Review: Sir Ranulph Fiennes Living Dangerously

Named by the Guinness Book of Records as ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has spent his life in pursuit of extreme adventure, risking life and limb in some of the most ambitious private expeditions ever undertaken. Tonight this explorer came to the stage of the Tyne Theatre & Opera House, and many came out to be in the presence of this explorer, and to listen to his experiences. 

The show started with a video reel of clips from different voyages, for the man himself then to take the stage and take his place seated with a lectern. 

To start we learned of his childhood upbringing, schooling and army life, including his desire to lead the same battalion as his father, his time in the SAS, and subsequent tours and that he was actually a bit mischievous! 

We learned of the major influence of his childhood sweetheart turned wife Ginny who was a driving force in planning these expeditions and urge to chase world records and of whom herself was the first female member of the all-male Antarctic Club.

Fiennes focused on a couple of expeditions specifically in this show and we learned of the detail that goes into organising these trips, the time taken to complete them and the experiences shared. How they would convince many others to undertake these expeditions with no pay and encourage sponsors and connections made to support them. 

The need to beat the Norwegians mostly and be the first to achieve these feats also came through as a common theme. 

These details were accompanied by images of these treks and quite often Fiennes was able to bring a humour to his stories that made us laugh.

It was a fantastic experience to be able to sit and listen to someone who has lived an amazing life with experiences that many can only dream of. When you sit back and reflect, it is inspiring to see what he has achieved. You have to be fearless to even contemplate the things he has done, and he puts a lot of the achievements down to attitude and motivation over strength which makes you (or me at least) think what can I do myself within my own life to achieve more. 

By ‘living dangerously’ Fiennes became the first to reach both Poles, the first to cross the Antarctic and Arctic Ocean, and the first to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis but we also learn he failed occasionally too. 

The show ended with a short Q&A with questions submitted via Twitter which gave an opportunity for some questions including what’s next for this great man…however he left this one unanswered for fear of a Norwegian being in the audience.