An Heroic Age

When the Belgian Antarctic Expedition left port with a young Roald Amundsen (right) on board in 1897, it launched what has come to be known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. That voyage was followed a year later by the first British expedition, backed by the Tit-bits publisher

Sir George Newnes. A new BFI dual-format disc is the first attempt to bring together all the Heroic

Age films together in one set. These include the lesser-known Japanese and

Australian expeditions, as well as Shackleton’s Nimrod venture of 1907–09 and Amundsen’s epochal one of 1910–12.

Alongside a remastered version of South, with a new score by Neil Brand, there is a short film of Shackleton’s funeral. The explorer died of a heart attack on his third polar expedition in 1922, aged 47, and was buried on South Georgia. South & The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration on Film is available from the BFI (£27.99)