Alex's Historical Fiction

Are you Jackson?

There's a rather good BBC4 series called Voyages of Discovery on at present. This is where I say 'hurrah' for the Freeview box, as BBC4 is only on digital. It's not to say that programmes don't appear on BBC1 or 2 later, but it's much later. Things like Voyages I don't think I can wait for. We've had Magellan, who trusted he wasn't going to fall off the end of the world. Last week it was the super James Cook. What a great sailor; he was still a lieutenant when sent off on his mission to find the 'southern continent.' As well as being a great navigator, he also worked out how he could avoid the scourge of scurvey so that his crew didn't start dying of it. And yesterday it was the turn of a polar explorer: Nansen.

Nansen was definitely a natural for polar exploration. Being born a Norwegian seems to have helped, as he had the instinct for surviving on the ice. Not only did he build a ship (The Fram) which he said would rise above the pack-ice rather than being squished by it, he was actually right. Making a dash for the North Pole was admittedly bonkers, but somehow he and his companion survived for months in the artic while lost. They were eventually found, by a Mr Jackson. This Jackson was an Englishman who Nansen had rejected from his team, as he wanted them to all be Norwegian. Nothing daunted Jackson launched his own expedition, and quite by chance came across Nansen in the vast wilderness of the artic. Nansen heard dogs barking and a voice shouting, went to investigate. Walked up to the man and recognised him. Almost unbelievable. Luck and good sense is absolutely required for polar expeditions ...

Talking of which, I did indeed get The Last Place on Earth for my birthday, and I'm off to watch episode two now. There are seven episodes, running at around 1 hour 15 minutes each, so it's a relatively leisurely pace. And of course, Nansen, has put in an appearance, which is pleasing. All the early 20th century south polar explorers consulted him, so he should appear. We're getting to see both Scott and Amundsen's story, so that aspect is great. However, it's based on Huntford's book, so I'm keeping my mind open to some possibly dubious stuff. Scott is possibly being shown as more incompetent than he really was, for example. I'm also interested to see how they introduce the Polar party. Will Birdie Bowers get a good look-in, or will he just be in the background, for example?

posted by Alex Bordessa @ Friday, December 08, 2006