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10 Episodes 1975 - 1975
Episode 1
A wave of shocked disbelief rebounded through Britain at the news that Scott of the Antarctic had an unexpected rival. At the last moment Roald Amundsen, a tough and moody Norwegian, decided to race the British expedition to the South Pole. For Scott the competition was to end in tragedy and death. And it was Amundsen, single-minded to the point of obsession, who succeeded and lived.
Episode 2
It was a lunatic idea. Dressed as an Arab while boasting he was a Christian there was little hope for him. The fierce nomads of the desert would surely kill Charles Doughty on sight. But this strange and intense Englishman was determined to try to reach the Holy City of Mecca, religious capital of the Moslem Empire. His journey was a catalogue of appalling suffering. Many times he nearly perished. Years later Lawrence of Arabia was to report that since his journey Doughty had become something of a Bedouin legend. The Arabs told tales of him. He had become history in the desert.
Episode 3
H. M. STANLEY was born illegitimate and brought up in a Welsh workhouse and became world-famous for his discovery of Livingstone in Africa. Now, with Livingstone dead, he planned to return to complete the exploration that Livingstone had left unfinished. In particular he wanted to solve the mystery of the River Lualaba in unexplored Central Africa. Was it the headwater of the River Nile? Or could it be the eastern section of the River Congo? By the time he returned with the answer Stanley was the only white man left alive in the entire expedition.
Episode 4
53 mins
Some contemporary experts believed the centre of Australia was a massive lake surrounded by lush pastures. Others thought it was arid desert. The Royal Society of the Colony of Victoria chose Robert O'Hara Burke to go to find out - and make history by crossing the Continent for the first time. Burke, ex-army and now a policeman, had no experience as an explorer. But with men, horses, carts, covered wagons, tons of supplies, and camels specially imported from India, he set out from Melbourne. Soon there were raging rows with his assistants. Burke fired his second in command and appointed William Wills , an eager young man from Devon, to the job. Together they were to achieve the ' most disastrous success' in the history of Australian exploration.
Episode 5
Mary Kingsley risked her life in a dramatic and calculated way when she entered the forests of West Africa-the white man's grave. It was to be one of the shortest important journeys in the history of exploration. And when she returned to Britain she shocked Victorian society by reporting something no one wanted to hear.
Episode 6
Jed Smith was a beaver trapper. And it was the search for valuable fur that led him West, deep into unexplored North America. He fought Indians, survived a savage attack by a grizzly bear, and by the age of 27 was an experienced leader of tough and difficult men. He had already discovered South Pass through the Rocky Mountains, when in the summer of 1826 he prepared to leave Salt Lake on another journey that would make history.
Episode 7
Humboldt was a genius. He was the first truly scientific explorer. He was the father of modern geography. He was an aristocrat with money. But by the time he had completed his researches and travels he was broke. Perhaps rarely has a private fortune been so well spent.
Episode 8
It was a newly commissioned Lieutenant Cook who set sail from Deptford in a converted coal carrier called Endeavour. His published orders were to get to the Pacific to make scientific observations for the Royal Society. But few knew he also carried sealed and secret orders from the British Admiralty. They urged him to search for a Southern Continent that was thought to exist and claim it for Britain at once. What he found was the East Coast of Australia where he promptly planted the British flag. But afterwards Endeavour ripped into the Great Barrier Reef and for 23 hours the course of history tilted in the balance as Cook fought to save his ship, the lives of his crew and the news that Britain had a new colony.
Episode 9
All his life he had dreamed of striking it rich. Now in his mid-50s, Francisco Pizarro grabbed at what looked like his last chance to gain power, prestige and gold. There were rumours that on the western side of South America there was a kingdom stuffed with jewels and precious metal. With a small band of armed men Pizarro left Panama to find it. By the time he returned he was one of the richest men in the world. Behind him the Inca Empire of the Sun God lay in ruins.
Episode 10
Incredibly, Columbus refused to accept he had found a new Continent. Until the day he died he believed all he had achieved was the discovery of a new route to China. For it was in search of the spices and gold of the Orient that he set out on his first voyage in the Santa Maria. Tonight's film tells the little-known story of what really happened to Columbus and his men. From the Royal Court in Spain to the slave camps of the New World, it traces the dramatic decline of a man who made a momentous discovery - but would not accept it.