I’ve returned to Antarctica. This is Ponting’s first film of the Terra Nova expedition. A silent with a discreet modern score (thankfully not by the Pet Shop Boys); Abide With Me over the final photographs of Wilson, Scott and the rest certainly had me sniffling. It was brilliant, giving rise to so many thoughts that swung between today’s way of thinking and that pre-WWI Empire-venerating, masculine, Christian mindset that had its own virtues of stoicism and comradeship. It’s mostly about the journey from New Zealand to Antarctica and the wildlife they encountered. The images (penguins, seals, whales) are fairly standard stuff today, but Ponting was truly ground-breaking and courageous. The intertitles were very anthropomorphic, and I would have liked more about the men – but the film was a record of a doomed scientific exhibition, not a photo album.

I have now found an online copy of Priestley’s “Antarctic Adventure” about the gruelling experiences of the Northern Party. I’m hoping the “Boys Own” vibe of the title is belied by the account itself, but I’m not expecting anything as moving as Wilson’s own diaries or Cherry-Garrrard’s generous and insightful account.