Endurance: Race To The Pole | Preview (Channel 5)

New three-part immersive documentary series following Ben Fogle and Dwayne Fields as they relive the trials and tribulations of the deadly race to the pole at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Ben and Dwayne step back in time to wear the clothes, eat the food and use the same kit as their Edwardian heroes Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen.

They experience some of the decisive moments that saw Amundsen reach the pole first, Shackleton become a seasoned polar explorer and Robert Falcon Scott reach the pole only to die on the return journey. It's a story filled with tragedy, jeopardy, and true heroes.

In episode one, it's 1901 and the start of the Great Age of Antarctic Exploration. Stepping forward to lead Britain’s three-year-long “Discovery” Expedition to Antarctica, and hopefully reach the South Pole was Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

His is one of the best equipped and financed expeditions yet, and alongside Scott is a fresh-faced new recruit: Ernest Shackleton. Follow as Ben and Dwayne land in Antarctica and transition from modern polar explorers into their historical clothes and take on the mantle of their Edwardian forebears.

Within days they are setting off with faithfully recreated equipment and rations on their own journey trying to experience the key moments of that first attempt at the pole.

Scott and Shackleton used dogs but without success, in the end hampering their efforts. As non-indigenous species are no longer allowed in Antarctica Ben and Dwayne have to resort to good old-fashioned man hauling, dragging a wooden “Nansen” sled and all the kit they need to survive in Antarctica behind them.

It’s back breaking and mind-numbing work, but worse is to come as they pitch their replica tent for the first time on the frozen barren ice fields.

They plan to live on the same rations, making the famed polar dish of “Hoosh” for breakfast and dinner: a fatty stew made from dried beef, rendered beef fat and rock-hard ships biscuits all mushed up into melted snow.

Scott made valiant efforts to reach for the Pole and ultimately set a new world record for the furthest South any person had ever gone into the heart of Terra Incognita, as Antarctica was known, but ultimately, he failed and had to stop many hundreds of kilometers from the pole.

The series begins Monday 2nd October on Channel 5.