Mark Anstice (born 17 May 1967 in the
Angus Glens
The Five Glens of Angus are the five Highland glens located in the western portion of the Angus region of Scotland. The five glens from westernmost to easternmost are:
*Glen Isla
*Glen Prosen
* Glen Clova
*Glen Lethnot
* Glen Esk
Glen Clova i ...
area of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
) is a Scottish explorer,
adventurous documentary reality television film maker and writer. He is best known for appearing in the
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
's series ''
Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes'' with Oliver Steeds.
Army career
After school, Anstice travelled extensively throughout Australia and Asia. In London he joined the
5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. It served in the Second World ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. Anstice spent six years in the guards with operational commitments in the Middle East, Central America and
Bosnia, leaving the service in 1995 as a
Captain.
Television career
In 2000, Mark travelled along with his friend
Bruce Parry
Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969) is an English documentarian, indigenous rights advocate, author, explorer, trek leader and former Royal Marines commando officer. He employs an ethnographic style and a form of participant observation for his d ...
for 77 days to climb
Puncak Mandala
Puncak Mandala or Mandala Peak (until 1963 Julianatop or Juliana Peak) is a mountain located in Highland Papua, Indonesia. At , it is the highest point of the Jayawijaya (Orange) Range and included in Seven Second Summits. Following Mount Carste ...
in the Indonesian part of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
. This is the
third highest mountain of Australasia, but is little known and rarely climbed (their ascent probably being only the third one). During the expedition, the team had
first contact with some members of the
Korowai tribe. In the course of the expedition, the adventure documentary, ''Extreme Lives: Cannibals and Crampons''. was co-directed and written along with Bruce Parry. The film won both the
Banff Mountain Film Festival The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival is an international film competition and annual presentation of films and documentaries about mountain culture, sports, environment and adventure & exploration. It was launched in 1976 as ''The Banff Festival ...
and
Kendal Mountain Film Festival.
Mark subsequently wrote the book
First Contact, published by
Eye Books
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
., which was published in 2004. chronicling the expedition to Mount Mandela.
In 2005, Mark took part in the recreation of the
Terra Nova Expedition
The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...
of
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...
and the
Amundsen's South Pole expedition
The first ever expedition to reach the geographic Southern Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as p ...
of
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen beg ...
as part of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
documentary. The documentary reconstructed the 2500 km expedition using the same equipment, food and clothing as the original two teams, placing the setting in
.
Between 2006 and 2008 he co-presented, with Olly Steeds, three 8-part series for Travel Channel in each of which the duo went to live with a remote, jungle-dwelling tribe for three months. In 2009, amidst growing resentment at the way their experiences were edited for the viewing audience, and public controversy surrounding the edit of the third series Steeds left the team and the show was axed. Anstice went on to make a different series, 'Secrets of The Tribes', in West Africa.
Mark Anstice currently runs the charity Fertile Roots Foundation.
* ''Extreme Lives: Cannibals and Crampons'' (2002)
* ''First Contact'' (2006) – a BBC Anthropology series presentation (set in West Papua New Guinea) surrounding the ethics of "First Contact" experiences staged by tour operators
* ''Blizzard: Race To The Pole'' (2006)
* ''Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes'' (2007)
* ''Worlds Lost Tribes: The New Adventures of Mark and Olly'' (2007–2009)
* ''Secrets of the Tribes'' (2010)
Anstice is married to Ayelen, who is Argentinian.