Actor Fiennes on Canadian expedition with explorer cousin Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Rachael Davis chats to actor Joseph Fiennes about ageing, climate change, and his Canadian expedition with his famous explorer cousin Sir Ranulph Fiennes

I n1971, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes embarked on a pioneering expedition through the Canadian wilderness. Aged just 27, he led a team to attempt the first recorded crossing of British Columbia via its waterways. This was just one of many adventures Sir Ranulph, now 80, has been on. He has circumnavigated the globe on its polar axis entirely by surface means, he’s climbed Mount Everest at the age of 65, conquered the Eiger by its notorious North Face, completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days and, alongside Mike Stroud, became the first to cross the Antarctic continent unsupported.

It’s no wonder he’s been dubbed the greatest living explorer.

While he’s now in his eighties and battling Parkinson’s disease, Sir Ranulph hasn’t lost his adventurous spirit.

So much so, he’s retracing the steps of his Canadian expedition some 50 years on alongside his cousin, the actor Joseph Fiennes, for National Geographic documentary Fiennes: Return To The Wild.

This isn’t the first adventure the pair has been on together – five years ago, Joseph joined Sir Ranulph as he reimagined his daring 1969 expedition up the river Nile.

Fiennes: Return To The Wild not only examines how much has changed in Canada’s ecology in the last 50 years, but also gives the cousins an opportunity to reflect on Sir Ranulph’s past triumphs and challenges, and have candid conversations about male ageing, frailty and love.

“It was lovely for him to reflect on his journey on his past,” says actor Joseph, 53, Sir Ranulph’s third cousin once-removed and star of The Handmaid’s Tale.

“I think he could recognise a lot has changed,” he adds of the Canadian landscape.

“It’s lovely for him ... he has the time without the stress of the military exercise of it all, where he can sit back and just observe.

“I love the reflection. And a lot has changed.”

While the Canadian wilderness is rather different to that which Sir Ranulph traversed in 1971 due to climate change, the explorer who reaches its lands 50 years on is, naturally, very different too.

Sir Ranulph has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease – a condition characterised by tremors, mild memory and thinking problems, pain, and slowness of movement among other symptoms – and despite its acceleration, Joseph says Sir Ranulph remains determined to make the most of every opportunity.

“I mean, it came as a bit of a shock,” Joseph says of the diagnosis.

“Between the first diagnosis and now, it’s been quite a tremendous acceleration. I think he’s been really brilliant.

“Ran, he’s an expert on expeditions, organises himself very well, and equips himself very well to deal with it.

“But it wasn’t easy, the trip – there are certain places and times where the producing arm [of the documentary] wouldn’t really want him to undertake climbing for six hours or getting on a horse.

There were certain parts, I think, where it’s difficult to accept the diagnosis.

“I love that part of him that’s slightly maverick that goes: ‘Sod that, sorry guys, my life, it might be health and safety, but I want to get on a horse’.

“I love him for that.”

Visiting the frozen expanses of Canada gave Joseph pause to consider the impact of climate change, particularly while exploring the Athabasca Glacier, part of the largest icefield in the Rockies.

“It’s melting at a rate of knots. It’s scary,” he says.

“Definitely in 50 years, it’s gone. Maybe in my lifetime it’s gone.

“When you’re standing there, you can’t quite comprehend that although I could listen to the water and the melting. When it freezes, it doesn’t ever reclaim enough ice that was lost. So it’s really disappearing.”

It was valuable, he adds, “to use this moment to talk about how beautiful Canada and these places are, but also to recognise the fragility and our impact on them”.

“We have to face the facts and be involved in the conversation,” he says.

“So enjoy the beauty, know it’s there, look after it: it is precious, our ecosystem is