The Big Ice

Though it plays hell with cameras, Antarctica has long fascinated filmmakers. This hour-long National Film Unit documentary was assembled from a five-part TV series of the same name. It looks at scientific research, early explorers, and Antarctica's affect on global climate. Made almost four decades ago, the programme warns of a possible "new and potentially dangerous warming period", and describes the greenhouse effect as a "controversial scientific theory". The large cast includes penguins, a seal birth (clip two) and a heavyweight team of Kiwi scientists.

Bigger than the United States and Europe combined, its interior is incapable of sustaining any form of life. Yet along its shores and in its surrounding nutrient-rich seas live large populations of penguins, seals, fish and other marine species.

– Narrator Clive Revill on the Antarctic

Key Cast & Crew

Ann Horton

Co-Director, Writer

Bayly Watson

Cinematographer

Tom Williamson

Co-Director, Writer, Producer

Thomas Horton

Writer

Clive Revill

Narrator

Lynton Diggle

Director - Antarctic Unit