her male counterparts at the time,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10but to be included as the token woman is quite ironic,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12because she certainly wouldn't have called herself a feminist
0:19:12 > 0:19:14by any stretch of the imagination.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18In the '70s, Kingsley was admired
0:19:18 > 0:19:21for challenging the Victorian perspective on Africa
0:19:21 > 0:19:24and the traditional role of a woman,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27but she was still a heroine from a bygone time.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32The problem with heroes is that they can't help but reflect the values
0:19:32 > 0:19:36of their age, and as our values change,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39so the icons of the past can fall out of fashion.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45The ideal hero is someone who embodies the values
0:19:45 > 0:19:47of his or her era.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53Edmund Hillary first made headlines in 1953 when he became
0:19:53 > 0:19:55the first person to summit Mount Everest,
0:19:55 > 0:19:56with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news -
0:20:03 > 0:20:08Mount Everest has been conquered by members of the British expedition.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10The conquest was front-page news,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14and Hillary was crowned a British hero on the Queen's coronation day.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Hillary is arguably the last great imperial hero,
0:20:19 > 0:20:26who is celebrated at the time of Elizabeth's coronation in 1953,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30an icon for the age of the new Elizabethans.
0:20:33 > 0:20:3630 years later, Edmund Hillary was still an icon,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39but his heroism had also deepened.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41In the 1983 film, Man Of Everest,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45the BBC travelled with Hillary back to the Himalayas, discovering how,
0:20:45 > 0:20:47over decades of climbing,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50he'd developed a intimate relationship with the local communities.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54It also paid homage to his mountaineering career
0:20:54 > 0:20:58beyond Everest, and crucially, it tried to discover
0:20:58 > 0:21:02what it was like to pit oneself against the full force of nature.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Ahead, some of the awe-inspiring Himalayan peaks.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13Thamserku, first climbed in 1964 by an expedition Hillary led.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Kangtega, first climbed by Hillary's 1963 expedition.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24And beyond them, probably Nepal's more spectacular peak,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Ama Dablam, four miles high, once thought unscalable.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33This mountain means a lot to Hillary,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37for the expedition he led in 1961 did climb it.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42We can see a shift to mountains,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45to polar exploration as well.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49And expeditions to these places, well, you can present them,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53you can tell the stories as battles against nature,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56which are, at least seemingly,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00not weighed down with the problematic politics of empire.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06By the 1980s, it was far simpler to explore the struggle to
0:22:06 > 0:22:08reach the top of a mountain
0:22:08 > 0:22:11than grapple with the weight of colonial history.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Hillary is off through the thinning air,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19bound for a vantage point, to see the mother of mountains,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22where once he spent ten minutes on top of the world.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25He must climb 1,500 feet more.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27That's the same target he and Tenzing
0:22:27 > 0:22:30had to achieve when they set out that final day
0:22:30 > 0:22:32for the unclimbed summit.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36It must have been an incredible feeling, being on the top.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Well, it was a pretty good feeling, I guess.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Although I don't remember ever jumping up and down for joy
0:22:41 > 0:22:43at any moment.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46I think we were tired, and we still had a long way to get down again.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49I think the best moment was when we actually finally got down
0:22:49 > 0:22:52into the Western Cwm to meet all of our companions and know
0:22:52 > 0:22:55that the worst of the difficulties and dangers were behind.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Man Of Everest tried to capture the heroic explorer's inner thoughts,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04the personal joys and the agonies of the quest.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08We're in an era of one man against the elements,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10one woman against the elements.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12And that's merely a function of our time,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14we live in a very individualistic era.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18But it has meant that the world has become a stage, more and more.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22When it came to exploration,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24one of the 20th century's greatest stages
0:23:24 > 0:23:29was the world's largest unmapped territory - Antarctica.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32And the most coveted prize - the South Pole.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37In 1912, a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen
0:23:37 > 0:23:41beat Britain's Robert Scott in the race for the pole.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Amundsen's team survived, Scott's did not.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49The fact that they had both reached the pole made them the great
0:23:49 > 0:23:50polar heroes of their age.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54But in the 21st century,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57their fame has been equalled by a man who never even made it
0:23:57 > 0:23:58to the South Pole,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02and is best known for a failed Antarctic expedition
0:24:02 > 0:24:05that turned into a desperate feat of survival.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11On the 21st of November 1915,
0:24:11 > 0:24:1628 men were shipwrecked in the most desolate place in the world.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Their journey to safety was one of the greatest survival stories
0:24:20 > 0:24:22in the history of exploration.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26A journey that would have meant certain death for all of them
0:24:26 > 0:24:30if it hadn't been for the determination of one man,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32Sir Ernest Shackleton.
0:24:34 > 0:24:35In 1914,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Ernest Shackleton had set out to be the first person
0:24:38 > 0:24:41to cross the Antarctic continent.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44But before he even reached land, his expedition ship,
0:24:44 > 0:24:49the Endurance, was frozen into the sea ice and eventually crushed.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52He and his crew were stranded 1,000 miles
0:24:52 > 0:24:55from the nearest inhabited spot, with no hope of rescue.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Shackleton contemplated how to save his crew,
0:25:00 > 0:25:01recording his thoughts in a diary.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Over 80 years later,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08his thoughts were brought back to life in a major BBC docudrama.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Strong leadership is my only weapon.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15On that depends the sanity of my brave companions.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22He was part of a society that believed in dignity and restraint.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24He had got his men into this predicament
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and he would get them out through grim determination, if nothing else.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31It's not until the 1990s
0:25:31 > 0:25:35when there's really a revival of interest in Shackleton.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Business scholars, people interested in leadership,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42begin to turn to this charismatic figure, this man who would say,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45"If you don't take my gloves, I'm going to throw them into the water.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47"So, you've got to take them."
0:25:47 > 0:25:49A man who led from the front,
0:25:49 > 0:25:54and inspired his followers through his charisma and personality.
0:25:56 > 0:25:57Forced to abandon their ship,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00the crew set up camp on the floating ice,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03where Shackleton did everything he could to prevent his men
0:26:03 > 0:26:04from losing hope.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09A few days ago Captain Wesley amused the men by running out onto
0:26:09 > 0:26:11the floe in a state of nature.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Today, a morale boost was needed again,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19so I asked Captain Worsley for the honour of a dance,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22and we waltzed on the ice while the crew whistled.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Morale was soon up again.
0:26:28 > 0:26:34He becomes a figure who really suits popular culture in the 1990s.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38He's the maverick polar explorer,
0:26:38 > 0:26:40the charismatic,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Anglo-Irish rogue who breaks conventions,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46doesn't follow hierarchy.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52To escape the floating ice, the crew ventured to Elephant Island.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55And then Shackleton took matters into his own hands.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59Leaving most of his men behind,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02he led a skeleton crew on a torturous journey
0:27:02 > 0:27:06across the Antarctic Ocean in a small open lifeboat.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09They sailed 800 miles
0:27:09 > 0:27:13before finally reaching the island of South Georgia.
0:27:13 > 0:27:14And there, he and two companions
0:27:14 > 0:27:17walked into the treacherous landscape,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21towards what Shackleton hoped was a whaling station.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Shackleton heard a distant sound.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27It could be the wake-up call for the whaling station.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30If he hadn't imagined it, he knew it would sound again at seven o'clock.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36They'd walked for 36 straight hours.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38This was their last hope.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45WHISTLE BLOWS
0:27:45 > 0:27:48That was a moment hard to describe.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Never had any of us heard sweeter music.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55This was the first sound of the outside world
0:27:55 > 0:27:58they had heard in 17 months.
0:27:59 > 0:28:04Incredibly, Shackleton and his 27 men would all survive.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08He turned an epic failure into one of exploration's greatest success stories.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11And so, in the 21st century,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14he's acquired an almost mythical status.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17There is a saying amongst explorers.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22For scientific discovery, give me Scott.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25For speed and efficiency, give me Amundsen.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28But when disaster strikes and all hope is gone,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39The changing portrayal of our explorers on TV -
0:28:39 > 0:28:41whether the journeys of David Livingstone,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43or Shackleton's trek to survive -
0:28:43 > 0:28:45shows us clearly how each age
0:28:45 > 0:28:48creates the heroes it needs and wants.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53For most of history,
0:28:53 > 0:28:57the story of our greatest journeys was told through the written word -
0:28:57 > 0:28:59a diary or a hand-drawn map was the closest we could get
0:28:59 > 0:29:03to the experience of an expedition.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07But in the 20th century, a new type of record emerged.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09The advent of film completely changed
0:29:09 > 0:29:11how explorers told their story.
0:29:14 > 0:29:15In the 1960s,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19explorer Wally Herbert approached the BBC with a brand-new idea.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23He wanted to film his next expedition for television.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26After initially doubting the idea,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29the BBC came on board and trained one of the four members
0:29:29 > 0:29:31of Wally's team as a cameraman.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35The result was a documentary chronicling
0:29:35 > 0:29:39the first-ever journey across the frozen Arctic Ocean.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44A huge, 16-month trek covering over 3,700 miles.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50The team started in Alaska and went all the way to Norway.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55It was a crossing that has never even been attempted since.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59I think the appeal of this trip is,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03in every sense of the word, the bigness of it.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05The bigness of it just in time
0:30:05 > 0:30:07and the bigness of it in distance,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11and the bigness of it as a challenge,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16a challenge of human endurance.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18But for the viewer there was something else, too.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22A glimpse inside the mind of an explorer while he mused about
0:30:22 > 0:30:24his troubles, frustrations and fears,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26including his first crisis -
0:30:26 > 0:30:29miles of broken ice.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31Ahead of us it was just a complete chaos of ice.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35I've never seen anything like it before in my life.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39The mess of wet, jumbled ice,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41which wouldn't bear the weight of a man,
0:30:41 > 0:30:42the whole thing was moving.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48The film revealed the extreme isolation of the polar explorer.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52When the producers flew out to meet Wally in person,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54they were turned back by the shifting ice
0:30:54 > 0:30:56and had to settle for a radio interview.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04Ideally, we should've been by now about 87 degrees
0:31:04 > 0:31:06and on the other side of the date line.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08That puts us, I suppose -
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I'm just guessing here a little bit -
0:31:11 > 0:31:14maybe about 250 miles or so behind schedule.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16Thinking now of the future, Wally,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19I believe you plan to start in March.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21Is it going to be dark at that time?
0:31:21 > 0:31:23It depends a little bit on the latitude.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26If we're at latitude 87, which is what I hope,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31well, it should be pretty strong twilight by the 1st of March.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33The viewer could see that even for the seasoned explorer,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36expeditions were precarious.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Wally and his team waited out the winter,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41then continued across the ice.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43They were over a year into their journey,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45closing in the North Pole.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49But still, success seemed far from certain.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54Approaching the North Pole is a rather unique experience.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56You are approaching the point on the Earth's surface
0:31:56 > 0:31:59where all the lines of longitude converge,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02and this is a very confusing place to be.
0:32:02 > 0:32:03It became a problem,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06rather like trying to step on the shadow of a bird
0:32:06 > 0:32:07which is hovering overhead,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10because the ice itself is moving.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13When they did finally pin down their location at the North Pole,
0:32:13 > 0:32:18Wally knew he and his men had won a place in exploration history.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20Because Scott and his men posed in a certain way
0:32:20 > 0:32:22and Amundsen in a certain way,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25and because of our consciousness of history,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28we were more or less obliged to pose in the same way.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32You don't approach a feat like reaching the North Pole
0:32:32 > 0:32:34with a clean slate.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38You are bringing with you ideas of how you should be behaving,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41what's happened before, how you should stand, how you should pose,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44making sure you get that definitive photograph.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47But by this time we were feeling pretty cold,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49and we weren't too sure of the exposure,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52so I remember taking 36 pictures at the North Pole,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55on every different exposure setting on the camera.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Meanwhile, my colleagues were getting pretty bored
0:32:58 > 0:33:00and fed up with this.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03We're very familiar with the images of explorers at the South Pole,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06in Scott, Amundsen, standing there heroically,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09but suddenly, with Wally Herbert, here was something visceral.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14You could see the beards covered in ice,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16you could see that pain in their eyes
0:33:16 > 0:33:21and that gritty determination that this moment was theirs.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25This was a part of history and you, as a viewer, were part of that.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29By the time Wally and his team began the final leg of their journey
0:33:29 > 0:33:33to Norway, now continuing south over the ice,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36they felt like old friends to the television audience.
0:33:36 > 0:33:42For the first time in something like 14 months,
0:33:42 > 0:33:44we were heading in a different direction to north.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49We got the sense that we were heading for home at last.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53They travelled 12 hours a day and then, within sight of land,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56the ice stopped them again,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58devastating the crew.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00All they could do was wait and hope.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Miles away, the Endurance, a British ship,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09scheduled to pick them up, waited too.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14The following morning, Herbert called up the Endurance by radio.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Endurance, Endurance. Traction, Traction...
0:34:16 > 0:34:17Something had happened.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22At 1900 hours, GMT, 29th May,
0:34:22 > 0:34:26a landing was made after a scramble across three quarters of a mile
0:34:26 > 0:34:28of mush ice and gyrating ice pans.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32This landing, though brief,
0:34:32 > 0:34:34concluded the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40Crossing the Arctic Ocean wasn't just an exploration first,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43it was also a television first.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50Suddenly, millions of people could be on an expedition,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53experiencing the highs and lows for real.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56They too could be an eyewitness to discovery.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04The era of the filmed expedition had arrived,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06and it was here to stay.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08Suddenly, every cliffhanging moment
0:35:08 > 0:35:10from the smallest of expeditions
0:35:10 > 0:35:12could be broadcast worldwide.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16As cameras became easier to use,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19amateurs could take their turn behind the lens.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24By 1979, the BBC was staging a yearly contest,
0:35:24 > 0:35:27sending adventurers out to make their own films.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Tonight, we make three more journeys of adventure
0:35:36 > 0:35:39to find the expedition film which will win this year's
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Mick Burke Award.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44None was made by a professional film-maker.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Each team was given a grant of £500 towards expenses,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51and after an intensive three-day film-making course
0:35:51 > 0:35:53at the BBC's Bristol studios,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56the cameramen and sound recordists joined their expeditions,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00equipped with 8mm cameras, like this,
0:36:00 > 0:36:0260 cassettes of colour film,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04sound recorders and cassette tapes,
0:36:04 > 0:36:07all on loan from the BBC.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11In July, these four set out from Gwynedd in North Wales
0:36:11 > 0:36:14to conquer the unclimbed peak of Bakhor Das.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19The trek to the 19,000-foot Himalayan peak
0:36:19 > 0:36:21was a huge challenge in itself.
0:36:23 > 0:36:24But that didn't deter
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Ann, Marion, Brid and expedition leader Jacqueline.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32For the first three-and-a-half days
0:36:32 > 0:36:33we followed the Braldu River.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38We had to cross several side streams that come down from the mountain.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40These streams swell as the day goes on.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45At one of them, Marion was some way behind.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49One of the porters, who are extremely sure-footed,
0:36:49 > 0:36:50went back to give her a hand.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Now that Marion and the team were safely across,
0:37:00 > 0:37:03it was time for a well-earned bath.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07For the first time, the audience saw the nitty-gritty of expedition life.
0:37:11 > 0:37:12It was absolutely fantastic,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15been able to strip off and have a thorough wash
0:37:15 > 0:37:18without all the porters gawping at us.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20For Brid, it was foot inspection time.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23As for Marion, she decided to have a good go at her fingernails.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27With the downtime over,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30the toughest part of the journey to the base of Bakhor Das began.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Now we had to cross the raging Braldu River.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51We crossed by a horrifying bridge, about 400 feet long.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54It was made of twigs twisted together,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56but it was swaying in a horrifying way.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06The secret was not to look at the water,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08but only to look at what you were doing with your feet.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12The women's self-shot footage
0:38:12 > 0:38:14captures the adrenaline of the moment.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20Isn't it horrifying?
0:38:20 > 0:38:22I know! I realised there were people behind me,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25because it was swaying like buggery when I was coming up here.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33After five days, they arrive at the foot of the unclimbed Bakhor Das.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36But then the conditions turn against them.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39The exceptionally warm weather caused snowmelt on the peaks
0:38:39 > 0:38:41to flood the streams.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44Each day, our waterfall turned into a thundering express train
0:38:44 > 0:38:46of mud and boulders.
0:38:51 > 0:38:52We very quickly got the impression
0:38:52 > 0:38:56that the rock on our mountain was not very solid.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58We reached a high point,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01where our ridge met the top of an ice field.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04From here, we could see the last 1,500 feet.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07It was obvious to all of us that the conditions were going to be
0:39:07 > 0:39:10no different. A decision had to be made.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Much to the team's disappointment,
0:39:14 > 0:39:17the peak proved just too dangerous to climb.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19But despite this,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22the drama and a realistic portrayal of expedition life they'd captured
0:39:22 > 0:39:24convince the judges.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26The women won best film.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32And so we'll close with congratulations to the winners
0:39:32 > 0:39:35of the 1979 Mick Burke Award.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44By the 1990s, expensive film had been replaced by cheap video tape,
0:39:44 > 0:39:48and cameras had become even easier to use.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50The BBC's Video Diaries series used
0:39:50 > 0:39:54this technology to launch a completely new form of television -
0:39:54 > 0:39:57members of the public filming their own lives in close-up.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02One of the most watched was by Benedict Allen,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05who filmed his personal journey to the Peruvian Amazon,
0:40:05 > 0:40:10culminating in a visit to a remote lake said to contain a super snake.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16The lake was still a few days away.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Apart from a bunch of bananas, we had no food supplies,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21but the forest was full of fresh meat.
0:40:31 > 0:40:32Alligators all around us.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39And not scared at all,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42coming within one foot of the canoe.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51Benedict Allen was a solo explorer,
0:40:51 > 0:40:55but to venture into the Amazon he needed local guides.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59His was Armando, a member of the Matses tribe.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09So we're building our camp right on the Jaguar's Trail.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15It doesn't seem like a very sensible place to build a camp,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18but call me old-fashioned.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22That's what I think.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26I have very, very long arms, and it's perfect,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30because I could suddenly film the action, something over there,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32and then my reaction to it.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34So it was all about speed.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36And I began to realise these things,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38forget about the wide-angle lens,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40forget about complicated things,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43I could never compete with a film crew,
0:41:43 > 0:41:46but what I can do and what a film crew can't do is get intimacy.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53The whole point of this diary is that it exposes the real expedition,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57as opposed to the one you see on telly of
0:41:57 > 0:42:00the glamorous story of the adventurer,
0:42:00 > 0:42:01the Indiana Jones figure.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07The video diary style encouraged complete honesty.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10For Benedict, this meant sharing his difficult decisions
0:42:10 > 0:42:12with the audience.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16The problem is I can go there,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18but...
0:42:18 > 0:42:20if I die,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23if something terrible happens, if I get swallowed by the super snake,
0:42:23 > 0:42:28then Armando's going to get blamed by the authorities.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30They may even say he's been killed,
0:42:30 > 0:42:32or rather he's killed me.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36Armando's killed me.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42So I put him at risk,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46and the whole point of coming here is not to exploit
0:42:46 > 0:42:48the local people,
0:42:48 > 0:42:51and if you're putting local people at risk unnecessarily,
0:42:51 > 0:42:52that's exploitation.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59In the end, Benedict travelled to the lake alone.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02But his video diary allowed the viewer to be with him,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04deep in the Amazon.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10Can't concentrate, not with these funny little splashings,
0:43:10 > 0:43:12big splashings over my shoulder.
0:43:14 > 0:43:15If I'm going to die out here,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18I'm not going to die while reading a book called The Idiot.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21No.
0:43:21 > 0:43:22No, thank you.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26Not today anyway.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Oh, God.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33The book's disappeared down a snake hole.
0:43:36 > 0:43:37My God!
0:43:47 > 0:43:50OK, it's a tiger, but it's a small one.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58And it's about ten feet away.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03I don't know whether to get the camera or...
0:44:22 > 0:44:23It's uncertain.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31That was small, but it could have killed me.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35And if I'd been facing the other way,
0:44:35 > 0:44:40it would've killed me, it would've taken one leap at my neck and...
0:44:42 > 0:44:44..that would've been that.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47Goodbye, Benedicto.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53This is the single big change for me,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56that I was no longer quite alone.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00I could talk to this camera and get comfort from the fact that,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02even if I died, well,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05I'd have my little camera to say my last words to.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10From Wally Herbert's epic journey in 1960s
0:45:10 > 0:45:13to the most intimate moments of the video diary,
0:45:13 > 0:45:17television has steadily brought exploration into our lives,
0:45:17 > 0:45:20connecting us to the explorer like never before.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Our world has changed.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27Cheap air travel has shrunk the globe,
0:45:27 > 0:45:32creating adventure hot spots in what were once remote places.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36And television has fuelled our curiosity.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38Suddenly anybody can be an adventurer,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40if only for a week or two.
0:45:41 > 0:45:47And there's one place that reflects this trend like no other - Everest.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
0:45:49 > 0:45:51reached the top in 1953,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54they became international celebrities.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59Within weeks, the BBC made them accessible to the public at large.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02The exalted heroes were brought into the studio
0:46:02 > 0:46:06to reveal the intimate details of the climb first-hand.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11We realised that this was really the crux of the whole ridge climb.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13I wriggled into this cornice,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and by a great deal of wriggling and hard work,
0:46:16 > 0:46:17I was able to get up it.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19And any moment you thought the whole thing might go?
0:46:19 > 0:46:21That was our main worry, I must admit.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24We didn't know when it would give way.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26From this first casual retelling of the climb,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29our fascination with Everest would grow.
0:46:29 > 0:46:34Also in the studio was Hillary's climbing partner, Tenzing.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Some chance to climb again.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39I wonder whether a lot of English wives would like me to ask him,
0:46:39 > 0:46:42what does his wife think about all this going off on the mountain?
0:46:43 > 0:46:46HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Well, he says that his children and his mother
0:46:57 > 0:47:01and naturally his wife, too, are not too keen on it,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03- for obvious reasons.- Yes.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07Without Tenzing, the expedition would never have reached the summit.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Television helped make the general public aware of the role
0:47:10 > 0:47:14that Sherpa guides played in helping climbers conquer Everest.
0:47:14 > 0:47:21Well, on the way to the Base Camp, we had about 400 Nepali coolies,
0:47:21 > 0:47:28and from there on we used the local Sherpa coolies.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31We needed about 300 to get to Base Camp.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34The Sherpas' importance in opening up Everest was massive.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37And as summit attempts increased year by year,
0:47:37 > 0:47:38it got bigger and bigger.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44So, when the BBC followed Hillary back to Everest 30 years later,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46the story of how the mountain climbing industry
0:47:46 > 0:47:49was transforming life for Sherpa communities
0:47:49 > 0:47:51was a key part of the documentary.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54The call to study is the same at all the schools -
0:47:54 > 0:47:58on the original oxygen cylinders Hillary used to climb Everest.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00METALLIC RINGING
0:48:00 > 0:48:03The film highlighted Edmund Hillary's development work in Nepal,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06a passion since he'd first scaled the mountain.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08THEY SING IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE
0:48:08 > 0:48:10I was becoming increasingly concerned
0:48:10 > 0:48:12about the future of the Sherpas,
0:48:12 > 0:48:14and felt that additional schools would help them cope with
0:48:14 > 0:48:17the ever growing pressures of the outside world.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21So, before we knew it, one school had turned into 22 schools.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26But the film also captured a monumental shift.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29The traditional Sherpa way of life was changing.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32- CHILDREN:- The men are climbing the mountain.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35- The men are climbing. - CHILDREN:- The men are climbing.
0:48:35 > 0:48:40- The men have climbed. - CHILDREN:- The men have climbed.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42- The mountain. - CHILDREN:- The mountain.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47The climbing industry on Everest was about to explode.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49Throughout the '80s and '90s,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53mountaineering became an increasingly popular pastime,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56but as more and more people climbed Everest,
0:48:56 > 0:48:58reaching the top was no longer enough.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05In the late 1990s, the BBC joined a group of climbers,
0:49:05 > 0:49:07not just interested in mountaineering,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11but in discovering the story of those who had gone before them.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15May 1999.
0:49:18 > 0:49:19A joint British-American expedition
0:49:19 > 0:49:22is about to climb the north face of Everest.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27But this is no ordinary summit attempt.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32The team is about to make mountaineering history
0:49:32 > 0:49:34in their search for evidence
0:49:34 > 0:49:37of two legendary British climbers who disappeared in 1924.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44Climbers had long debated whether George Mallory and Andrew Irvine
0:49:44 > 0:49:47had summited Everest before going missing.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49No-one knew.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52But their ill-fated attempt had made them into legends,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55and left behind the mountain's most enduring mystery.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00What really draws me to this particular expedition...
0:50:02 > 0:50:05..is this hunt for Mallory and Irvine.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07You know, to climb this mountain again,
0:50:07 > 0:50:09I've been here enough, I know how to climb it,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12but to try and get inside somebody else's head
0:50:12 > 0:50:14and to try and touch a piece of history,
0:50:14 > 0:50:16that is utterly fascinating to me.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23Mallory and Irvine are just two of nearly 300 people who have now died
0:50:23 > 0:50:25trying to reach the top of Everest.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30But looking for the remains of these two was controversial.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Some members of our expedition team may have some personal reservations
0:50:33 > 0:50:36about searching for bodies on Mount Everest.
0:50:36 > 0:50:42I think we all agree that to be able to contribute additional information
0:50:42 > 0:50:48to what is THE mystery of the mountain is ultimately
0:50:48 > 0:50:52going to contribute to a better understanding of the mountain
0:50:52 > 0:50:53and its human history.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59The team know that finding Everest's greatest lost heroes
0:50:59 > 0:51:01will make headlines around the world.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04It is their way of winning themselves a place
0:51:04 > 0:51:05in the history books.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12There are quite a view folks in other expeditions
0:51:12 > 0:51:16that would love to scoop us on this thing and find this.
0:51:16 > 0:51:22The search site is not too far from the high camp.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Early on the morning of the 1st of May 1999,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28the team leave camp five and climb high up on the north face
0:51:28 > 0:51:31of Everest to begin their search.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36What they found proved as significant as any summit attempt.
0:51:36 > 0:51:41Initially I saw a blue and yellow object fluttering in the wind,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44and I looked over to my right and all of a sudden I saw
0:51:44 > 0:51:48a patch of white that wasn't rock and it wasn't snow.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52And I said, "Hmm, I'm going to look over here."
0:51:52 > 0:51:54And as I started traversing closer to this,
0:51:54 > 0:51:58I saw what appeared to be the lower part of a leg.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00And it was a heel.
0:52:00 > 0:52:06The radio calls started coming in about hobnailed boots.
0:52:06 > 0:52:07I just heard hobnailed boot,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09quickly unzipped it and said, "What?!"
0:52:12 > 0:52:16We had decided that once we'd made any contact,
0:52:16 > 0:52:18as quickly as possible go into radio silence,
0:52:18 > 0:52:22because of the security of the radio calls.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25We knew other expeditions were listening,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27and we knew that everybody in Nepal could hear us.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31I can see a boot.
0:52:31 > 0:52:32The second boot
0:52:32 > 0:52:35appears to be on his foot.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38The leg is angulated...
0:52:39 > 0:52:41..angulated fracture, so...
0:52:41 > 0:52:43my first guess is that he took a fall.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50Again, you can see rope around his body.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56OK, this is the collar...
0:53:01 > 0:53:03- Here.- Wait. This is George Mallory.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06- Really?- George Mallory.- Oh, my God!
0:53:06 > 0:53:08Oh, my God!
0:53:08 > 0:53:11- You see that? George Mallory. - Oh, my God!
0:53:15 > 0:53:18The failure that human beings
0:53:18 > 0:53:22experienced in going up Everest
0:53:22 > 0:53:26in turn drove the need to explore it,
0:53:26 > 0:53:27to reach the top.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Finding Mallory didn't prove if he'd made it to the top,
0:53:31 > 0:53:33but telling the story on TV
0:53:33 > 0:53:37helped cement the mountain's iconic status.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Another film, made in 2003, revealed how,
0:53:40 > 0:53:43in the 50 years since it was first climbed,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Everest had also become a mecca for casual trekkers.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49For most of these amateur adventurers,
0:53:49 > 0:53:51the goal isn't to reach the top,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53it's Base Camp, at the bottom.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59From Gorakshep, a three-hour walk up the adjacent peak
0:53:59 > 0:54:02of Kala Patthar gives the best view of Everest
0:54:02 > 0:54:03a trekker can get.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07When the sun shines and Everest is clear,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10hundreds of trekkers make their way to the top every day,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13each one of us reaching our own personal summit.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18Well, actually, it has been a lifelong dream
0:54:18 > 0:54:20to come to Everest and come to Nepal,
0:54:20 > 0:54:22and it's been more than I could have hoped for.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24It has been very overwhelming.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28When we went down to Base Camp, I just burst out crying.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30I feel tearful at the moment, yes,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32because I have finally achieved it.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37- And cheese!- ALL: Cheese!
0:54:37 > 0:54:38Thank you.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41But there is an easy way.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45For the cost of a two-week trek,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47you can have half an hour hovering above Base Camp.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53The film captures the new industry of Everest in full flight,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57with no longer the summit at its epicentre, but Base Camp
0:54:57 > 0:55:00the final destination for trekkers.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03The press warned that here at Base Camp, the crowds of trekkers
0:55:03 > 0:55:06and the huge commercial expeditions had wrought havoc -
0:55:06 > 0:55:10Everest had been desecrated by rivers of human faeces,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12piles of oxygen bottles and,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14on the mountain itself, human remains.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17In fact, the Everest clean-up expeditions
0:55:17 > 0:55:19have done a pretty good job,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22and those who make it here enjoy a tangible sense of achievement.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25They are after all, at Base Camp, the very bottom of Everest.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Well, here we are.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30- Here we are.- Everest Base Camp.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32- Finally.- After two weeks.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34- It has been a long haul. - Two weeks, one day.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37We've got groups coming down off the hill at the moment.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40I think it's going to be such a buzz to meet those boys.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45I didn't come to Everest Base Camp to see Everest, I came to...
0:55:45 > 0:55:49to meet the people who challenge it and beat it
0:55:49 > 0:55:51and some lose against it.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53This is just a buzz,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57being up this far and just the whole excitement in the camp.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59It's fantastic.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02- Not to mention to crack this can of Stella that I've lugged...- Yeah.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04When are you cracking that?
0:56:04 > 0:56:07- All right, OK. - A well-beaten Stella...
0:56:07 > 0:56:09- Well-beaten Stella.- ..all the way from England.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12Sorry, Mum,
0:56:12 > 0:56:13but it had to be done.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18Adventure tourism I think is great.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22People can just set out from home and discover the world,
0:56:22 > 0:56:24and there's something delightful about that.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27It's no longer the preserve of the specialist.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30But there are consequences.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32And those consequences can be grave.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35You're starting to develop a tourist industry in a place
0:56:35 > 0:56:38which was isolated, self-sufficient.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43What's happening on Everest is being repeated in wildernesses
0:56:43 > 0:56:46around the globe, for better or worse.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Exploration has opened up our landscape
0:56:49 > 0:56:52and television has shown it to the world,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55spurring each of us to our own adventures.
0:56:57 > 0:57:03The critical question is whether the way we consume is going to outstrip
0:57:03 > 0:57:04our capacity to explore.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11And will that be the end of the history of exploration?
0:57:17 > 0:57:21As I've examined how television has told the story of exploration,
0:57:21 > 0:57:23I've been struck by just how much
0:57:23 > 0:57:26our notions of conquest and discovery,
0:57:26 > 0:57:32even our very heroes, change from one generation to the next.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36And what's been most amazing is to see how, in the 20th century,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40film has latched onto the drama of discovery and exploration,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43becoming an integral part of the story.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49It has captured feats of incredible human endurance,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53and the most intimate moments of the quest.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58It's helped create heroes or made us reconsider them.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01It's even helped to rewrite history.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06And television will continue to tell the story of exploration,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08wherever it leads.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15It may seem like we have run out of places to discover,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18but centuries of history prove the opposite.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20There is always a new frontier.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23Exploration will go on.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27And following along will be a camera, chronicling the journey.