to hospital, ten days after testing positive for covid— nineteen and going into self—isolation. his office says he's still suffering symptoms, including a high temperature, and has been admitted for tests as a precaution. he's expected to remain in hospital overnight. the queen has given a televised address in which she urged the people of britain and the commonwealth to remain united and resolute in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. speaking from windsor castle, she said countries around the world were joined in a common effort against the disease. us president donald trump has been holding a press briefing, saying the country is well prepared to fight the coronavirus. meanwhile, a top official has warned that the american people face a pearl harbour or a 9/11 moment as outbreak is expected to peak in places including new york. now on bbc news hardtalk.

welcome to heart talk. my guest todayis welcome to heart talk. my guest today is an extremist of a very special kind. nothing to do with his political views, the recognition of a lifetime spent embracing physical challenges at the extreme limit of human endurance. he has taken on and conquered the polar ice, the worlds highest pea ks conquered the polar ice, the worlds highest peaks in the most grueling deserts. he has been described as one of the worlds greatest living explorers. so what is the motivation for this life extreme adventure?

welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. it seems to me that your entire life has been spent testing yourself. challenging yourself. why this preoccupation with tense? yourself. why this preoccupation with tense ?m does not come about in the particular way. it comes about from being brought up in south africa, arriving in the uk not getting a levels. that is recon from the tank regiment when he was killed in the second world war andi killed in the second world war and i wanted to command that same one scottish regiment but in my time, i could not. and i

had a second crate of cadet school and would never become a criminal of the regiment. so i joined the regiment but had only eight years of army service before was thrown out. and so i did not do what i wa nted and so i did not do what i wanted to do and i did as long asi wanted to do and i did as long as i could in the army and then, ifind as i could in the army and then, i find myself as i could in the army and then, ifind myself with no income. i married my wife, who have virtually no income and so we thought we would do what i tried to do in that would be expeditions of soldiers. but that was paid for by the taxpayer. drink it with just my wife, the new word was sponsorship. —— doing it. wife, the new word was sponsorship. -- doing it. it was important to your life. and ina was important to your life. and in a sense of disappointment that you were not, despite the fa ct that you were not, despite the fact that you tried very hard to emulate her father and should be said that your father was killed in action in the

second world war, so you never knew him. you clearly wanted to emulate his brilliant military career, but you are not able to. was that always and is it now, a disappointment to you? it is the biggest disappointment to me. i wanted for 2h years to do that and found that i had failed and could not do it. so i had to turn to something else. you just wrote a book about special forces in human history and you read about your dad's on regimen, the cavalry regimen which was involved in one of the most famous battles that the most famous battles that the uk military has seen. you did, fora the uk military has seen. you did, for a while, serve in that force yourself. if you always find it difficult to live up to your father's reputation? yes, i wanted, i wanted to fight. his day was not seized in my

days were marxists and —— nazis. in the trained in the soviet unions and we were there and we were sent to protect the muslims from the marxists and i was able to join muslims from the marxists and i was able tojoin an muslims from the marxists and i was able to join an elite force having been trained without fighting. i now had a command over an elite force like what the book is all about and 60 of them, and could change their operations procedure by what i had learned. mainly to move only by night. do nothing by day. and by shouting in the dark when we are under attack from machine guns, retreat, retreat. but advance. you were a tough guy in that since the lead men and very difficult circumstance. but you've also written very honestly about the

way in which you did not always find it easy to be that tough quy- find it easy to be that tough guy. he wrote about school and how you hated being bullied. how you felt you had to keep your mouth shut when you're being beaten and one of the lead in public schools because you did not want to let your father down. we have had other guests in the studio talked with her upbringing as males and very male societies. we talked about a toxic sense of masculinity and i just wonder whether you reflecting on your life, can relate to that question ella and all—male background. as part of the south africa with the mother and grandmothers, lots of aunties, lots of sisters, no mail whatsoever. so i was spoiled rotten and then thrown and then thrown into a pretty brutal boys boarding school. if

i had brutal boys boarding school. if ihada brutal boys boarding school. if i had a son, i would probably send them there. but in my day, you are beaten and all of this other stuff, like you were at every other school of the time. and yes, i do remember not wanting to shout when being beaten and that is an indication and i do remember people saying that i looked pretty, sort of thing. and i scoured to try to stop looking pretty and i figured scoured to try to stop looking pretty and ifigured i would ta ke pretty and ifigured i would take a boxing in order to become aggressive appearance and it's sort of worked quite well. so cure we are. in the end, we are thrown out of the sas written special forces because of a complicated incident that you and a friend acquired some explosives and when to be freelanced.” acquired the explosives but we we re acquired the explosives but we were to blow up as much as possible with as little as possible. and i was quite good

at it and i thought pitted to give it back to the queen. put it in the boot. so two months later, the boot of my car was filled with explosives. so when this guy came up with an offer to protect the castle, what are the prettiest village, being ruined by 20th century fox. we planned to blow up the dam which they had made for filming, soi which they had made for filming, so i was thrown out of the sas for misuse of equipment. i took freelance operation. there you were, pretty much penniless, newly married and now that a military career, you thought the way through this was to continue to travel, to have the adventures, but did not do it with the military, was to launch a series of expeditions. luckily,

my late wife of 30 years, she was into the same sort of thing. should been a guide in the north of scotland she was very determined. she decided that we would have to be polar because the british media at the time are only interested in polar stuff and if you do not have media coverage, you would like it sponsorship and we would do the only polar exposition that it ever been done by mankind, not even scott, was the firstjourney around the earth vertically and thatis around the earth vertically and that is what we would do. which of course was a journey without any airflight. of course was a journey without any air flight. you were of course was a journey without any airflight. you were on foot across the polls. no flying. as you speak, the evidences a —— the hand is evidence of the

dangers of which are faced. many applicants in the london area. one of the things i would never take is someone with previous frostbite, because they become a liability on the expedition. so i would not choose myself any more after getting this sort of thing. explained to me, because i think that is important to talk about, not just because think that is important to talk about, notjust because of the detail of how it happened, but how you responded to it. you had to basically amputate or you chose to amputate your own fingers and most of the thumb, didn't you? when it happened, i sent a telegram back to the uk because by then my wife was in the cattle and all i got back from her was typical of getting your fingers from her was typical of getting yourfingers and from her was typical of getting your fingers and all of that we are already short—handed on the farm and so i did not get much sympathy. i went back to the uk and the surgeon wouldn't operate for five months, and the surgeon wouldn't operate forfive months, souls walking around with mama fight have fingers on the end and any time you touch something, it is agony. she said i was getting

irritable and cannot wait five months to get a proper imputation, so we brought a decker and she brought me cups of tea and the physiotherapist saidi of tea and the physiotherapist said i had done a very good job. the surgeon was jealous, i think. which raises the questions that you undertook more extreme adventures, crossing the polls on foot, deciding much later in life that you're going to try and climb all seven highest peaks on the seven continents of this planet, you clearly were prepared to endure an enormous amount of physical suffering. yeah, i had a massive heart attack on everest. and therefore, i had to retreat three days later and got back down through a very good track but by which time i was becoming an 0ap and i felt a second time because of passing

too many bodies and for the wonderful attempt, i passed the bit that it's recently been in the news we get queues of people, would you do it at night when there were no people in some and took me up at night. became the first 0ap to get to the top. how old were you when you got to the top of everest michelle is 65. but because being 0ap, it made more money for multiple sclerosis in one of the offshoots was millions of quid for uk charities and the more difficult they are in the more public will give to the charities. the more difficult they are in 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 you would call them adventures and explorations. expeditions. expeditions. and the limit of what the human body can sustain

i think at times have you been irresponsible? it is a commercial problem. you need sponsorship, we never paid money to anybody or anything. we need sponsorship. the sponsors only give you sponsors of your breaking world records in the er only wall records because the easier ones been done. so then being very hard is what comes about. we do not attack it, we look at the previous people who have succeeded and where they failed on the expeditions that have not yet been done by humans. where they failed, we discovered what they did wrong and normally, they took risks. so we try and avoid the risks, not confront them. is a true that you and explorers, expeditions leaders such as you are running out of new places to go. running out of records to go. running out of records to break. it depends on which field you are in. if you were the people he goes for the first to sense of difficult

mountains, there still many horrible north face is to be climbed. there's still plenty to do. funny that you mention that. i was reading a copy of the new york times from 2008 which was all about the mission that's on the worlds leading climbers undertook, using a very difficult route and the of them were killed and one of the worst international mountaineering incidents ever. they just wonder with your experience that decision—making is being compromised by this desire to push ever more extreme limits? it must be because if you're wanting, that is yourjob, to go on out to the next record because of what ijust said, the record becomes harder and harder as predecessors manage the last one. but it is not a job though. perhaps this is selfishness that is going too farand selfishness that is going too far and some explorers minds

because if they go into trouble, they were to be rescued or tinctures, and people will be saying what's the point we shall of the foreign office stop that happening. you cannot get permission to go into an article -- antarctica in the winter. you're not ending up with threatening somebody as you have been in the old days when there was not the case. the polar desk, if they're not going to sue me for liable, they are there to stop you from going there in the wintertime and there is no rescue service on the entire continent. every timei on the entire continent. every time i go under the new expedition, they say it's him again. just one more thought on the way in which you promoted insult expeditions because as you very honestly say, i need the cash to make them happen. is there a tendency to exaggerate at times. 0ne

is there a tendency to exaggerate at times. one of your most remarkable expeditions, which has nothing to do with the ice, it was the desert and your mission to find the lost city. a mythical city mentioned in the arabian nights. you are convinced that is somewhere in the empty corridor between saudi arabia and 0man. corridor between saudi arabia and oman. up my wife is convinced. she led many of your expeditions and being the logistics commander and you claimed you found it. in 1991. many archaeologists and experts say that he found something very interesting, but it sure is anything was not the lost city. those and oman will tell you. the queen of sheba had somewhere in order to put the frankincense on the market up injerusalem, that frankincense on the market up in jerusalem, that is frankincense on the market up injerusalem, that is a huge journey and we knew therefore exactly where she would have to start loading the camels with frankincense, which cost three

times the cost of gold. so, well worth doing. came from the coast towards the great desert of arabia where they had to cross. we were looking at the very tip of where that water reached and we reached the place called. place and reached and we reached the place and all the authorities agreed and the professor that found them, the best middle east archaeologist in the world, agreed that it must be. so what you're saying, quoting other cellist archaeologists are talking a load of rubbish. —— jealous. are talking a load of rubbish. -- jealous. oman is. but are talking a load of rubbish. --jealous. oman is. but they could have other reasons, including tourism to want to believe you are right. but it was extraordinary whether or not it was them or not. both the best archaeologists in the world. you said before me as a

man in maturity in your health problems have gotten worse and i'm wondering if you're struggling with the realities of aging we were determined to keep going, keep the expeditions alive and strong as ever. yes. it is and in my head is stronger than ever. but i acknowledge that people, when they get to 73, it starts being alarming and things start to drop off he helped us start going for a fast walks instead of runs, it is unfortunately true. so what we're is i am handing over the planning of what we do to my colleagues, like doctor michael who is a top expedition doctor. and he is taking over right now in the arctic with the russian polar experts, looking to see how the ice is behaving and where there

was ice and is now water. it is a question of responsibility. you have a teenage daughter, after your first wife died, he remarried and are a father. and yet, even in your 70s, you undertook one of the worlds toughest sporting challenges, the marathon in the saharan desert and that, for a human in good condition in the 20s and 30s is almost unbearable. how on earth could you do that? you have to have a guide who pushes you really ha rd. have to have a guide who pushes you really hard. more than your own mental processes pushing you. and i went to this one guy in cardiff who took me on, look to see what i was capable of if driven and did it successfully. so we made the 2.3 million figure that we were after from

that particular thing. when you go off on these extraordinary challenges now, in the last few yea rs, challenges now, in the last few years, what does your wife, what is your daughter say to you? they are a wonderful couple, wonderful wife, wonderful daughter. to the ever suggest that you are mad?” wonderful daughter. to the ever suggest that you are mad? i am not going to answer that question. you have to remember that back when i got born, i did not have a father, i was brought up with just a mother and my lovely wife is a fa ntastically and my lovely wife is a fantastically good mum. so i would not feel at all that guilty and we get to a certain age, you're going to die off a nyway age, you're going to die off anyway with the do it out in the corridor run over by a taxi. i them through our conversation has been motivation in tracing things back to your early life and it

intrigues me that you said this just a few years ago in an interview with the financial times. is that if i did not do what i do, i do think i would get depressed, i would suffer depression, which i don't, thankfully. i think i could. it isa thankfully. i think i could. it is a background shadow, a sort of fear at the thought of not having to challenge. that is still something that i would fear, yes. have you ever come at any point in your life, whether physically or reasons for money, you're not be able to do what you wanted to do. have you suffer depression but shall 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 the health thing you bring up. it is very u nfortu nate thing you bring up. it is very unfortunate and the only decent thing about it is that it happens to everybody. and before we in the bout. you more

than a guess i've ever had has seen some of the most remote while it is, most extreme parts of this planet of ours and i wonder whether you and your travels today really do feel that our planet is under pressure. being compromised more than ever before? utterly. and i'm totally behind the youth, about that sort of thing. the effect on animals as well as humans. it is stressful and it is very much there and we in the arctic, let me say, it is much easier to see the difference in the arctic than the antarctic. in the 1970s, is designing sledges, which were a bit waterproof in case there was a canal. now we are designing canoes that can be hauled every now and again. it's the amount of water in 20

yea rs it's the amount of water in 20 years in this huge area vice, which is shrinking, is enabling people to canoe to the pole instead saying that it is no good and mouthing the rhetoric of caring about the planet, the urgency means that we have to change how we live right now. means that we have to change how we live right nowlj means that we have to change how we live right now. i am totally in support of the rebellion, as long as it does not put people off by doing violent things. as long as they complain and get the people to have a real drive, which is difficult because of the business side, very difficult indeed. but that is why it requires something like the extinction rebellion of gordon young, really trying to push the movement to get sensible —— old and young. and against

business. you had to abandon your effort to climb all seven highest pea ks your effort to climb all seven highest peaks on the seven continents because you just we re continents because you just were not well enough to do it. your back gave way. is this the end now for you michelle that we have done all the difficult ones, we were beaten by all the easy ones. because of the oort age factors. even hillary, of yea rs age factors. even hillary, of years after he climbed everest cannot get above 18,000 feet. number do not exaggerate. in terms of that particular one, we have done the difficult ones over 29,000 feet, the easy ones at 1617, you'rejust at 29,000 feet, the easy ones at 1617, you're just at a certain age, you can no longer take altitude. you go back to horizontal and vertical. all

the older stuff is horizontal. ido the older stuff is horizontal. i do have one in mind because ifi i do have one in mind because if i say it, the norwegians mighta if i say it, the norwegians might a difference. will lead to find out. thank you so much for being on hardtalk. hello there, the weekend brought plenty of sunshine for many of us and temperatures responded accordingly. sunday was the warmest day of the year so far, 22.2 degrees the highest temperature we recorded in west wales but for monday, something a little bit cooler. there will be sunshine around but there will also be some showers. so that plume of very warm air

that wafted northwards across the uk through sunday is being replaced by something cooler from the atlantic moving in behind this frontal system. this front will continue to bring some outbreaks of rain monday morning, becoming slow moving across east anglia and the south—east. you can see these outbreaks of rain trudging eastwards and for east anglia and the south—east the rain will turn heavier for a time during the morning. behind it we will see brighter skies and sunshine, one or two showers across england and wales, one or two more across northern ireland and scotland which could be thundery. fairly windy again across the far north—west. temperatures down but 12—18 degrees still respectable for this time of year. as we move through monday night with light winds and virtually clear skies overhead it will turn cold, certainly a colder start to tuesday morning. temperatures in towns and cities close to freezing, some spots in the countryside will get down to freezing and a frost for someone tuesday morning and one or two mist and fog patches.

tuesday is all about high pressure building its way in from the near continent promising lot of dry weather. yes, that chilly start but we will see plenty of sunshine. the winds start to come back up from the south so there will be warmth and that sunshine with top temperatures in london getting up to around 20 degrees. further north for glasgow more like 1a or 15, always some patches of cloud for northern ireland and north—west scotland turning any sunshine quite hazy here. now, as we move through tuesday night into wednesday, still high pressure to the east, areas of low pressure and frontal systems trying to push in from the atlantic and the squeeze between the two will bring a renewed surge of warm air from the south. notice northern scotland holds onto something colder but elsewhere, temperatures climbing. 23 degrees is likely in the south. it does look like way we will see some outbreaks of rain moving in from the west on friday.

this is bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: the british prime minister boris johnson is admitted to hospital for tests — ten days after testing positive for coronavirus. as the expected peak of america's coronavirus outbreak looms — the president has this message of hope. things are happening. we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. and hopefully in the not—too—distant hopefully in the not—too—dista nt future, we hopefully in the not—too—distant future, we will be very proud of the job we all did. the queen delivers a rallying call to the uk and the commonwealth, stressing the value of self—discipline and resolve. i hope ihope in i hope in the years to come,

eve ryo ne i hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take