Endurance: Race to the Pole (w/t) is a new three-part series just announced by Channel 5, it’s a doco with Ben Fogle, who will return to Antarctica to re-experience the Edwardian missions of Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen.
Commissioning Editor for Non-Scripted UK Originals at Channel 5 and Paramount+ Denise Seneviratne gave the go light to October Films to make the series.
Ben Fogle, an intrepid adventurer, skied almost 750 kilometres (km) to the South Pole in 2009, just missing out on first place to a Norwegian team. The profound impact of this encounter left him with a single, nagging question: how did the earliest, most renowned arctic explorers manage to triumph over such a hostile environment?
Ben will travel to Antarctica once more in Endurance: Race to the Pole (w/t) (3 x 60′) to try to find out what happened and to experience for himself some of the hardships that his polar heroes went through on their way to conquering the unknown.
Using only their Edwardian equipment, food supplies, and shelter, Ben will re-enact crucial events from Scott’s, Shackleton’s, and Amundsen’s differing missions in the early 1900s while recounting the incredible narrative of the race to the South Pole. Ben will travel back in time to experience what it was like to be one of these extraordinary men, obsessed with reaching the South Pole. This will allow him to share that experience with the Channel 5 audience. Moreover, the expedition will feature a dual narrative of Ben’s own experience with that of polar adventurer Dwayne Fields, who will be travelling with Ben.
When Ben puts himself in the shoes of Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen, he will be able to empathise with their heroism and sacrifice, despite their human frailties, their rivalries, and their fatal blunders.
In the end, it’s clear why Amundsen was successful while Shackleton and Scott were not, and why Scott paid the ultimate price for their failure.
Ben will honour his polar heroes by calling attention to the unique role Antarctica plays in illuminating the risks of our sustainability goals in light of the current stark reminders of how fragile our world is. “This is a dream project for me. I have held a lifelong fascination with this period of heroic polar exploration and now I get the chance to experience immersive, living history myself by wearing the same clothes, eating the same type of food, pulling the same style sled and sleeping in the same canvas tent,” says Ben. “This will give me a better understanding about the heroics and the sacrifices made by these brave men more than a hundred years ago in one of the harshest most unforgiving places on earth. Having raced to the pole myself in 2008 wearing modern equipment, now I get to experience the harsh Antarctic wilderness as they did.”
Denise Seneviratne, Commissioning Editor, Non-Scripted UK Originals, Channel 5 & P+, said: “We are thrilled to be continuing our relationship with Ben at Channel 5. This ambitious adventure will really push him to his limits and open up our understanding of the real heroics behind polar exploration, past and present. This series is immersive, experiential history which I think will really capture the imagination of our viewers .”
Endurance: Race to the Pole (w/t)(3 x 60’) was commissioned by Denise Seneviratne for Channel 5. It will be produced by October Films. The series will be Directed by Alexis Girardet who is also Series Producer, and Executive Produced by Adam Bullmore and Mike Warner.
