One of the most expensive and ambitious television drama ever made, Longitude director Charles Sturridge's two-part film is not merely a recreation of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated journey to the South Pole in 1914. Starring Kenneth Brannagh as Shackleton, it is a modern drama about a contradictory hero whose idiosyncratic leadership triumphs in the face of unbelievable adversity.

The films start with Shackleton's ingenious plans and efforts to finance his dream in London, the journey to the Antartic, the epic expedition and fight for survival; concluding with the final dramatic rescue of his crew. With location filming in London, Buenos Aires and the Arctic, the production of the film is as dramatic and heroic an undertaking as the original expedition.