our top story: hong kong police have entered the polytechnic university campus after a two day standoff between protesters and police. large fires broke out when protesters hurled petrol bombs and shot arrows from behind barricades. the latest violence is some of the worst the semi—autonomous chinese territory has seen since the movement began. there's further controversy for prince andrew after the bbc‘s exclusive interview — he said he didn't regret his association with sex offenderjeffrey epstein. now lawyers say he should assist investigations in america. and musician will.i.am says a qantas flight attendant was racist towards him during a flight from brisbane to sydney. the frontman for the band black eyed peas tweeted that he was singled out when he missed a plane announcement to put his laptop away. qantas denies the allegation.

it is just after half past midnight, it is now time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. my guest today is an extremist of a very special kind. thing to do with his political views, but recognition of a lifetime spent embracing physical challenges at the extreme limit of human endurance. sur ranulph fiennes has taken on and conquered the polar ice, the world's highest peaks and the most gruelling deserts. has been described as one of the world's greatest living explorers. so what is the motivation for this life of extreme adventure?

sir ranulph fiennes, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. seems to me, your entire life, you have spent testing yourself, challenging yourself. why this preoccupation with tests? it doesn't come about in that particular way, it comes about because of being brought up in south africa, arriving in the uk, not getting a—levels, that's what it comes from, because that's not what they wanted to do, it's what my dad had done, commanding the royal scots greatest tank regiment when he was killed in the second world war, and i wanted to command that same wonderful scottish regiment, but in

his day didn't require a—levels to get sandhurst. in my time, you did, andi get sandhurst. in my time, you did, and i couldn't, and therefore i had and i couldn't, and therefore i had a second grade of cadet school and would never become kernel of the regiment, so a joint the regiment but had only eight years of army service before you were thrown out. and so i'd didn't do what they wa nted and so i'd didn't do what they wanted to do, and i did as long as i could in the army, then i've found myself with no income, i'd married myself with no income, i'd married my wifejenny myself with no income, i'd married my wife jenny who had virtually no income, so we thought we would do what i head tried to do in the army which was to do expeditions with soldiers, but that was paid for by the taxpayer. doing it with just my wife, the new word was sponsorship. get everything for nothing. you have already developed several themes there and one thing that is important i think is, in a way is a sense of disappointment that you

we re sense of disappointment that you were not, despite the fact that you tried very hard to emulate your father... and it should be said that your father was killed in father... and it should be said that yourfather was killed in action in the second world war, so you never knew him. you were born after he died, but you clearly wanted to emulate his brilliant military career, but you were not able to. was that always and is a disappointment to you? it is the biggest appointment. i wanted for 2h yea rs biggest appointment. i wanted for 2h years to do that, and found that they had failed and couldn't do it, so they had failed and couldn't do it, soi they had failed and couldn't do it, so i head to turn to something else. you have just written a book about elite special forces throughout the course of human history and you actually write about your dad's own regiment, a cavalry regiment which has been involved in some of the most famous battles that the uk military has seen. you did for a whale serve in that force yourself. have you always found it difficult to live up to your father's reputation? i wanted to actually

get, it's an awful thing to say, but to fight... in his days it was nazis, in my day it was marxist, and they were coming in, having trained they were coming in, having trained the muslims in the soviet union, to become marxist instead of muslims, and we were there to protect the muslims from the marxists, so why was able to actuallyjoin an elite force, having been trained by the sas without fighting, by now had a command over an elite force, like what the book is all about. and could change their operations procedure by what they learned in the sas, mainly to move only by night, do nothing by day, and by shouting in the dark when we were under attack from machine—guns, retreat, retreat, but advance. you

we re retreat, retreat, but advance. you were a tough guy in that sense and you lead men in very difficult circumstances that you have also written very honestly about the way in which you didn't always find it easy to be that tough guy. you have written about school, how you hated being bullied, how you felt you had to keep your mouth shut when you we re to keep your mouth shut when you were being beaten at eton, one of the leading public schools in the uk, because you didn't want to let your father down. we have uk, because you didn't want to let yourfather down. we have had other guests in this studio talk about theirup guests in this studio talk about their up earnings as males, in very male societies, and they have talked about a toxic sense of masculinity, and a wonder if you, reflecting on your life, can relate to that.” and a wonder if you, reflecting on your life, can relate to that. i was brought up in south africa with a mother, a grandmother, lots of auntie's, lots of sisters, no males

whatsoever, so i was spoiled rotten. and then thrown into a pretty brutal boys boarding school. and then thrown into a pretty brutal boys boarding schoollj and then thrown into a pretty brutal boys boarding school. i hate to call eton brutal. you were beaten at school like you were at any other school. idea remember not wanting to shout when being beaten, and that is a sort of indication, remember people saying they looked pretty and icecold to try to stop looking pretty. so i thought i would take up boxing in order to become aggressive pa rents, boxing in order to become aggressive parents, and it looked quite well. so here we are, let us be blunt, you we re so here we are, let us be blunt, you were thrown out of the sas, britain's special forces because of a complicated incident in which you and a friend acquired some explosive and a friend acquired some explosive and went a bit freelance. no, i

acquired the explosives, but you are being taught to blow up as much as possible with as little as possible, andi possible with as little as possible, and i was quite good at it so i had and i was quite good at it so i had a lot left over. two months later, the boot of my car was full up with explosives. so when a guy came up with an offer to protect a village, we planned to blow up the dam which they had made this lovely river into a big lake forfilming, and i was thrown out of the sas for misuse... you went a bit rogue stopper you undertook a freelance operation, and they took a very dim view of it. but they took a very dim view of it. but the point of the story, in a way, that you were pretty much penniless, newly married, now without a military career. you thought the way through this, to continue to travel, to have the adventures but do not do

it with the military was to launch a series of expeditions. yes. luckily, my late wife of 38 years, she was into the same sort of thing. she was a very determined person, and she decided that we would have to be polar because of the british media at the time was only interested in polar stuff, and we would do the only polar expedition which had never been done by mankind, which was to do the first everjourney around perth vertically, and she decided that's what we would do. which of course was a journey without any air flight, you were on foot across the poles. no flying one inch. and noticing as we speak that the hand is evidence of some of the suffering that you have had in your

journeys across the most frozen parts of our planet. when we are selecting people for a small team, we've had 8000 applicants in the london area, we only want two people. one of the people they would never take someone people. one of the people they would never take someone with previous frostbite because they have a liability, so why would never choose myself. that is important to talk about, not because of the detail of how it happened but how you responded to it. you basically had to amputate your own, or you chose to amputate your own, or you chose to amputate your own, or you chose to amputate your own fingers and most of a thumb, didn't you? when it happened, a centre telegram back to the uk because by then my wife was into cattle, and all they got back from her was, typical getting your fingers, we are already shorthanded on the farm, so i'd didn't get much sympathy. the surgeon wouldn't

operate for five months, sympathy. the surgeon wouldn't operate forfive months, so it was walking around with mummified half fingers on the end, and any time you touched something its agony, so she saidi touched something its agony, so she said i was getting irritable, and can't wait five months to have a proper amputation, so we bought a black and decker saw, and she brought me cups of tea, and the physiotherapist in bristol said i head done a very good job stopping the surgeon was jealous, i think. crossing the poles on foot, deciding, much later in life, you we re deciding, much later in life, you were going to try to climb all seven highest pea ks were going to try to climb all seven highest peaks on the seven continents of this planet. you clearly were prepared to endure enormous amounts of physical suffering. yes, i had a massive heart attack on everest within five hours of the summit ridge. i head to retreat, and three days later they got back down to the base camp through a very good show for and

tried again five years later but by which tomei was becoming an 0ap and failed a second time, and on a third attempt, past the bit which has recently been in the news, all you do as you do it at night, so my shepherd took me up at night, got to the top, no bother, became the first 0ap to get to the top. how old were you? 65. but because of being an 0ap and made more money for multiple sclerosis, we have made £19 million for uk charities, and the more difficult they are the more the public will give money to the charity. interesting you say the more difficult they are the more money we can raise, the more we can do. isn't that, in the end, a rather dangerous philosophy, because it is tempting you to undertake adventures, i don't know whether we call them adventures or explorations... we call them

expeditions. expeditions. but they are at the very boundary of what the human body can sustain, and they wonder whether at times you have been irresponsible? no, it's a commercial problem. we need sponsorship, we never pay money to anybody or anything, so we need sponsorship stopping the sponsors will only give you sponsorship if you are breaking world records, and they are only world records because they are only world records because the easier ones have been done. so your point about them being very hard, we don't attack at. we look at the previous people, where they have failed on the expeditions that haven't yet been done by human. where they failed, we discover what they did wrong, and normally they ta ke they did wrong, and normally they take risks. so we try to avoid the risks, not confront them. isn't it the truth that expedition leaders such as you are running out of new places to go? running out of records to break? it depends which field you are in, if you are in polar, there

are in, if you are in polar, there are only two poles so you are right. if you are the type of person to go for mountains, there are still plenty to be climbed. it's interesting you mention that, because i was reading a back copy of the new york times from 2008 which was all about the mission that, some of the world's leading climbers undertook to k2 using a very difficult route and they believe 11 of them were killed. are just wonder, whether in your experience, whether decision making is being compromised by this desire to push to ever more extreme limits. yes, it must be. because it is yourjob to go onto the next record, and because of what have just said, the records become harder and harder as your predecessors managed the last one. but ina

predecessors managed the last one. but in a sense, it's not a job, is it? perhaps there is a selfishness of going too far in some explorers minds, because if they get into trouble, they are going to have to be rescued or at least rescue attem pts be rescued or at least rescue attempts will be made, enormous resources will be spent, and i think some people in the public are saying, what's the point? the foreign office stopped that happening. you cannot get permission to go down to antarctica in the winter when there is no rescue service. the rescue services want money by rescuing people so they like it doubly so you are not ending up like it doubly so you are not ending up with threatening somebody as you have in the old days when that wasn't the case. if they are not going to sue me for libel, the polar desk are there to stop you from going there in the wintertime when there is no rescue service on the entire continent. every time ago there with the new expedition they say, christ, it's him again. this just thisjust one more this just one more thought on the way you've promoted and sold the

expeditions. because as you very honestly say, i need the cash to make them happen. is there a tendency to exaggerated times? i'm just thinking about one of your most remarkable expeditions, which had nothing to do the ice, it was the desert. and it was your mission to find the lost city of 0obar, a mythical city mentioned in arabian nights. you mentioned it was in the empty quarter between saudi arabia and 0man. empty quarter between saudi arabia and oman. my wife was convinced. your wife was logistics commander. true. a new claim donna claimed he founded in 1991. many archaeologists and say well, found something interesting, but it certainly wasn't the lost city of 0obar. interesting, but it certainly wasn't the lost city of oobar. are the queen of sheba had to have a place

to start the camels to put the frankincense for the silk road. so this is where we thought she would start loading the camels with frankincense, worth three times more than gold, so it must‘ve been worth doing. it must‘ve been where water came from the coast to go across arabia. so we are looking at the very tip of where that was, and we ridge location. and the best middle eastern archaeologist in the world agreed that it must be ubar. so quoting other, jealous archaeologists, talking a load of rubbish. no, it is ubar. obviously you want an archaeologist. but you are right, the monies, they could have other reasons, including tourism you want to believe you are right —— the 0manis stop it was an

extraordinary expedition, whether it was ubaror extraordinary expedition, whether it was ubar or not. it was the best archaeologist in the world who told me so. use it as a man in your maturity, in your 70s. you haven't stopped in your health problems have gotten worse. i'm just wondering if you are struggling to manage with the realities of ageing, when your determination to get going, keep the expeditions alive, is as strong as ever. it is. and in my head it is as strong as ever. but i acknowledge in my head, when people get you sort of 73, it starts being alarming. things drop off and you have to start going for fast walks instead of runs stop thatis for fast walks instead of runs stop that is true. so what we're doing is iam handing that is true. so what we're doing is i am handing over the planning of what we do do to my colleagues like doctor michael estrada, who is a top expedition doctor. he is taking over

in the arctic with the russian polar experts to see how the ice is behaving, allowing new expeditions where there was ice and there is no water. -- now water. but again, it's a question of responsibility. you have a teenage daughter. after your first wife died you remarried. you're a father. and yet, in your 70s you undertook one of the world's toughest porting challenges — the marathon in the sahara desert. and that for a human in good condition in their 20s or 30s is almost unbearable. how on earth could you do that? well, you have to have a guide who pushes you really hard, more than your own mental process is pushing you. therefore i went to this guy, rory coleman in cardiff,

took me want to see what i was capable of if driven and did it successfully. so we made the $2.3 million figure. and when you go off on these extraordinary challenges now, in the last few years, what does your wife, what does your daughter say to you? well, they are a wonderful couple, wonderful wife, wonderful daughter. do they ever suggest to you, you are mad? are they fed up as do not i better, the first time, not answer that question. 0h, first time, not answer that question. oh, no. should remember, when i was born i didn't have a father. i was brought up with just a mother. and my lovely wife is a fa ntastically mother. and my lovely wife is a fantastically good mum, so, you know, i wouldn't feel all that guilty. and you get to a certain age, you're going to die off anyway whether you do it out in the cold or

you are one over “— whether you do it out in the cold or you are one over —— run over by a taxi. a theme is motivation and your early life. you said just a few yea rs early life. you said just a few years ago in an interview with the financial times, you said "if i didn't do what i do, i do think i would get depressed. i think i would suffer depression, which i don't, thankfully. but i think i could. it sort of a background shadow, a sort of fear at the thought of not having a challenge." i think that is correct. and that is still something i would fear, yes. have you ever, at any point in your life, where either physically orfor any point in your life, where either physically or for reasons of money, you have not been able to do what you have not been able to do what you wanted to do as did mark have you wanted to do as did mark have you suffered depression? reasons of money, no. because we always know that if we are doing something really difficult, we will get the sponsorship. so no to that one. in terms of this helping you bring up, it is very unfortunate, and the only

decent thing about it is it happens to everybody. and i thought, before we add, the planet. you, more than any other guest i've had on hardtalk have seen some of the most remote, most wildest, most extreme parts of this planet of ours. i wonder whether you, in your travels to date, really do feel that our planet is under pressure, it is being compromised as never before? utterly. and i'm totally behind the youth, including my daughter who has beenin youth, including my daughter who has been in trafalgar square, talking about that sort of thing. she has been part of extinction rebellion? the effect of animals as well as humans does not on animals as well as humans. and we in the arctic, it's more easy to see the difference in the arctic than the antarctic.

we've seen huge differences. in the 19705 i we've seen huge differences. in the 1970s i was designing sledges that we re 1970s i was designing sledges that were somewhat waterproof in case there was a canal, now we are designing canoes which can be pulled every night and again. so the amount of water in 20 years up there in this huge area of eyes, which is shrinking, is enabling people to commute to the pole instead of travelling overland. —— canoe. commute to the pole instead of travelling overland. -- canoe. are you a supporter of extinction rebellion? they say there is no good in mouthing the rhetoric of caring for the planet, we have to change how we live right now?” for the planet, we have to change how we live right now? i am totally in support of the rebellion as long as it doesn't put people off by doing violent things or becoming too like the yellow vests. as long as they get politicians to guarantee have people to drive, which is

difficult because of their business side, you know, very difficult indeed. but that won't require something like extinction rebellion, of old and young, really trying to push the movement to get sensible carbon behaviour. which, is against business. and a final thought. are you done? you had to abandon your effo rts you done? you had to abandon your efforts to climb all seven highest peaks on the seven continents because you just weren't well enough to do it, your back gave way. is this the and now for you? of that particular one, we've done the difficult ones, and we got bitten by the easy ones because of the old—age factor. even hillary, if you years after he climbed mount everest could no longer get about 18,000 feet. my point is, no more expeditions? oh, no. i thought you said... you've given yourself a get out clause. i don't exaggerate. no. in terms of that particular one, we done the difficult ones over 29,000 feet. the easy ones at 16, 17, is that a certain age you don't know what goes wrong with you but you can no longer

ta ke wrong with you but you can no longer take altitude above a certain height. if it is not altitude, what challenges can you say? horizontal, not vertical. have you got one in mind? the poles are all horizontal, not vertical. what is it? i won't tell you, because our enemy, the norwegians, may get there first. ranulph fiennes, thank you so much for coming on hardtalk. no, thank you. thank you very much. hello there. i think we've got a couple of dry days coming up. some sunshine but cold warnings on the way as well. that said, we've still got a legacy

of value whether for east anglia. skies clearing further north, we've already seen some temperatures fall well below freezing and a sharp and widespread frost is running across the northern half of the country. showers coming in across northern scotland here. the added risk of icy surfaces take us into monday. low pressure to our east, that means it should be a fine and dry day for the vast majority of us. cloudier crossed the extreme east of england for a time, but for most of us, after that cold and locally frosty start of the day, we are looking a dry and sunny weather. showers for the north—east of scotland, a few raining down on north sea coast of england. after that bitterly cold start of the day in the scottish capital, temperatures here reach two degrees to the afternoon, so it is going to be a cold one for sure. some in scotland could see

temperatures getting down as low as —10 celsius. if that happens, that would be the coldest night of the autumn. now, looking at the weather picture into the middle part of the week, high pressure initally stays with us. but increasingly we will see this low pressure try to make inroads off the atlantic. and that's going to bring rain or showers to western areas. but that said, i don't think the rain is going to be as troublesome as it has been for much of this autumn. we could have lingering mist and fog patches to start off on tuesday, otherwise cold and frosty. and we'll see this band of rain working across northern ireland, maybe getting into western fringes of wales and perhaps into the extreme west of cornwall as well. but the most, it's another dry day, dry, yes, but still pretty chilly. temperatures: 4 in edinburgh, 4 in hull and 7 the top temperature in london. heading into wednesday, the rain makes further inroads. so a better chance to see that rain returning to south—west england, returning later in the day to northern ireland. with to northern ireland. more of a south—easterly bree

blowing with more of a south—easterly breeze blowing through the day, we're going to see temperatures lifting both you degrees. highs reaching 8 or 9 degrees in london and cardiff, 8 degrees or so in aberdeen, 10 for belfast. so, over the next few days, heavy rain is not likely to be as heavy or persistent as we've seen, so often this autumn. cold nights to watch out for, a few fog patches, but does turn milder later in the week. that's your weather.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore, the headlines: after a two day standoff with the police protesters at hong kong polytechnic are leaving the building. further controversy for prince andrew after the bbc‘s exclusive interview. he says he doesn't regret his association with sex offenderjeffrey epstein. now lawyers say he should assist investigations in america. whether a person is a prince or a pauper, if anyone has evidence or information that might be relevant to an investigation of a criminal case, that person should provide it. i'm kasia madera in london.