Fiennes: Return to the Wild
8.00pm National Geographic Catch up via Now
You might remember a series back in 2019 where explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes bonded with his younger cousin, actor Joseph Fiennes, star of The Handmaid’s Tale and Dear England, on an adventure-travelogue in Egypt laced with puns and manly pursuits.
This two-parter is something similar, but in the wilds of Canada — or fairly wilds, at least. The idea is to honour Fiennes senior’s expedition across British Columbia in 1971, when “Ran” (to his friends) managed to cross the state’s vast stretches of wilderness from north to south via connecting waterways, braving deathly rapids along
the way. We see clips from that journey and it looks terrifying, whereas the present-day trip is, as you’d expect, on the sedate side.
But it’s touching nonetheless, as Joseph (actorly, emotionally open) gets Ran (a man who sawed off his own frostbitten fingers) to open up about his past. They visit the Virginia Falls and the Athabasca glacier and go fishing for sturgeon. Confronting all the “sheer Mother Earth power” leaves Joseph awestruck and conscious that “we’re all just passing through”.
Ten Questions: page 8; Smart TV: page 29