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Damon Thomas

The Worst Journey in the World

Drama: Action & Adventure

Drama: Historical

29/04/2007

BBC Four - The Worst Journey in the World

How three of Scott's Antarctic team faced a journey to bring back Emperor penguin eggs.

Drama about an expedition to capture a rare penguin's egg during Captain Scott's scientific mission in Antarctica, prior to his ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole.

Drama telling an often overlooked story of epic endurance. The story of Captain Scott's second polar expedition (1910-1913) remains a testament to an age of tragic heroism, but it is rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent over two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.  

One such task saw three of his men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity - all for a penguin egg - in the winter journey of July 1911. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Dr Bill Wilson and Lieutenant 'Birdie' Bowers faced the worst journey in the world to bring back Emperor penguin eggs which they hoped would prove an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds. 

The expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's life and his downfall. 

This charming and moving film guides us through this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.

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