''Shackleton'' is a 2002 British television

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

. It was written and directed by

Charles Sturridge Charles B. G. Sturridge (born 24 June 1951) is an English director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of a BAFTA Children's Award and four BAFTA TV Awards. He has also been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Early life and educat ...

and starring

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...

as explorer

Sir Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarc ...

. The film tells the true story of Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition on the ship ''

Endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...

''. The cast includes

Kevin McNally Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He began his acting career in the BBC TV adaptation of ''I, Claudius'' (1976), but is best known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fran ...

, Lorcan Cranitch,

Embeth Davidtz Embeth Jean Davidtz (born August 11, 1965) is an American-South African actress and director. She has appeared in movies such as ''Schindler's List, ''Matilda (1996 film), ''Matilda'', ''Bridget Jones's Diary,'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man (fil ...

, Danny Webb,

Matt Day Matthew Day (born 28 September 1971) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. Early life Day was born in Melbourne, Victoria. When he was 11 years old, he went to live in the United States with his father, a newspaper correspondent, where he b ...

and

Phoebe Nicholls Phoebe Sarah Nicholls (born 7 April 1957) is an English film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in '' Brideshead Revisited'' and as the mother of John Merrick in ''The Elephant Man''. Personal life Ni ...

(also the director's wife) as Lady Shackleton. It was filmed in the UK,

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. The film used first-hand accounts by the men on the expedition to retell the story. Shackleton biographer

Roland Huntford Roland Huntford ( Horwitch;Race To The Pole: Tragedy, Heroism, and Scott's Antarctic Quest, Ranulph Fiennes, Hyperion, 2004, p. 387 born 1927) is an author, principally of biographies of Polar explorers. Background and education Huntford, the ...

was a production advisor. ''Shackleton'' was first broadcast in two parts by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in January 2002. In

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

the film was first broadcast by the

A&E Network A&E (an initialism of its original name, the Arts & Entertainment Network) is an American cable and satellite television network and the flagship property of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company ...

in April 2002. The film was nominated for seven

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

, six

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...

, and a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...

Plot

The films tells the true story of explorer

(

) and his 1914 Antarctic expedition on the ship ''

''. The story begins with him planning the expedition and finding sponsors, particularly Sir James Caird. Shackleton's goal is to drive dog sled teams from one side of Antarctica to the other, which would make Britain the first nation to undertake such a trans-continental journey. Once the expedition is underway, trouble arises due to thick

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less density, dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world' ...

and low temperatures. ''Endurance'' becomes trapped and eventually crushed by

pack ice Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...

. Shackleton vows to find a way to rescue the men. He undertakes an epic journey across the ice, followed by 800 miles of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

and then an uncharted mountain range on

South Georgia Island South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

. He finds a

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

station from which rescue parties are sent to collect his entire

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

ed crew. The otherwise failed expedition is made famous for every crew member surviving despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

Cast

(In order of appearance) *

as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton *

John Grillo John Martin Grillo (born 29 November 1942, in Watford, Hertfordshire) is an English actor. Biography Grillo was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and while there was actively involved in student theatre. ...

as Franks *

as Emily Shackleton * Eve Best as Eleanor Shackleton * Mark Tandy as Frank Shackleton * Cicely Delaney as Cecily Shackleton * Christian Young as Raymond Shackleton *

as Rosalind Chetwynd * Danny Webb as Perris * Lorcan Cranitch as

Frank Wild John Robert Francis Wild (18 April 1873 – 19 August 1939) was an English sailor and explorer. He participated in five expeditions to Antarctica during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal ...

Michael Culkin Michael Culkin (born 2 July 1954) is an English theatre, film, and television actor probably best known for his role as Judge Buller in the BBC drama '' Garrow's Law''. He appeared as Rab Butler in the first two seasons of ''The Crown'', in '' ...

as Jack Morgan *

Mark McGann Mark Anthony McGann (born 12 July 1961) is an English actor. Early life He attended the De La Salle Academy, Liverpool, De La Salle Grammar School, Liverpool. Mark's father Joe was a Royal Naval Commandos, Royal Naval Commando, who landed on ...

as Tom Crean * Abby Ford as Marcie *

Frank Worsley Frank Arthur Worsley (22 February 1872 – 1 February 1943) was a New Zealand sailor and explorer who served on Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, as captain of ''Endurance''. He also served in the Royal ...

Robert Hardy Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegf ...

as Sir James Caird *

Pip Torrens Philip D'Oyly TorrensThe Cambridge University List of Members up to 31 July 1998, University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 793 (born 2 June 1960) is an English actor. Torrens portrayed courtier Tommy Lascelles in the Netfl ...

as James McIlroy *

Ken Drury Ken Drury (born 7 June 1950) is a British actor. Career Drury's career in TV has seen him play the midwife in ''Only Fools and Horses'' and Harry McNish, the carpenter of Ernest Shackleton in '' Shackleton'' opposite Kenneth Branagh Sir ...

Harry McNish Henry McNish (11 September 187424 September 1930), often referred to as Harry McNish or by the nickname Chippy, was the carpenter on Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917. He was responsible for much of the ...

Frank Hurley James Francis "Frank" Hurley (15 October 1885 – 16 January 1962) was an Australian photographer and adventurer. He participated in a number of expeditions to Antarctica and served as an official photographer with Australian forces durin ...

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shackleton (2002 TV series) 2002 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings 2000s British drama television series British adventure television series 2000s British television miniseries Channel 4 television dramas Channel 4 miniseries Works about the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition British English-language television shows Films directed by Charles Sturridge Television shows set in Antarctica Films set in Antarctica Ernest Shackleton

Plot

Cast

Awards and nominations

See also

References

External links