0:00:15 > 0:00:17WIND WHISTLES
0:00:22 > 0:00:24Antarctica.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Five and half million square miles of land
0:00:28 > 0:00:30almost completely covered in ice.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34MUSIC: "Your Hand In Mine" by Explosions In The Sky
0:00:40 > 0:00:44It is the coldest, driest and windiest place on Earth.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52Its desolate beauty has been seen by just a handful of people.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58The first explorers set foot here little more than 100 years ago.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00Antarctica is like the surface of the moon.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04Large tracts of the moon are better known than Antarctica.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Polar explorers were, you know, the astronauts of their day,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12literally stepping off the edge of the map into the unknown.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Making sense of the unknown
0:01:16 > 0:01:18is at the heart of the story of Antarctica.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Ever since Captain Cook watched it loom out of the mist, we have been
0:01:22 > 0:01:27driven to describe it, define it, name it and mythologise it.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32Antarctica really is a blank page from that point of view.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35There's a need to inscribe meaning
0:01:35 > 0:01:37on a land that doesn't naturally have one.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44The search for meaning amongst the snow and ice can be read
0:01:44 > 0:01:47in the logbooks and diaries of explorers and scientists
0:01:47 > 0:01:50but it has also captured the imagination
0:01:50 > 0:01:53of poets, artists, writers and composers.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58You've got something which is very wild
0:01:58 > 0:02:01and impervious to human meanings.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03In terms of the imagination though,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06it's a much more promising prospect altogether.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09"The ice was here, the ice was there,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11"the ice was all around.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14"It cracked and growled and roared and howled
0:02:14 > 0:02:16"like noises in a swound."
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Antarctica is big and blank and white
0:02:18 > 0:02:21and the urge to scribble on it is just immense.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26This is a film about the real and imaginary tales of adventure,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30romance and tragedy that have played out against a stark white backdrop
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and why the most inhospitable place on the planet
0:02:34 > 0:02:38continues to exert an enduring hold on our imagination.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52There is one sentiment about Antarctica that has united everyone
0:02:52 > 0:02:55from the earliest explorers to modern adventurers.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00- # I really can't stay - # Baby, it's cold outside
0:03:00 > 0:03:06- # I've got to go away - # Baby, it's cold out there. #
0:03:06 > 0:03:11You get to feel something which ought to have a word
0:03:11 > 0:03:13other than cold but doesn't.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18The coldest I experienced was minus 115 with wind chill.
0:03:18 > 0:03:19When I threw boiling water in the air
0:03:19 > 0:03:21it froze before it hit the ground.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Yes, the cold is really borne by the wind.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30The wind... It's hard to describe a constant 50 mph headwind
0:03:30 > 0:03:33which of course plummets the temperatures
0:03:33 > 0:03:36so that is the sort of ground base from which
0:03:36 > 0:03:39all other difficulties arise, really.
0:03:39 > 0:03:40The noise...
0:03:40 > 0:03:45You certainly can't hear even your heartbeat in your balaclava.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51All you hear is the huge, black roar of the wind.
0:03:51 > 0:03:57It's just like you're in a vortex. Your brain starts being befuddled
0:03:57 > 0:04:01by the power of the wind and the noise of it
0:04:01 > 0:04:05and I've never met anywhere else in the world... It's just awesome.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10"A plunge into the writhing storm-whirl stamps upon the senses
0:04:10 > 0:04:13"an indelible and awful impression
0:04:13 > 0:04:17"seldom equalled in the whole gamut of natural experience.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21"The world a void, grisly, fierce and appalling.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25"The merciless blast, an incubus of vengeance,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28"stabs, buffets and freezes.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31"The stinging drift blinds and chokes.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33"We have found an accursed country."
0:04:44 > 0:04:46The cold, hard truth about Antarctica
0:04:46 > 0:04:49only really became apparent in the 20th century.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52The first civilisations to imagine it
0:04:52 > 0:04:54had something far more enticing in mind.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Greeks kind of sensed that Antarctica was there.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01You say who named it, they knew about the north
0:05:01 > 0:05:04which they call Arktos, the Bear, after the constellation of the star
0:05:04 > 0:05:07so they called it the Anti-Arktos because they thought
0:05:07 > 0:05:11there must be something balancing out what was there at the top.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14People used to think there was a land of great riches down there,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18a land flowing with milk and honey and tall, blond-haired people.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22The earliest maps of Antarctica drew more on the imagination
0:05:22 > 0:05:26of the cartographer than geographical fact.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28These are maps of
0:05:28 > 0:05:33the Southern Continent published in 1597 and 1598.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37And they show this idea of a gigantic land mass
0:05:37 > 0:05:40around the South Pole.
0:05:40 > 0:05:46It's actually indicating mountains and rivers and all sorts of things
0:05:46 > 0:05:50that in fact we know they had no idea could possibly have existed.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02The promise of wealth and undiscovered lands
0:06:02 > 0:06:05prompted 18th century explorers to venture ever closer
0:06:05 > 0:06:07to the fabled continent
0:06:07 > 0:06:13and in 1773, Captain James Cook sailed into history.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19"At about a quarter past 11 o'clock, we crossed the Antarctic Circle,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23"undoubtedly the first and only ship that ever crossed that line.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29"Soon after, saw an appearance of land to the east and south-east.
0:06:29 > 0:06:30"Hauled up for it.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33"Presently after, it disappeared in the haze."
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Captain Cook would actually have effectively followed
0:06:38 > 0:06:41the currents in the Antarctic vortex, so it would have
0:06:41 > 0:06:46swept him right around the Continent all the way up this coast
0:06:46 > 0:06:51and then in fact just as he would potentially have been hitting the peninsular,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54it actually sweeps him off northward again
0:06:54 > 0:06:59so it's actually very difficult for him really to have got
0:06:59 > 0:07:05any idea of where the continent lay within this mass of ice
0:07:05 > 0:07:11and he actually says he can't be certain that there is a continent there.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13He thinks it's very likely that there is
0:07:13 > 0:07:16but he's never actually going to hit land.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Cook might not have made landfall,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27but his voyage helped solidify the idea of a vast, ice-bound continent.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31I think for Cook himself,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34it was about filling in blanks on the map.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37He sailed round it and saw there was a lot of ice and cliffs
0:07:37 > 0:07:40and glaciers, though there was no 18th century word for a glacier,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42not for Cook so he just said, "rivers of ice."
0:07:44 > 0:07:48"Lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51"never to feel the warmth of the sun's rays.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55"Whose horrible and savage aspect I have not words to describe.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58"What, then, may we expect those to be
0:07:58 > 0:08:00"which lie still further to the south?"
0:08:03 > 0:08:06He wrote a very despondent journal entry about it.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08He says that he thought nobody would ever envy him
0:08:08 > 0:08:10the honour of the discovery.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Although Cook had dismissed Antarctica as a worthless endeavour,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28his account of the voyage inspired a young poet
0:08:28 > 0:08:30to immortalise the place in verse.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35"And now there came both mist and snow,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37"And it grew wondrous cold.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40"And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42"As green as emerald. And through the drifts
0:08:42 > 0:08:46"the snowy clifts did send a dismal sheen.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49"Nor shapes of men, nor beasts we ken.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51"Ice was all between."
0:08:51 > 0:08:54The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is one of the first
0:08:54 > 0:08:56great Antarctic cultural artefacts and like
0:08:56 > 0:08:59many of those, it was written by somebody
0:08:59 > 0:09:01who'd never laid eyes on the place.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Coleridge called himself a library cormorant,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07he flew his way from book to book.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13One of the books he flew to were Cook's accounts of his voyages
0:09:13 > 0:09:16but a wonderful transmogrification takes place
0:09:16 > 0:09:20between the sensible 18th century sea captain
0:09:20 > 0:09:22and the visionary Romantic poet.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27"The ice was here, the ice was there,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29"the ice was all around.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33"It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36"like noises in a swound."
0:09:36 > 0:09:39It's about phantasmagoric landscapes,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43strange effects... You know, the ice, it's emerald-green,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46there were these sea snakes, there are the figures of death.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49If you think about the experience of being in Antarctica
0:09:49 > 0:09:53and seeing mirages, fantasies,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55all kinds of extraordinary polar effects
0:09:55 > 0:09:59and I think it's that feeling of somebody
0:09:59 > 0:10:02psychologically confronting the utterly strange,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05the alien, something that could not be less hospitable,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08that's never had a human presence,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I think you find that In Coleridge's poem.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14"At length did cross an albatross.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16"Through the fog it came
0:10:16 > 0:10:21"as if it had been a Christian soul, we hailed it in God's name."
0:10:23 > 0:10:26It's focused on the figure of the albatross itself
0:10:26 > 0:10:31which in the poem is this spectral motif of doom.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Because they kill the albatross, they get carried into polar waters
0:10:35 > 0:10:38where "the ice mast-high went floating by",
0:10:38 > 0:10:40as green as emerald,
0:10:40 > 0:10:45a kind of dream Antarctica of death and desolation,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49all as a punishment but the original of that moment
0:10:49 > 0:10:52is a very practical journal entry by Cook where he announces
0:10:52 > 0:10:55that they've shot an albatross, they've eaten the albatross,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57it was really quite tasty.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07Cook's voyage whetted the appetite of the men involved in one of
0:11:07 > 0:11:11the most lucrative businesses of the age - the trade in seals and whales.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17Their desire for profits would bring them closer
0:11:17 > 0:11:20than anyone had yet been to Antarctica itself.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Captain Cook returned home after his grand oceanographic voyage.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31He tells the story of a southern ocean rich in seal life
0:11:31 > 0:11:32and marine mammal life
0:11:32 > 0:11:37that captures the imagination of merchant adventurers
0:11:37 > 0:11:42and maritime men in search of these bountiful oceans.
0:11:42 > 0:11:48They move in bulk, both European and American sealers and whalers
0:11:48 > 0:11:52in the 1820s, '30s, '40s.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57And there is an extractive industry based down there, a really big one.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59The 19th century equivalent of Texaco.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03London is being partly street-lit by whale oil.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06MUSIC: "Know" by Nick Drake
0:12:07 > 0:12:09SEAL CALLS
0:12:26 > 0:12:29The long-abandoned whaling stations that dot the islands
0:12:29 > 0:12:32around Antarctica show just how close humans were getting
0:12:32 > 0:12:34to the continent itself.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39CLOCK TICKS
0:12:39 > 0:12:43By the end of the 19th century, drawing rooms and gentlemen's clubs
0:12:43 > 0:12:46from New York to London were alive with the idea
0:12:46 > 0:12:49of making one last great leap into the unknown.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55"It promises to be the fiercest of all human engagements.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58"Science demands it, modern progress calls for it,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01"for in this age, a blank upon our chart
0:13:01 > 0:13:04"is a blur upon our prided enlightenment."
0:13:04 > 0:13:07I think the driving force was Sir Clements Markham
0:13:07 > 0:13:12who was then the President of the Royal Geographical Society
0:13:12 > 0:13:16and at the 1896 International Geographical Congress in London,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21he made an enormous and very effective plea to everybody
0:13:21 > 0:13:23that the Antarctic was the last great frontier
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and that all nations should actually have it on their agenda
0:13:27 > 0:13:28for exploration and discovery.
0:13:31 > 0:13:36At the turn of the 20th century, a handful of intrepid explorers
0:13:36 > 0:13:39began to make the arduous journey to Antarctica.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Belgian, British, German, Swedish, French and even Japanese expeditions
0:13:44 > 0:13:48braved perilous seas, frostbite and starvation
0:13:48 > 0:13:50to plant their flags in the ice.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55This would become the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.
0:13:57 > 0:14:03On the face of it, it's a mystery why the Heroic Age happens when it happens.
0:14:03 > 0:14:09Why there is this kind of urgency about opening up Antarctica all of a sudden.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13It's not as if it's a very desirable place.
0:14:13 > 0:14:14On the other hand,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18most of the desirable parts of the planet have been claimed by then.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23The scramble for Africa is over, they're running out of blank bits
0:14:23 > 0:14:28of the map so one way to look at it is to see this as kind of...
0:14:28 > 0:14:33imperialism reaching its absurd limit.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35It's the equivalent of an Edwardian space race.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41It was a race with a clearly defined finishing line - the South Pole.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44The only problem was finding it.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46This actually shows an understanding
0:14:46 > 0:14:49that there is much still to be learned.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52This is truly Terra Incognita.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54There is this huge space on the map there.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56They know that there is something there.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00They don't know whether it's islands or a continent
0:15:00 > 0:15:02but they've simply left the space on the map blank
0:15:02 > 0:15:07and it's that infuriating blank on the map
0:15:07 > 0:15:11which I think actually drives much of the later exploration of the continent.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Those blank spaces began to be filled in
0:15:22 > 0:15:27as the world's explorers plunged deeper into Antarctica.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29There's a really important difference
0:15:29 > 0:15:32between Arctic and Antarctic geography,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36in that Antarctica has never had human inhabitants.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41There are no local, native place names.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43There is no local knowledge of the place.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49So all Antarctic place-names are the place-names of discovery.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Each of them memorialises some incident in the relatively recent past,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59because you have to remember that although Antarctica as a geological proposition
0:15:59 > 0:16:02is hundreds of millions of years old, as a piece of human history,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07Antarctica is little more than 150 years old.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11So there are an awful lot of things named after pre-First World War monarchs,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14there are lots of things named after ships' captains.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Each expedition inched closer towards the holy grail,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26and in 1909, an Irish-born explorer called Ernest Shackleton
0:16:26 > 0:16:31drove a Union Jack into the ice at the farthest point south yet reached by man -
0:16:31 > 0:16:37an achievement that secured his lasting fame.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Exploration is a creative activity,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43as much it's an activity of losing your toes and struggling across the ice.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47The success of an expedition, the way in which it's remembered,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50depends upon an explorer's ability
0:16:50 > 0:16:52to tell people about his achievement.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56One of the key things for Shackleton, then, is lecturing.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58He sings for his supper.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03So he attends dinners, he commits his voice to record.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08"All of a sudden, we heard a shout of "Help!" from the man behind.
0:17:08 > 0:17:09"We looked round,
0:17:09 > 0:17:14"and saw him supporting himself by his elbows on the age of a chasm.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19"But nothing but a black gulf lay below."
0:17:19 > 0:17:22He packs out lecture halls up and down the country
0:17:22 > 0:17:26in an effort to enhance his profile as the first,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28or at least the very latest, polar celebrity.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34While Shackleton regaled audiences with tales of his trek
0:17:34 > 0:17:36to within 100 miles of the South Pole,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39his mentor, Captain Robert Falcon Scott,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41was preparing to go one better.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45In December 1910, Scott set sail for Antarctica
0:17:45 > 0:17:50on an ambitious mission to research the continent and conquer the Pole.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Scott was very much a product of his time,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and was very much caught up in this tremendous desire to get to the South Pole,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02which was the biggest geographical prize of the day.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04He was a Navy man through and through,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07he'd joined the Navy at 13, he was very ambitious.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12His vocation as an explorer began
0:18:12 > 0:18:14because it was a way to distinguish himself
0:18:14 > 0:18:19in what felt like the permanent peacetime world of the Navy.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23If there are no wars, then you need to discover something to get yourself known at the Admiralty.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32Conscious of the publicity value that a visual record of the expedition might provide,
0:18:32 > 0:18:38Scott invited the foremost photographer of the day to accompany him - Herbert Ponting.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43It was my privilege to have charge of the photographic side of the enterprise.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46I have endeavoured to arrange this film in such a manner
0:18:46 > 0:18:49that when you have seen it, I hope you will personally feel
0:18:49 > 0:18:52that you have taken part in a great adventure.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Cinema had just been invented, and there it was to be capitalised on.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Moving pictures of the Antarctic, what could be better?
0:19:05 > 0:19:10What could give people a stronger virtual experience of Antarctica?
0:19:10 > 0:19:13"I was anxious to secure a moving picture film
0:19:13 > 0:19:16"showing the terra nova splitting and rending the broken ice.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19"Some planks were rigged from the forecastle,
0:19:19 > 0:19:21"to the end of which I fixed my cinematograph.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23"I hung on as best I could."
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Ponting still stands out, head and shoulders above the rest,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31in terms of the lengths that he went to to secure his shot,
0:19:31 > 0:19:33but also the quality of his photography.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39"But of all the animals within the Arctic Circle,
0:19:39 > 0:19:40"penguins stand first and foremost.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43"No creature has so endeared itself to me,
0:19:43 > 0:19:48"and this feeling deepened to real affection as I got to know more of them."
0:19:54 > 0:19:57He shot thousands of photographs, under tough conditions,
0:19:57 > 0:20:02and he returned with a haul of photographs
0:20:02 > 0:20:05that really defined the way we think of Antarctica,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09but also the way we imagine and remember this heroic age of explorers.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13To ensure that his photos had the desired impact,
0:20:13 > 0:20:19Ponting would doctor his images, even painting in tiny figures to create a sense of scale.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23There's two pictures blended into one here.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25What he wants to do in this image here is give an idea
0:20:25 > 0:20:29of how insignificant human beings are in this massive landscape.
0:20:31 > 0:20:38And at the time, don't forget, very few people would have seen images of anything from Antarctica.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42He would have set up the shot of the guy on the sledge,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and he would have taken the background as a landscape,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48and possibly blended them together in the darkroom,
0:20:48 > 0:20:53he could have painted the figure on a glass plate, that's another way of doing it.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58Either way, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, what he's done.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01He's created an image here that everyone can relate to.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03"Oh my God, that's massive!
0:21:03 > 0:21:07"That poor guy there, if that all falls down, he's going to be dead."
0:21:07 > 0:21:09So in effect, it's an action shot.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Ponting's iconic images established a visual style
0:21:12 > 0:21:15that continues to this day.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40Even today, everybody wants the shot looking like a Victorian explorer,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44the frozen beard, and the frosted eyelashes and eyebrows.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49Ponting's taken himself here as the explorers want to be perceived,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52and that's the image they're all projecting.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Any modern-day adventurer, they want to look like a Victorian explorer,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59they want to look like they've had hell of a time.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03One thing you can't photograph is the cold, because it's invisible.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07But what you can photograph is the effect of cold on people.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10And the effect the cold has on people's body-language,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13their faces, their behaviour,
0:22:13 > 0:22:17it generates, automatically, lots of interesting scenarios for a photographer.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27What was intended to be a visual record of a triumphant expedition
0:22:27 > 0:22:30would be transformed into something more sombre
0:22:30 > 0:22:36by the fate awaiting Scott and his men as they set out on their doomed journey to the South Pole.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Scott had not expected to have to race for the South Pole.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56His predecessor and rival Shackleton had narrowly failed to get there
0:22:56 > 0:22:59a couple of years earlier, so Scott had thought of the way
0:22:59 > 0:23:04as being clear - he was exactly using the same polar technologies as Shackleton,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08which was, essentially, human brawn.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14And he was extremely surprised and put out of countenance
0:23:14 > 0:23:20when a party of swift, lean, mean, very well-equipped Norwegians
0:23:20 > 0:23:26turned up in Antarctica as well, and announced their plans to make a move as well.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31On 17th January 1912, Scott and his men reached the South Pole,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35only to discover that their Norwegian rivals,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39led by Roald Amundsen, had got there more than a month before them.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42"The worst has happened.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46"The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51"It is a terrible disappointment, and I'm very sorry for my companions.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57"The Pole - Great God, this is an awful place.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01"We put up our slighted Union Jack and photographed ourselves.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03"Mighty cold work."
0:24:03 > 0:24:08The arduous, 800-mile trek back to base would prove a journey too far.
0:24:08 > 0:24:14One by one, Scott's party succumbed to injury, fatigue, hunger and the relentless cold.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Scott's diary is crucial here, it provides...
0:24:20 > 0:24:25it's still an extraordinary experience reading it now.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29It provides an immersive, real-time experience
0:24:29 > 0:24:33of the slow death of a party of human beings,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35struggling with an environment.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39"Titus Oates is very near the end, one feels.
0:24:39 > 0:24:45"His last words were 'I'm just going outside, and may be some time.'
0:24:45 > 0:24:49"We all hoped to meet the end with a similar spirit,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51"and assuredly the end will not be far.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56"It seems a pity, but I don't think I can write more.
0:24:56 > 0:24:57"Last entry.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01"For God's sake, look after our people.'
0:25:08 > 0:25:15Scott's death ushered in the last days of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19But his story would live on in the imagination.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Very soon after that, the First World War broke out,
0:25:22 > 0:25:28and any story which could help the hundreds of thousands of soldiers
0:25:28 > 0:25:34dying in the trenches, that could show dying bravely for a cause,
0:25:34 > 0:25:39was encouraged, and helped people to face up to what they were going to have to do the next night.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43Some of Ponting's film footage is shown on the Western Front
0:25:43 > 0:25:49to rally the troops, it has a clear message of sacrifice and duty.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52It wasn't so much Scott's failure that was glorified,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55it was the manner in which he met death.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Scott's endeavour had a lasting resonance,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08but the human and material cost of the First World War
0:26:08 > 0:26:13diminished the desire for epic expeditions to icebound wastelands.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Antarctica goes quiet after the First World War.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24The impetus of the Heroic Age is expended,
0:26:24 > 0:26:30people are no longer buying the grand pre-war narratives of heroic discovery.
0:26:30 > 0:26:37And to a great extent, the big, geographical trophy-seeking work
0:26:37 > 0:26:40is done, so it's not clear why people are going to go back.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46With the practical business of epic exploration on hold,
0:26:46 > 0:26:53Antarctica became a tantalising prospect for science fiction writers such as HP Lovecraft,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56intrigued by the idea of what might lurk deep under the ice.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10"10.15 pm. Important discovery.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14"Orendorf and Watkins working underground with light
0:27:14 > 0:27:18"found monstrous barrel-shaped fossil of wholly unknown nature.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23"Tissue evidently preserved by mineral salts. Tough as leather.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27"Astonishing flexibility retained in places.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30"Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth."
0:27:32 > 0:27:37Lost pillared temples, crashed flying saucers,
0:27:37 > 0:27:42terrible alien life forms, which as in The Thing, will eat you
0:27:42 > 0:27:46if you're foolish enough to warm them up again.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51Antarctica between the wars is the place where the absence of real expeditions
0:27:51 > 0:27:54allows for a sort of pulp Antarctica to come along.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Antarctica is an annexe of the unconscious in some ways,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03it's a place you can park all the stuff which the rest of the world is too crowded for.
0:28:03 > 0:28:09Realism jostles us with its elbows on the settled parts of the planet,
0:28:09 > 0:28:14but Antarctica is big and blank and white, and the urge to scribble on it is just immense.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20The sheer scale of that blank canvas had been revealed to the world
0:28:20 > 0:28:26when American explorer Admiral Richard Byrd made the first flight to the South Pole in 1929.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33Hidden below us, a great glacier descends in a series of ice falls.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38More beautiful than any precipitous stream I have ever seen.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Ahead stretches a great plateau, and white immensity to the south,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45which our predecessor plotted on foot a few miles a day,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48with hunger stalking them every step of the way.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Now over the spot where Amundsen first stood in 1911,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55where Scott followed 34 days later, we fly to and fro.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58There's nothing there to mark that scene,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01only white desolation and solitude.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09A craving for the solitude that he had observed from the cockpit of his plane
0:29:09 > 0:29:15would lead Byrd to undertake an extraordinary solo expedition a decade later.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Admiral Byrd is one of the most significant American explorers
0:29:19 > 0:29:21of the Antarctic.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23He wrote the most fantastic book.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28It's a book called Alone, and it's about some months he spent,
0:29:28 > 0:29:33through his own choice, on his own, at a weather station,
0:29:33 > 0:29:34buried in the Antarctic ice.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Harmony, that was it.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44That was what came out of the silence - a gentle rhythm,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48the strain of a perfect chord, the music of the spheres.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52This is the way the world will look to the last man when he dies.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56He is playing with what happens
0:29:56 > 0:29:59if you peel away layers of socialisation, I think.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02At the beginning, he's careful about using cutlery and plates
0:30:02 > 0:30:06and setting a table and sitting there nicely,
0:30:06 > 0:30:08and reads while he's eating to slow himself down,
0:30:08 > 0:30:10otherwise he feels like an animal.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13So there's a fear of becoming an animal
0:30:13 > 0:30:18if you remove yourself from society, a testing of what you have to keep doing to remain human,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21for which, of course, Antarctica is the perfect setting
0:30:21 > 0:30:24because you can strip everything right back.
0:30:24 > 0:30:29"This morning I had to admit to myself that I was lonely.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32"Try as I may, I find I can't take my loneliness casually,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35"it is too big.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38"But I must not dwell on it. Otherwise I am undone."
0:30:39 > 0:30:43I like Byrd because he writes about how he feels,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46he writes about breaking down, and about being afraid of breaking down.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50And at one point writes about lying on the floor sobbing.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53I'm sure Scott did lie on the floor and sob,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55but we'll never know about it.
0:30:56 > 0:31:03Although he over-winters alone to give himself a consciously Scott-like experience,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06he's getting the baseball scores,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and the ever-tumbling Depression-era Wall Street stock prices
0:31:09 > 0:31:13coming over the radio every night, he's connected to the world
0:31:13 > 0:31:20in a way that the Heroic Age explorers never were,
0:31:20 > 0:31:25and that connection is where the future is going to come from.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Advances in technology and communications
0:31:34 > 0:31:39meant that it would soon be possible to maintain a permanent human presence on Antarctica.
0:31:39 > 0:31:45NEWSREEL: The house would have to be built on large wooden rafts, in place of ordinary foundations
0:31:45 > 0:31:46as they're built on the snow.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49The whole of the huts themselves are prefabricated,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52all the timbers are pre-cut and carefully labelled,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56so that anyone, whatever his job, can take part in this building.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58But who owned it?
0:31:58 > 0:32:01Every nation that had taken the trouble to plant its flag in the ice
0:32:01 > 0:32:04felt it had a justifiable claim,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06and there were symbolic ways to emphasise it.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08When there were territorial claims
0:32:08 > 0:32:13from the 1940s onwards, various countries were issuing stamps.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Once one started - and that was the Falklands Islands dependencies
0:32:17 > 0:32:20in 1943 - they nearly all started.
0:32:20 > 0:32:26Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Argentina and Chile all produced various issues.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30And nearly all the early stamps have maps on them.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35Purely to show the territories they were claiming actually existed,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38because in truth, hardly anyone else knew where they were.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Here we have 40 kopecks,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46a stamp showing the voyages of the ships to establish their station.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49This one, you have the entire map of the Antarctic.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54And you can see the three flags and the three stations.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59Here you have General San Martin Station being established,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03the sea ice, a rock from the peninsula in the background,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and a sledge, even with a sledge wheel on it. Nicely done.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21The first hint that Antarctica might be a continent to be fought over
0:33:21 > 0:33:25came as early as 1939, when the Nazis sprinkled the snow with metal swastikas
0:33:25 > 0:33:28in a bid to stake their claim.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31By the 1950s, the world was convulsed by a conflict
0:33:31 > 0:33:33with grim Antarctic connotations -
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Cold War.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41There's a period in the 1950s when it looks as if Antarctica
0:33:41 > 0:33:46is going to be the setting for some really serious superpower competition.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51A kind of... Again, an earthly analogue to the space race.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56The United States has taken over Antarctic logistics,
0:33:56 > 0:34:02they've built their enormous base, and they're flying Hercules transport planes over the Continent,
0:34:02 > 0:34:06and the Soviet Union is setting up a rival Antarctic infrastructure,
0:34:06 > 0:34:12which runs on converted artillery caterpillar tractors.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27With Antarctica poised ominously on the brink,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30salvation arrived from an unlikely source.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35In 1957, an initiative called the International Geophysical Year
0:34:35 > 0:34:38united the world's scientists in a quest for discovery.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41NEWSREEL: As the summer sun rose over the Antarctic this year,
0:34:41 > 0:34:4512 nations are setting up a total of 22 observatories.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47Each year, the snow produces its own layer,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50like the rings in the trunk of a tree.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56By studying these layers, we can trace back important happenings in the climate of the Earth.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01If the superpowers could collaborate on research into Antarctic weather and geography,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04might they find a way to share control of the continent as well?
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Antarctica is unique as the only venue for the Cold War
0:35:11 > 0:35:14which decides to step back from.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19They agree to put it beyond competitive use,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and they sign this extraordinary document,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26the Antarctic Treaty, which comes into force in 1961,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29which reserves it for science.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32It's the only bit of the planet which IS reserved for science.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37NEWSREEL: This is the Antarctic Treaty in operation.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42This is the only large, truly international territory on Earth.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:35:44 > 0:35:48I'm sorry, I don't understand!
0:35:48 > 0:35:50'It insisted that all activities in the Antarctic'
0:35:50 > 0:35:52were open to inspection.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54This was absolutely crucial to the Americans,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58because they were convinced the Russians could cheat otherwise.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01Anybody who's interested in seeing the scientific activities,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04we'll make a little tour around.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08And it's the any part of the world where any nation
0:36:08 > 0:36:13that's a member of the Treaty can turn up at any other nation's station
0:36:13 > 0:36:16and demand to be shown anything on the station,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20and ask anybody there any questions. So it's a completely open regime.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24NEWSREEL: Where else in the world could a group of Americans land at a Russian base
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and be greeted first and last as fellow scientists and human beings?
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Where else do these two flags fly from the same pole?
0:36:32 > 0:36:36And indeed, you could say it was the first non-nuclear treaty,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39because it banned all nuclear activities from the Antarctic.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45As scientists and military men moved in in numbers,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50for the first time in its history, Antarctica could be said to have had a human population.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53After the romance and tragedy of the Heroic Age,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56what new kind of culture would emerge?
0:36:56 > 0:37:00MUSIC: "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix
0:37:11 > 0:37:13When I went to the Antarctic in the 1960s,
0:37:13 > 0:37:19it was a place for men to go, because only men went in those days,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21it was a place especially for hairy men,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25it was a very adventurous place to go.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36The American bases in the Antarctic were built by Navy guys in the '50s.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40It certainly was a hardship post then.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44Little regard for health and safety, and certainly no regard for the environment.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47I'm afraid they did unspeakable things to penguins.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51I used to think of it as like the gold rush towns.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56NEWSREEL: A flourishing game of dice for the regular inhabitants.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58- What made you come? - Oh, I don't know...- The money!
0:37:58 > 0:38:00THEY LAUGH
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Oh, I guess I came down for the experience and advancement,
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and now I'm beginning to think that I'm cracked in the head a little bit.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09LAUGHTER
0:38:09 > 0:38:12So you know, I won't be back.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15It was a very macho culture, and to a certain extent that's persisted.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19There was one wonderful camp I went to in the dry valleys,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23in the Trans-Antarctic mountains, where they had a blow-up sheep,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25which they called a "Love ewe" - get it? -
0:38:25 > 0:38:29which represented some of the deprivations they experienced.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Each of the stations in the Antarctic is a wonderful microcosm
0:38:34 > 0:38:38of the culture of the country that established it and runs it.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42What could be more like home than a typically British pub,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46serving, I'm delighted to say, typically British beer.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Home comforts might provide a distraction,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55but being confined at close quarters in a hostile environment
0:38:55 > 0:38:58poses unexpected challenges.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00One of the interesting things about the Antarctic
0:39:00 > 0:39:03is that it's quite hard to be alone.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05You're almost always with other people.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10So, if you want to go to the most underpopulated part of the world
0:39:10 > 0:39:13and think you're going to be alone all the time, you're not.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16REPORTER: Breathing space, at least indoors, is at a premium.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18The men live four to a room,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21sleeping in bunks in crowded conditions.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25The biggest problem in any Antarctic base is getting on with your colleagues
0:39:25 > 0:39:27when the base is snowbound.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29I was up at the pole when they locked up the first guy
0:39:29 > 0:39:32they ever locked up in the Antarctic.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34We built a brig, shoved his ass in it.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Seemed like a real nice fella during the summer.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39Well, the day the last plane left, he did a 180.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44Got hold of some booze, some medicine, just went snakey.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52To a certain extent,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56the most compelling challenges of the Antarctic are emotional, or mental.
0:39:58 > 0:40:04And there's many stories about people going plain old-fashioned bonkers.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07For example, on a Soviet station,
0:40:07 > 0:40:11one fellow killed another fellow with an ice axe
0:40:11 > 0:40:15during a game of chess, over the game of chess.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19And to stop it happening again, the Soviets banned chess.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26Some people are more suited to the Antarctic experience than others.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30We don't take dour people
0:40:30 > 0:40:33who are inclined not to forgive and forget,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37so we don't take Yorkshire people.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41We very rarely take people with spectacles,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44because they can't see once it gets misted up and they're man holing.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47A large amount of humanity, when they're under stress,
0:40:47 > 0:40:53or physically pained, get...almost malicious, get nasty.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56And sarcastic, and so on.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01So what you're looking for is people who are good-natured,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05who don't get too excited when things are going very well,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08or too dismal when they're going badly.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13So you need placid, docile people, who aren't malevolent in any way.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18It's living with other people who you can't get away from,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21whose idiosyncracies you have to put up with,
0:41:21 > 0:41:23and they have to put up with yours.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25It's an exercise in tolerance
0:41:25 > 0:41:28that very few people actually have to undergo.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31But if you can survive it, then you've learnt a great many lessons
0:41:31 > 0:41:33which are useful in the rest of your life.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41The presence of established bases created an infrastructure
0:41:41 > 0:41:45that allowed Antarctica to be experienced
0:41:45 > 0:41:46by a whole new circle of people,
0:41:46 > 0:41:51lured by the majesty of the ice and the charm of the wildlife.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55REPORTER: Not a likely spot, Antarctica, for a package holiday,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58and yet for the first time, 40 British tourists,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02led by Peter Scott, recently embarked on a white safari.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07Nearly 50 years after Captain Scott's death, his son Peter
0:42:07 > 0:42:11was escorting a party of tourists on the holiday of a lifetime.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16REPORTER: Red, windproof uniforms, provided by the travel agent,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19ship splash belts, special underwear, layers of woollies,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24fancy headgear, mittens, part-grown beards, climbing boots,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28sunglasses, binoculars, cameras, even a walkie-talkie.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33It's the trip of a lifetime, it is expensive, I made somewhat of a snap decision.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37When I get to the Antarctic, I'm hoping to see really big things,
0:42:37 > 0:42:38towering icebergs, the pack ice.
0:42:38 > 0:42:44The Antarctic wildlife is what appeals to me, quite enormously,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46in all its ramifications.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50Mrs June Smith of Hereford is helped ashore by a Chilean scientist
0:42:50 > 0:42:57to become the first ever British tourist to set foot on the mainland of Antarctica.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59It's difficult not to feel some sense of regret
0:42:59 > 0:43:04that the last great frontier has fallen to the tourist.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06But it's a selfish thought.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11It's right that at least some parts of the Antarctic should be open to those who choose to come.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20Those curious tourists who realised their Antarctic dreams in 1968
0:43:20 > 0:43:25were testimony to the continuing mystique of the frozen continent.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28And it began to entice a new breed of private adventurers,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32eager to achieve ever greater feats of endurance.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36There's something deep within the human spirit
0:43:36 > 0:43:39that finds places like these appealing,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41intractable, impossible to escape from.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Something within the human spirit that reaches out to a challenge,
0:43:45 > 0:43:46like the South Pole,
0:43:46 > 0:43:51that still appeals to many men, who are willing to risk their lives
0:43:51 > 0:43:55and their reputations to walk there, to fly there, to race there.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59It's a crucible of ambition, it's a holy grail, it's a stage,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01it's a blank canvas.
0:44:05 > 0:44:11In the 1970s, a young Ranulph Fiennes sought to write his name into the record books
0:44:11 > 0:44:16by staging the first expedition to circumnavigate the world on its polar axis.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20My late wife and I had been trying to make a living
0:44:20 > 0:44:24out of expeditions, so she basically sent me to a library,
0:44:24 > 0:44:28and I discovered there was a big white bit at the bottom called Antarctica,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31and I found that to go from one side to the other hadn't been done
0:44:31 > 0:44:33by the world's experts.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37We've noticed in an obscure journal
0:44:37 > 0:44:42announced the expeditions' goals and a call for volunteers.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45"No polar experience necessary," it declared.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49"Hard work, great danger, and no pay.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53"No guarantee of success, or glory."
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Presented in such stark, realistic terms,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01could the crossing of the forbidding South and North Poles
0:45:01 > 0:45:04attract even the most restless of romantics?
0:45:04 > 0:45:09Was the British tradition for this kind of bold adventure still alive?
0:45:12 > 0:45:16After seven years of fundraising, preparation and rigorous training,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20the Transglobe expedition finally got under way in 1979.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23We eventually got down to Antarctica,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27we got dropped off by the ship that said goodbye for 18 months,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30they'll see us on the other side, the Pacific,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34and we spent eight months waiting for the dark, cold period to end.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36We lived under the snow, four of us.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Morale is given an extra boost by a call from Prince Charles.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48At this time, the public is far more aware of the eligible bachelor's social life
0:45:48 > 0:45:51than his interest in Transglobe.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53Thank you very much indeed, sir.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57We also send you our best wishes and hope you keep well
0:45:57 > 0:45:59and don't hurt yourself at all at polo
0:45:59 > 0:46:01'or any other rough games.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03'So, best wishes from everyone here, sir.'
0:46:03 > 0:46:06It's splendid what you're doing.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08I still think it's mad but it's marvellous.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15The ultimate success of the Transglobe expedition
0:46:15 > 0:46:17would depend upon the team's ability to pass the target
0:46:17 > 0:46:21that had thwarted Shackleton and killed Scott.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23The South Pole.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29When the day came, I thought, am I going to do it?
0:46:29 > 0:46:34Or am I going to get lost somewhere out there, in this enormous nothingness?
0:46:35 > 0:46:41The means of transport had improved, but the perils remained the same.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45In Antarctica, as a navigator,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49what we were looking for was a total whiteness.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51not a view of any sort.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53Any sort of view could spell trouble
0:46:53 > 0:46:58because it would mean there was rocks or mountain tops or something.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01Because Antarctica, if you take it like a cake,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03with liquid icing on top of it,
0:47:03 > 0:47:08all that icing from the top middle of the cake
0:47:08 > 0:47:12is eventually going to seep out to the outside,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16so because of this movement, it's causing cracks, which are called crevasses.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18Burrow!
0:47:19 > 0:47:24The hidden dangers they encountered were recreated for the camera.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27I walked only a metre from the sledge
0:47:27 > 0:47:32and I just plummeted down through an unseen crevasse.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35Rope coming down!
0:47:41 > 0:47:46But the panic and the adrenalin must've made me so frightened
0:47:46 > 0:47:49that I pulled myself out,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53using legs and arms like a cat that's scratching to try to get out of your hands.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Welcome back.
0:47:55 > 0:47:56You OK?
0:47:56 > 0:47:57Cor!
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Teach one where not to put one's weight!
0:48:01 > 0:48:02Sorry about that.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05So we want no view whatsoever.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08We don't want beauty or prettiness, we just want to get from A to B
0:48:08 > 0:48:14because we're about trying to break world records, which you don't do if you don't go fast.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25At the geographical bottom of the world,
0:48:25 > 0:48:30Ran, Ollie and Charlie could justifiably revel in their achievement.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40We ended up being the only human beings before or since
0:48:40 > 0:48:44who have ever been around the surface of Earth through the poles.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49Today more people have been walking on the moon than have ever been around Earth's surface.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56Antarctica remains the ultimate challenge for those keen to test themselves
0:48:56 > 0:48:58against the most extreme conditions.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02Adventurer Henry Worsley invoked the spirit of Shackleton
0:49:02 > 0:49:05in his 2009 trek to the pole,
0:49:05 > 0:49:10but he discovered the continent is not quite the blank canvas it once was.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16Yes, I found intrusions into the sort of intensity
0:49:16 > 0:49:20of the isolation of the place quite difficult to get over.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23We occasionally came across meteorological masts
0:49:23 > 0:49:27stuck in the middle of absolute nowhere with an anemometer on top,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29a couple of solar panels and a thermometer
0:49:29 > 0:49:33and I can remember on one occasion, a little sign on the bottom saying,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36"This is the property of the University of Wisconsin".
0:49:36 > 0:49:40That really annoyed me but I wasn't prepared for what we saw on the pole
0:49:40 > 0:49:41in terms of the size
0:49:41 > 0:49:46and quite extraordinarily saw a car just as we were pulling up
0:49:46 > 0:49:49and starting to come through the administrative area.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55A car pulled out, for a site that can't be more than a kilometre square at its largest.
0:49:57 > 0:50:02So what's supposed to be the most remote part of the globe was a bit of a shock.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10For Scott and Shackleton, it was an imaginary symbol.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12For today's adventurers, it's a stripy pole,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16and even the chance of a flight home, should you want it.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20I don't want to knock the achievements of those
0:50:20 > 0:50:24who explore Antarctica now in the sense of challenging themselves
0:50:24 > 0:50:27to cross it in various ways.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30That's very significant for them
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and we clearly still have an appetite for reading about it
0:50:34 > 0:50:38but it no longer has the connection to science
0:50:38 > 0:50:42and it no longer has that sense of being...
0:50:43 > 0:50:47..something that's charged with the urgent imaginative business
0:50:47 > 0:50:49of the culture that sent them.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52It's extreme sports, and why not?
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Why shouldn't there be icy versions of extreme sport?
0:50:55 > 0:50:59But I don't feel that it's carrying the weight of the Antarctic story
0:50:59 > 0:51:01in the way that it used to.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15In an attempt to reconnect with that imaginative world in the 1990s,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Antarctica's governing bodies began to invite
0:51:18 > 0:51:21a host of writers, artists, poets and composers
0:51:21 > 0:51:24to immerse themselves in the continent
0:51:24 > 0:51:27and evoke its sights and sounds in their work.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43The first attempt was a joint commission with the Philharmonia Orchestra
0:51:43 > 0:51:46for Peter Maxwell Davies to visit the Antarctic
0:51:46 > 0:51:48and write a new piece of music.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55And it filled the Royal Festival Hall at its premiere
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and we realised that there were a lot of people out there
0:51:58 > 0:52:02who were interested in the Antarctic but from an emotional and cultural point of view
0:52:02 > 0:52:04rather than a scientific point of view.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Author Sarah Wheeler was one of those people,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and in 1996, she set out to convey a personal passion
0:52:13 > 0:52:17for the continent in the first travel book about Antarctica.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22I spent seven months in the Antarctic.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24I lived in my tent most of the time
0:52:24 > 0:52:26with the American government's painter in residence.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29It was much harder for her than it was for me
0:52:29 > 0:52:31because all her paints froze
0:52:31 > 0:52:33and then there'd be a white-out for ten days
0:52:33 > 0:52:35and then she had to paint me.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38It's pretty tough living under the circumstances
0:52:38 > 0:52:40even if you're living a cushy life as a writer as I was.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43I think the worst thing was sleeping
0:52:43 > 0:52:47because you have to have in the sleeping bag with you when you're in the Antarctic
0:52:47 > 0:52:51any equipment that might freeze - cameras, recording equipment,
0:52:51 > 0:52:53your water bottle for the next day,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56a pair of socks if you want to have a pair of socks that aren't frozen.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58So it's like sleeping in a cutlery drawer.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02MUSIC: Sinfonia Antartica: Prelude by Vaughan Williams
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Writers and artists might grapple with the blank immensity of Antarctica,
0:53:27 > 0:53:32but it is the scientists who have been working methodically on the ice since the 1940s,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36who have come to transform the way we view the continent.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Because we've been there a long time
0:53:38 > 0:53:41and because we've collected data systematically,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43we were able to show very clearly
0:53:43 > 0:53:48how global change is affecting the Antarctic.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51You could say the Antarctic is like the white canary in the mine.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53It's telling us there's something wrong
0:53:53 > 0:53:55and we need to do something to fix it.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05Antarctic science has become more and more obviously urgent.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08The ice cores dug out of Antarctica tell us about past climate
0:54:08 > 0:54:11and about the effects of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere.
0:54:11 > 0:54:17It was in Antarctica that CFCs proved to be gouging a hole in the ozone layer
0:54:17 > 0:54:20and threatening the southern hemisphere with skin cancers.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25Antarctic knowledge is suddenly urgent knowledge.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Yet the more we learn about Antarctica, the more its potential
0:54:32 > 0:54:35as a source of great oil and mineral wealth became apparent.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37The mining companies have been kept at bay
0:54:37 > 0:54:41by the continent's scientific value - but only so far.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Perhaps it does make sense to think of it
0:54:44 > 0:54:47as a knowledge resource to the planet.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52It may well be that the science which can be pumped out of Antarctica
0:54:52 > 0:54:57is actually more valuable than any amount of petroleum.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00The secrets that lurk beneath the ice
0:55:00 > 0:55:04once charged the imaginations of science fiction writers
0:55:04 > 0:55:08but the reality might prove even more astounding.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11There's some really cutting-edge research
0:55:11 > 0:55:15implausible even for scientists of today to get their heads around,
0:55:15 > 0:55:20it reaches to the heavens that the science that's been done there
0:55:20 > 0:55:23will perhaps hold the clues to dark matter,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27to the possibility of extra-terrestrial life,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30to life on the moon of Jupiter.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Really cutting-edge science that leaps from the page,
0:55:34 > 0:55:35leaps from the continent.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45What once seemed a desolate place of little more than symbolic value
0:55:45 > 0:55:49has been re-imagined as something far more precious.
0:55:49 > 0:55:54Antarctica is now seen as a place that needs protection rather than conquest,
0:55:54 > 0:55:58a place actually that is cherished rather than feared,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01a place that is fragile.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06Some say it's the frontline, rather like the Arctic of global warming,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10it's here that the effects of climate change are most keenly felt.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15Now clearly the way that we act in Antarctica matters now.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30In the two centuries since Captain Cook thought he spied land through the mist,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34we have begun to make sense of this strange continent.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37We have mapped it, named it, and claimed it.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46We have lived there and died there
0:56:46 > 0:56:50and left behind frozen relics, memorials to a vanished age.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57We have agreed to share it. And we have colonised it.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02We have been inspired by it
0:57:02 > 0:57:05and we have begun to decode a fraction of its secrets.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11But we have only just begun to scratch the surface of a place
0:57:11 > 0:57:15that can seem to defy understanding.
0:57:23 > 0:57:30I've never been anywhere which was so obviously not made out of words,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34not made out of human perceptions and understandings.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36It's itself.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40It stands apart from human culture.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44It overshadows human culture
0:57:44 > 0:57:48and there is something transporting and rather good for us
0:57:48 > 0:57:51in getting to a place so indifferent.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56A place which we really cannot plausibly claim
0:57:56 > 0:58:00is just a subdivision of our own concerns.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11# I stepped into an avalanche
0:58:13 > 0:58:17# It covered up my soul.#
0:58:19 > 0:58:23Subtitling by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:23 > 0:58:27E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk