Joseph and Ranulph filming in Aswan. Photo / National Geographic/Russ Malkin
By Jane Mulkerrins
"As a kid, I'd grown up with all these amazing stories of this man, who, in my mind, was wrestling polar bears and living on ice floes for six months," says Joseph Fiennes of his third cousin, Ranulph. Though the pair did not meet until Joseph was in his 20s, "precisely because he was always off on expeditions", the legendary explorer's adventures loomed large. "Maybe I magnified them a little as a child, but it is an incredible legacy," says Fiennes, star of Shakespeare in Love and The Handmaid's Tale.
So, when the opportunity arose to know his cousin better - by accompanying him on an expedition retracing one of Ranulph's earliest trips, following the Nile through Egypt - the 48-year-old actor jumped at the chance.
The resulting NatGeo documentary, Egypt with the World's Greatest Explorer, is currently screening on Sky.
"What appealed to me was the idea of families, and history and legacy," says Joseph, when we meet in New York ahead of the show's premiere.
"I would love someone to watch this and think, 'gosh, I should give my aunt or my uncle or my cousin a call', because they might not have climbed Everest, or been to both poles, but they have done something rather extraordinary, and I want to know about their legacy."
Egypt with the World's Greatest Explorer sees the cousins travel 1600km from Alexandria to the Sudanese border, a trip Ranulph first undertook in 1969. And, says the younger Fiennes, calling 75-year-old Ranulph – or "Ran" as he is known to friends and family – "the world's greatest explorer" isn't hyperbole. "It's according to the Guinness Book of Records, because of his first circumnavigation of the world, via both poles," says Joseph. Between 1979 and 1982, on his Transglobe Expedition, Ranulph journeyed around the world on its polar axis using only surface transport and he remains the only person to have ever done so. In 1992, he discovered the lost city of Iram in Oman and, in 2009, at the age of 65, climbed Mt Everest. He famously sustained frostbite during his 2000 attempt to walk to the North Pole solo and, unaided, he amputated the tips of five fingers on his left hand with an electric saw.
Although no fingers were lost in the filming of this three-part series, which sees the two men sleep inside pyramids and discover ancient sarcophagi, the challenges they faced on the three-week trip included intense heat, with temperatures reaching 48C, run-ins with scorpions and snakes, as well as Joseph learning, shakily at first, to drive on sand dunes. But, he admits, the conditions and wildlife were not his biggest worry.
"Fat-tailed scorpions and vipers are pretty scary, but what was even more scary to me was the issue of whether Ran and I would get on. He is quite militaristic – he's ex-SAS special forces - and this extraordinary explorer and I am this thespian. I had a few sleepless nights worrying that this could all go very wrong."
Joseph comes from the artistic side of the Fiennes family; his father, Mark, was a photographer, and his mother, Jennifer, a novelist and painter. One of six children, his siblings are fellow actor Ralph, directors Sophie and Martha, composer Magnus and conservationist Jacob Fiennes.
Ranulph, by contrast, never met his father – also called Ranulph – who died four months before he was born; a commander in the Royal Scots Greys, he trod on an anti-personnel mine in Italy, dying 11 days later, in November 1943. His son would later become a commander in the same regiment, from where he was seconded to the Special Air Service (SAS), specialising in demolitions.
One of the most poignant parts of the trip for Joseph was, he says, visiting the battlefield at El Alamein, where Ranulph's father had fought in 1942. "I felt very moved to hear him speak about his dad, who was this almost mythological man to him, who he only learnt about after his death," he says. "I was really heartened that Ran opened up. He is certainly a man from a generation that you wouldn't necessarily expect to, but he did."
Before the trip, Joseph admits, he was curious to see if he and Ranulph had much in common, and whether he shared his cousin's sense of adventure. "I do think we share something," he muses. "We are different generations, come from different backgrounds, had different upbringings, but we do share something and we found connections.
"It's embarrassing to admit this, but one of those things was a real competitiveness," Joseph says, laughing. "I didn't realise I was so competitive but Ran really brought it out in me. We ran a ledger, and would bet on things and we kind of played off each other. We were in Aswan, and we took out two feluccas - sailboats. We were both determined to get to the finish line first, but there was no wind - it took us both an hour to sail 100m."
On a more serious note, the younger Fiennes attests that his cousin showed him the value of preparedness. "He taught me always to assess, don't take risks, don't rush in," he says. "The things that generally undo you are man-made issues – forgetfulness, taking risks or, as I did, gallivanting off down tunnels and not thinking ahead. In episode two, I nearly came very badly unstuck with a tow rope. But it was ll human error."
I wonder whether adventurers like Ranulph and other gung-ho types, such as mountaineers and climbers, possess a special sort of spirit that the rest of us don't.
"With Ran, I think it goes back to his father and the need for approval in some way," Joseph says. "But I do also think it is a unique spirit and energy, and a rather wonderful one. Explorers and adventurers bring back great scientific learnings - whether it is about other places or about ourselves – and that is vital to pass on to the next generation.
Lowdown: Egypt with the World's Greatest Explorer, Sundays, 8.30pm, National Geographic, SKY Channel 72. Also available on SKY Go and SKY On Demand.
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