[Davo]

For anyone wanting more info about the Franklin expedition I would recommend this podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-explorers-podcast/id1161063301?i=1000457740672

[Duma]

cheers both, that looks right up my street, and always up for a new podcast for the commute

[Davo]

cheers both, that looks right up my street, and always up for a new podcast for the commute

You are welcome. I really like that Explorers podcast. Loads of “boys own adventure” type stuff on it and the guy narrating has a relaxing voice

[Will Hunt]

Psyched for that podcast. Thanks!

[tommytwotone]

I very much enjoyed The Terror (BBC) last night. Fictionalised (OR IS IT?  ) account of Franklin's doomed expedition to complete the Northwest Passage.

Very reminiscent of that brilliant adaption of Dark Matter that was on BBC Sounds a while ago (you know, the scary story of a man overwintering alone [OR IS HE?  ] at an Arctic observation station).

Is it my hearing, or is this (like a lot of modern TV drama) pretty mumble-y?

No matter what sound setting I had the TV set up on I kept missing whole sections of dialogue!

[Falling Down]

The opening dialogue on The Terror had me reaching for the remote to put the subtitles on which I used to do for W as she’s French but (like Moose IIRC) I watch a lot of TV and films with them on for myself now.

Thoroughly enjoyed it though. Quality TV so far.

[seankenny]

The opening dialogue on The Terror had me reaching for the remote to put the subtitles on which I used to do for W as she’s French but (like Moose IIRC) I watch a lot of TV and films with them on for myself now.

Thoroughly enjoyed it though. Quality TV so far.

Something that started ten minutes into The Wire in our house.

[Will Hunt]

I have to say I did reach for the subtitles a couple of times.

[slab_happy]

I very much enjoyed The Terror (BBC) last night. Fictionalised (OR IS IT?  ) account of Franklin's doomed expedition to complete the Northwest Passage.

Very reminiscent of that brilliant adaption of Dark Matter that was on BBC Sounds a while ago (you know, the scary story of a man overwintering alone [OR IS HE?  ] at an Arctic observation station).

I've got to check that out, love a bit of Arctic (or Antarctic, I'm not picky) horror.

[SA Chris]

It's not really horror, the series is named after one of the ships, HMS Terror.

[TobyD]

I very much enjoyed The Terror (BBC) last night. Fictionalised (OR IS IT?  ) account of Franklin's doomed expedition to complete the Northwest Passage.

Very reminiscent of that brilliant adaption of Dark Matter that was on BBC Sounds a while ago (you know, the scary story of a man overwintering alone [OR IS HE?  ] at an Arctic observation station).

Is it my hearing, or is this (like a lot of modern TV drama) pretty mumble-y?

No matter what sound setting I had the TV set up on I kept missing whole sections of dialogue!

Some sections of dialogue on Bloodlands are pretty tricky to hear for me, but I think that's just me failing to interpret Northern Irish accents, rather than mumbling. 

[tommytwotone]

Something that started ten minutes into The Wire in our house.

My missus had to watch The Wire with the subtitles on, but I think that was more to do with her lack of familiarity with the lingua franca of the streets!

[slab_happy]

the series is named after one of the ships, HMS Terror.

Yeah, but isn't there some spooky supernatural shenanigans in it too?

[SA Chris]

Yeah but just temper expectations.

[slab_happy]

Fear not, I'm good with a dash of creepy, and from the bits I've read about the RL Franklin expedition, that was more than horrifying enough.

Also, Ciaran Hinds and Tobias Menzies are usually good value.

[Plattsy]

Not forgetting Jared Harris who in this (and Chernobyl) is great.

[slab_happy]

Not seen Chernobyl yet, but heard great things!

[Will Hunt]

I'm binging it on iplayer and have watched up to and including episode 5. I thought the first two episodes were a bit scary, but not in a jumpy way, more just in a sense of dread way (regardless of how it happens we all know how the story is going to end...). The scariness has definitely relented but it remains grim. Some bits are quite gnarly to watch.

[jwi]

This Deutche Welle documentary shows performances of Beethoven's ninth in Osaka with a 10,000 strong choir, in Kinshasa by an amateur orchestra, in a Favela in São Paulo, in Barcelona for an audience as deaf as Beethoven himself and in Germany with one of Russia's best ensembles. It is also about two deconstructions of the 9th one made by a British DJ and the other by a Chinese composer respectively



Surprisingly touching. But then again, I am a stan.

[Will Hunt]

Well, I think I watched the Terror in 3 evenings. Then listened to the podcast linked above. Then got into quite a deep Wikipedia hole looking up Arctic expeditions of the time, many of them rescue missions for Franklin. Mad stuff. General plan of attack seemed to be to sail as far as you could into the Arctic archipelago, get stuck in ice, and then sit in your boat for 2 to 3 years until you have absolutely no option left but to pack what little food you had left into row boats and set out to drag them with your scurvy-ridden dying-of-starvation bodies about 500 miles to somewhere that you might be rescued. You either die doing this or manage to get rescued, at which point you return home a hero to a grateful nation and sign up to do it all again. Franklin was already nicknamed "the man who ate his boots" after his Coppermine expedition where 11 of the 22 men died and they retreated from the wilderness surviving on a diet of lichen and their leather boots. The mid 1800s sound like a blast.

[cheque]

A guy I work with is a kind of authority on Franklin and all those Arctic explorer guys- has hadarticles published in journals like the Polar Record where he posits new theories about what happened to people who didn’t survive etc. He used to tell me long stories about them when we’d drive places for work. The gist was always pretty much what Will says.

[moose]

I suddenly feel the need to move Barrow's Boys and The Worst Journey in The World to the top of my amazon wishlist.

[SA Chris]

Worst Journey in the World is long, but a fascinating account of the hardships, not just on the Polar trek, but the other ones they did while there, some of which sound more brutal.

[Davo]

Worst Journey in the World is long, but a fascinating account of the hardships, not just on the Polar trek, but the other ones they did while there, some of which sound more brutal.

Halfway through this and can confirm it is good but long.

[slab_happy]

Ha, was just about to post to recommend The Worst Journey In the World for all your "people suffering horribly in polar regions" needs, but I see other people got there first!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/14/penguin-eggs-worst-journey-world

ETA: also if you enjoy The Worst Journey, Sara Wheeler wrote an excellent bio of Cherry-Garrard himself. Warning: he came back from the Scott expedition straight into WWI; the double hit fucked him up badly and he dealt with a lot of mental health stuff for the rest of his life, so it's not exactly the lightest read, but very well-written.