The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford

The episode includes spoof film sketch Scott of the Sahara, which pitches Scott against a “crazed desert lion”, while Oates engages in a “frank adult death struggle with the spine-chilling giant electric penguin”.ġ979: Roland Huntford’s classic debunking biography, Scott and Amundsen, is published by Hodder and Stoughton.ġ985: Martin Shaw, star of The Professionals, plays Captain Scott in Trevor Griffiths’s TV adaptation of Huntford’s biography, The Last Place on Earth.ġ999: 150,000 visitors attend exhibition at the New York Natural History Museum, sparking revival of interest in Ernest Shackleton.Ģ001: Leading polar scientist Susan Solomon shows that the British team faced unusually bad weather on their return from the Pole, as Scott had argued in his last message. The film receives a Royal Command Performance, and boosts sales of Scott’s journals, but fails to attract large audiences.ġ953: Annual sale of John Murray’s “cheap edition” of Scott’s journals falls below 1,000 copies for the first time.ġ959: Peter Cook performs “Polar Bores” sketch in the Cambridge Footlights revue, The Last Laugh.ġ966: Reginald Pound’s biography includes extensive quotations from Scott’s original journals, which had been cut from the published version.ĭecember 1970: Monty Python Series 2, Episode 10, 'Scott of the Antarctic' is broadcast by the BBC. November 1934: Leading Conservative minister Stanley Baldwin opens Herbert Baker’s new memorial building for the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridgeġ948: Ealing Studios releases Scott of the Antarctic. November 1915: First Lord of the Admiralty Arthur Balfour unveils Kathleen Scott’s Fleet Memorial statue of her late husband in Waterloo Place, London.ġ923: John Murray publishes the first cheap edition of Scott’s journals, and a special “school reader”.

Captain Scott’s heroic reputation: a timelineġ0 February 1913: News of the Antarctic disaster is received in London, and makes the late editions of the evening papers.ġ8 January 1914: Scott’s sledging journals are placed on display in the Manuscripts Saloon of the British Museum.

The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford