I’ve just finished watching this epic seven-part 1980s ITV mini-series about Scott and Amundsen’s race for the South Pole in 1911-12, starring Martin Shaw and Norwegian actor Sverre Anker Ousdal. It makes harrowing viewing at times, especially during the almost unbearable, drawn-out coverage of Scott and his men in the last desperate days of their lives. Directed by Ferdinand Fairfax, who also made Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), this comes from a period when TV companies seemed to keep making very expensive and long historical drama series – which sadly doesn’t often happen now!
I should say at the outset that I’m not any kind of expert on Scott or Amundsen and don’t know how accurate this account is. I believe it caused some controversy at the time, and it definitely portrays Scott as arrogant and largely responsible for equipping his expedition badly, taking ponies rather than enough dogs and skis – while Amundsen is seen as more competent and a better explorer, though he seems arrogant too at times. (I’d imagine some measure of arrogance is needed to mount an expedition like this in the first place.) Anyway, I’m hoping to read more about them both and find out more background. (I would imagine there might be new books and documentaries in 2011/12 to mark the centenary.) Just looking at this as a drama, I find it enthralling and moving to watch, even though, or indeed because, it portrays these famous explorer-heroes as flawed human beings. It does show how terrible the weather was during that Antarctic winter, and how the conditions contributed to the tragedy.
Martin Shaw as Captain Robert Scott
Martin Shaw in particular gives a fine performance as Captain Robert Falcon Scott, or “Con” as he is called by his friends, giving the character a blend of infuriating self-assurance and sudden vulnerability. He’s supported by an excellent British cast including Bill Nighy, Michael Maloney, Stephen Moore, Sylvester McCoy (best-known as a former Doctor Who) and a very young Hugh Grant in a small part as Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who wrote the famous account The Worst Journey in the World. Grant only really has one good scene, where he sets out with the dogs to try to find Scott and the group who went to the Pole, but he makes it tell, seeming young and nervous and overwhelmed. Writer Trevor Griffiths, adapting a book by Roland Huntford, has made the dialogue realistic and avoided the best-known noble phrases – I was surprised that “Titus” Oates (Richard Morant) didn’t say “I may be gone for some time”, but then realised that phrases like that, which everyone knows, often seem to be missed out of dramatisations, maybe because they are so difficult for an actor to say.
Susan Wooldridge plays Scott’s wife, Kathleen – I was delighted to see her in the cast list as I loved her performance in The Jewel in the Crown, but in this she portrays a rather unlikeable, self-dramatising woman. She is almost a Lady Macbeth figure, driving Scott on to his fate and insisting at one point: “It is my destiny to marry a great man and give birth to a great son!” I don’t know whether Kathleen Scott was really like this, but to me the scenes featuring her do feel slightly over the top and unbelievable.
Sverre Anker Ousdal as Roald Amundsen
Norwegian actor Sverre Anker Ousdal plays a quiet Amundsen, full of burning determination, leading a fine Norwegian cast – plus Swedish star Max von Sydow as the older explorer Nansen. It’s just such a shame that their scenes are all in English – surely it would have been so much better to have them speaking Norwegian with subtitles rather than speaking to each other with heavy accents. Because of this, I found these sections slightly less powerful than the ones following the English group, although the acting is excellent in these sections too.
Hugh Grant as Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Although the build-up at the start of the series is well done and helps to put the journeys in context, for me the real power of the drama lies in all the apparently endless footage of the men struggling through the snow and ice. I watched this straight after the more recent mini-series Shackleton (2002), starring Kenneth Branagh and at first thought The Last Place on Earth wasn’t quite as good – but, by the last episodes, I was completely gripped. I’ll write a short bit about the Branagh series on my blog too, as I really want to recommend them both, although this one is now fresher in my mind. I now think if anything The Last Place on Earth may be the greater series of the two – though they are both very good – partly because its sheer length, and the sheer number of scenes of actors staggering through the snow and wind, gives a feeling of what an epic journey this was, and how gradually everything was stripped away from the Antarctic explorers. Also, although Shackleton is now seen as a greater hero, and Scott as a bad organiser at least partly to blame for his own downfall, to me that doesn’t take away at all from the poignancy of Scott’s story.
Richard Morant as "Titus" Oates
Wow! Not seen this, but I have seen the Kenneth Branagh ‘Shacklton’. I love these Pole adventures and the history of the Franklin expedition. I have a super book about the Franklin expedition ‘Frozen in time – the fate of the Franklin expedition’ by John Geiger and Owen Beatie.
I’ve just had a look on amazon and they have ‘The last place on earth’! thanks for sharing.
Lynda
Thank you, Lynda – I’m also interested in the history of the Franklin expedition, so am pleased to have the title of the book. I’ve got two books on Scott lined up to read too.
Not my cup of tea but …your review is as great as usual Judy! I can just imagine how gripping it must have been especially when it came to their tragic final striving . I’m curious to read your review of the latest series starring Branagh. He’s such a good actor and director. Have a nice weekend!
Thanks, Maria – I hope to write something about the Branagh series in the next day or two, as I then want to get back to writing about a few literary adaptations. Hope you have a good weekend too!
I have not heard of this series so I really appreciated the review. I now have it on my “must see” list which has got considerably longer since discovering this site.
I really enjoyed Shackleton and look forward to your review of it.
Janette
My list of dramas I must see, or must watch again, keeps getting longer all the time too, Janette! Thanks for the encouragement.:)
[...] 20, 2010 by Judy I’ve been overloading on polar dramas lately by watching both The Last Place on Earth (1985), about Scott and Amundsen’s race for the South Pole, and this more recent Channel [...]
“She is almost a Lady Macbeth figure…”
Agreed! Watching that character’s seething control and sexual issues, it was hard not to think of the lines “Bring forth men-children only; / For thy undaunted mettle should compose/ Nothing but males”! What a range Wooldridge has, to go from someone so utterly lovely as Daphne Manners to someone as repulsive as her LPoE character.
A very comprehensive review of a terrific series (particularly liked your point that the Norwegians should have been allowed to act in their mother tongue) – thanks a lot!
Thanks very much, VanDee! I hadn’t thought of those lines, but they go perfectly with Kathleen Scott’s insistence that it is her destiny to give birth to a great son!
I do also agree on Wooldridge’s range – sadly I haven’t seen nearly enough of her over the years since ‘Jewel in the Crown’.
I came to this series with a background of reading a lot about Scott and Amundsen’s expeditions, including Huntford’s book on which the series is based and a couple of more recent books which debunk many of Huntford’s anti-Scott arguments. Thus I found the script’s depiction of Scott as so arrogant and rude as unconvincing and annoying. He was flawed, yes, but also much loved by many of his men including Bowers and Wilson. Oates- who’s diary Huntford drew on extensively- had a history of bitching and moaning about his superiors for his whole career, and I don’t believe that Scott and Oates, steeped as they both were in the stiff upper lip traditions would ever have expressed such disrespect out loud to eachother’s faces, especially at times when the lives of the whole company depended on pulling together harmoniously.
I could go on nit picking at the anachronisms and biases but I won’t. I did enjoy the glimpse of young Hugh Grant and thought Cherry-Garrard deserved more screentime for the significant role he played during and after the expedition.
Hello Meliors! I thought I recognized the name; I’ve much enjoyed your Antarctic-related art projects, particularly your poem “Birdie Bowers’ Hat”. (Should have left my appreciation on your blog, I know – sorry!)
With regard to LPoE, I think it’s worth remembering that the left-wing scriptwriter Trevor Griffiths was using the Scott-Amundsen conflict to attack British jingoism, esp. in relation to the Falklands War. This involved brutal iconoclasm to a greater degree than Captain Scott in fairness deserved, but I think LPoE works on the level of art rather than as a strictly faithful historical record.
Griffiths has clearly done his research on the Scott Expedition, too – again and again one can spot direct quotations from contemporary accounts within the script. Whether these accounts are accurate is sometimes a matter of debate: iirc the Scott-Oates open conflict over the exact location of One-Ton Depot is solely to be found in Tryggve Gran, for example, and from what I’ve read of Gran I find him worryingly inclined to present wild speculation as eyewitness fact. My point, however, remains that Griffith used a number of historical sources, not just Huntford.
“He was flawed, yes, but also much loved by many of his men including Bowers and Wilson.”
Ah, not everyone loved him – Shackleton wasn’t exactly a fan of Scott’s, was he? ;) I agree that in real life Scott could not possibly have been as tyrannical as he’s presented here – not without open mutiny occurring! – but again Griffiths seems interested as presenting Scott as a man who’s had greatness “thrust upon him”. In this depiction he’s been forced by Markham and Kathleen into a role for which he isn’t entirely suited, and he’s seen reacting with understandable bitterness to these external pressures. Historically that isn’t entirely accurate, but on an artistic level it makes Scott a tragic figure, and that’s something to which I found myself responding as I watched.
“I did enjoy the glimpse of young Hugh Grant and thought Cherry-Garrard deserved more screentime for the significant role he played during and after the expedition.”
You might be interested in Trevor Griffiths’ original screenplay of LPoE, entitled JUDGEMENT OVER THE DEAD: whilst it doesn’t have significantly more Cherry it does give more of what Griffiths envisaged for the series, including a nod to the “Winter Journey” and a tribute to a working-class hero in Tom Crean’s epic 35-mile trek across the ice. His original ending drew a direct link between the Scott mythologizing in 1913 and the call to war in 1914 (Falklands parallel again!)
In the end, I agree that LPoE should not be seen as a 100% faithful depiction of what took place. However, I enjoyed Griffiths’ excellent writing and the actors’ performances, and it helped send me off in search of the historical accounts. I suspect I’m not the only one who’s been inspired to research the facts further as a result of this series.
Sorry to be late in replying, but I’ve been frantically busy over Christmas – many thanks to both Meliors and VanDee for the detailed and very interesting comments. I’m interested both in Meliors’ comments on the inaccurate depiction of Scott’s character and in VanDee’s on the iconoclasm and the attack on jingoism in relation to the Falklands War. You have both given a lot of food for thought here, so thank you very much for that. I am hoping to read more about Scott in the year ahead.