Paul Rose presents the story of Frank Wild - BBC Two

Tune in to BBC Two on Sunday 22nd April to see Paul Rose present the story of Frank Wild: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero.

Frank Wild, who hailed from the small village of Skelton, near Whitby, was the most decorated polar explorer of the great heroic age and second in command to Ernest Shackleton on the ill-fated Endurance expedition to the South Pole.

In this documentary, presenter Paul Rose, himself a Polar explorer, joins a new expedition, to bury Wild’s newly rediscovered ashes next to his beloved leader Sir Ernest Shackleton on the remote island of South Georgia in Antarctica.

Wild’s ashes were only rediscovered in 2011 – more than 70 years after his funeral - in an underground chamber in a cemetery in Johannesburg.

Frank Wild was a key player in five expeditions to the Antarctic with Captain Robert Scott, Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton, but while they became household names, Frank’s exploits were forgotten.

His later life was blighted by bad press and bad luck, thousands of miles away from the ice in the heat of South Africa.
Frank’s Polar career came to an end in 1922 and he tried to make his fortune in South Africa but ended up working in a bar in a dusty backwater.