The lowdown:  'The Last Place on Earth' is a seven-part dramatisation of the British and Norwegian polar expeditions
that competed to be the first to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. The British expedition was led by Robert
Falcon Scott (played by Martin Shaw), while the Norwegian team was led by Roald Amundsen (Sverre Anker Ousdal).
The mini-series is based on a biography of Scott called Scott and Amundsen, by Roland Huntford, and was broadcast
on ITV between 18 February and 27 March 1985. In addition to Shaw, the series featured many British actors who were
well-known at the time, including Tom Georgeson (Between the Lines), Pat Roach (Auf Weidersehen, Pet), Bill Nighy,
and Sylvester McCoy as Lieutenant Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers, the storekeeper on Shaw's Terra Nova expedition.
The series also featured a young Hugh Grant in only his second acting role, and well-known international actors such
as Max Von Sydow and many Norwegian actors who were probably well-known in their own country at the time. Richard
Wilson (Dr Constantine in The Doctor Dances and The Empty Child) also appears in two episodes.

Scott and Amundsen had both led a number of successful expeditions, but conquering the North and South Poles were
the last great challenges for arctic explorers. Scott was determined to reach the South Pole after his previous Discovery
Expedition between 1901 and 1904. While Scott was planning his expedition, he learned that Amundsen was going to
the North Pole, and thought the British would have the glory of reaching the South Pole to themselves. However, upon
learning that several other explorers had claimed to have reached the North Pole, Amundsen decided to change course
and head south, against the wishes of his financial backers. He did not reveal the change in plans to his crew until his
ship had already left Norway, and sent a telegram to Scott informing him that his new destination was the South Pole. 
Thus an unofficial race to the South Pole had began.

The first several episodes of the series focus on the efforts of Scott and Amundsen to put together their respective teams,
and the political intrigue surrounding Amundsen's decision to detour to the Antarctic. However, the series comes into its
own once the expeditions reach the Antartic. The producers of the series do an excellent job of portraying the hardships
that the expeditions must have experienced in the harsh climate of the Antarctic (although the ice and snow scenes were
probably filmed in a quarry in Surrey!). Amundsen reaches the Pole in the sixth episode, and the actors who play the five
men in Scott's team do a marvellous job of portraying the heartbreak of reaching the Pole only to find that the Norwegians
had beaten them to it.

Video clips:     Birdie Bowers    6.8mb          Scott and Birdie    4.5mb          On to the Pole    4.8mb
   
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