Ranulph Fiennes
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is credited as being the World’s Greatest Living Explorer. Among his extraordinary achievements, he was the first to circumnavigate the world from pole to pole, crossed the Antarctic on foot, broke countless world records, and discovered a lost city in Arabia. He has travelled to the most dangerous places on Earth, lost half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and was nearly cast as James Bond. But who is the man who prefers to be known as just ‘Ran’?
Three iconic adventurers - newsman John Simpson, polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes and solo yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston - go on a newsgathering trip to war-torn Afghanistan, attempt to sail around the most notorious of all maritime landmarks, Cape Horn, situated at the southernmost tip of South America, and man-haul sledges across the frozen sea ice of the Canadian Arctic.
A special examining the appeal of real-life daredevils and heroic figures compared with their fictional counterparts as portrayed in adventure films.
The story of the three year expedition led by British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, which ended in August 1982, and which was man's first and only land and sea voyage around the world crossing both poles, without leaving the Earth's surface.
