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Shackleton (TV serial) Quotes

Shackleton is a Biography; drama that appeared on TV in 2002 on Channel 4. Shackleton completed its run in 2002.

Shackleton was on for 2 episodes. It features Selwyn Roberts as producer, Adrian Johnston (musician) as theme composer, and Henry Braham as head of cinematography.

Shackleton is recorded in English, Norwegian language; German language and originally aired in United Kingdom. Each episode of Shackleton is 206 minutes long. Shackleton is distributed by A+E Networks.

The cast includes: Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest Shackleton, Kevin McNally as Frank Worsley, Ken Drury as Henry McNish, Phoebe Nicholls as Emily Shackleton, Lorcan Cranitch as Frank Wild, Pip Torrens as James McIlroy, Matt Day as Frank Hurley, Mark Tandy as Frank, and Mark McGann as Tom Crean.

Shackleton Quotes

Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest Shackleton

  • (Kenneth Branagh) "We should take a picture. Frank would want us to take a picture."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Yes, well, uh, thank you for seeing me, and, uh, perhaps you will be able to give some thought to the possibility of becoming a sponsor."
  • (Unnamed) "Sir Ernest, my contribution towards your exciting adventure is over there on the desk. Please. I'm not the sort of woman to waste a man's time."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Miss Stancombe Wills, I don't know how to thank you."
  • (Unnamed) "By succeeding, of course. And perhaps by addressing me in future as Janet."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "And there we will, uh, make a base, and a smaller party will start a march towards the, um --"
  • (Unnamed) "Scone."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Ah, ah, the scone, precisely. At the same time a second group will land on the other side of the continent, uh, the Ross Sea, and make their way across the Beardmore Glacier towards the Pole, I-I-I mean the, uh, scone, um, laying food depots"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "as they go, so that my party will have supplies for the second half --"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Chippie -- I suppose there's no way we could make the Caird more seaworthy without wood?"
  • (Ken Drury) "Who says we don't have wood? What do you want to do?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Make her unsinkable."
  • (Ken Drury) "Cover her over, you mean? Like a deck?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Yes -- but I suppose that's impossible."
  • (Ken Drury) "Who's the carpenter around here, you or me?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Frank, we can't carry any more weight."
  • (Matt Day) "I'm not leaving them behind."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I have 28 lives to consider."
  • (Matt Day) "So have I. And one year of each of those 28 lives is in these pictures. What's the point of our survival if there's no record of what's happened? And if we don't make it, then this will be all the life that's left of us. Without these we've done nothing, except get lost like a bunch of schoolgirls on a nature ramble."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "How many are there?"
  • (Matt Day) "520."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Well, perhaps we could take a box."
  • (Matt Day) "Not enough. 200, you make the selection."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "100, we make the selection together. Deal?"
  • (Matt Day) "150. Deal?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Deal."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "What is going on here?"
  • (Kevin McNally) "McNish, here, feels that there's--"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Get these men back to work, Captain. There's a base up ahead; Charlie's setting up a hooch tent. Now move, and that's an order."
  • (Ken Drury) "You've no authority."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Don't talk to me about authority. Who gave you the authority to have 20 men standing still here freezing? Who gave you the authority to risk their lives while you discuss what you think?. You want to know WHY they're doing what they're doing? Because I told them to. If you think that's wrong, then you come to me."
  • (Ken Drury) "The cutter's being torn apart."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I don't care about the bloody cutters. I care about the bloody MEN. THEIR LIVES. That's what I'm responsible for."
  • (Ken Drury) "We'll, I'm responsible for my life now, and that means I don't have to accept what some bastard who plants flags in snow for a living thinks I should do."
  • (John Vincent) "We haven't got a ship, we haven't got a contract. We don't have to do what you say."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I'm the leader of this expedition, and your contract is with me, not the bloody ship. Now you do what I say and I will keep you alive. And I will keep you alive. But if you threaten my expedition, the lives of my men, if you become the danger -- then I will have no hesitation in having you shot."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Well, so much for cutting steps. Maybe we could get further on our arses."
  • (Kevin McNally) "We don't know what's ahead. There could be a precipice."
  • (Mark McGann) "Not according to the map."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) ""Not according to the map.""
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Shall we?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "From Winston Churchill. There's only one word; Proceed."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "My job now is to make sure you all live. Every single one of you. To do that, I cannot afford to be sentimental. If I am, you will die -- die frozen, die starving, die mad. I've seen it before; I do not intend to see it again."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I'd like to have taken you with me in the Caird."
  • (Matt Day) "You've chosen a good team."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "You're the expedition photographer,"
  • (Mark Tandy) "I think it right that you stay with the expedition. In some ways you are the expedition. I don't know what our chances are in the Caird; evens at best, I suspect. If we die, then what we've done lies with you and your pictures. You are our story. If I don't come back, I want to make sure there's someone there to tell it. I've drawn up this letter: it gives you back the rights to all your pictures and your films if I die."
  • (Matt Day) "Thank you, I appreciate it."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "It's a trick, of course."
  • (Matt Day) "Sir?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I'm not intending to die."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Do you know me? My name is Ernest Shackleton. We have lost our ship, and come over the island."
  • (Sorlie) "Ernest Shackleton. My friend."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I am afraid that we smell a little."
  • (Sorlie) "This is a whaling station. We all smell a little."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "We have been away so long. Tell us about the war. When did it end?"
  • (Sorlie) "The war? The war, my friend, is not over. They've gone mad, Europe has gone mad. They've killed millions and millions of people. It's a war like -- no other war."
  • (Kevin McNally) "Who is winning?"
  • (Sorlie) "Well, whoever is left alive at the end. Won't you sit down, please? Please."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Mmm, thank you. I -- I need to borrow a ship."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "First let me say that if war is declared, any man who wishes to leave the expedition to serve his country is free to do so. It is clear to me where our first duty lies, and this morning I telegraphed the First Lord of the Admiralty and put our ship, and every one of us, at his disposal. We now await his decision. I hope you will forgive me, but I particularly asked that if he saw fit to employ us in the service of our country, that might he allow us to stay together, erhaps aboard a destroyer. I did this because I can honestly think of no finer group of men with whom to serve."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "You think the threat of war makes it hard to raise money; it doesn't make any bloody difference. If it's not a war, it's a peace, or the stock market, or the weather, or the time of year. It is always hard, because what I do appears unreasonable to other men."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "How old are you?"
  • (Perce Blackborow) "19, sir, nearly 20. Please don't send me back."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Mr. Blackborow, have you ever been to the Antarctic?"
  • (Perce Blackborow) "No, sir."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Those of us who have been there -- who have seen men starve, go mad, and die -- are not so BLOODY AMUSED."
  • (Perce Blackborow) "No, sir. It's just, I heard you were two men short, so I thought I could help out, like."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Oh, did you? Do you know what starvation is, Mr. Blackborow? Have you ever watched a man eat a biscuit, and want to kill him -- for just one crumb of it?"
  • (Perce Blackborow) "No, sir. I'm sorry, sir."
  • (Lorcan Cranitch) "We are a man short, boss."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Are we? Well, maybe he'll come in useful. If we do face starvation, the stowaway is always the first one we eat, isn't that right, Mr. Wild?"
  • (Lorcan Cranitch) "Yes, boss."
  • (Perce Blackborow) "We'd get more meat off you, sir."
  • (Jacobsen) "There is no possibility to reach the bay at the moment. You must wait here for warmer weather."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Well, in England we're used to waiting for warmer weather, aren't we?"
  • (Capt. Thoralf) "In Norway also."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Thank you for your question. You are right, sir, we failed. We failed to reach the South Pole. I turned back. I chose life over death for myself and for my friends, which is why I am here to tell you about it tonight. But others follow in our footsteps Captain Scott, taking our route; the Norwegian, Amundsen, from the Bay of Whales. And if they should fail, then I will try again. Because I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure -- would be not to explore at all."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "We'll strike camp tomorrow."
  • (Kevin McNally) "The men were looking forward to celebrating Christmas, boss."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Then we'll make tomorrow Christmas. I don't want to stay here any longer; it isn't safe. Now we'll have a feast tomorrow, and everything that's not going on the sledges can be eaten."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "And don't expect much night from now on. In two weeks time it will be December 21st, the longest Antarctic day. The sun will be above the horizon for 24 hours. Do not let this affect your sleep; you're going to need it."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "But grateful as I am for the generous contribution of this society, this committee must accept that scientists do not pay for science. I make no apology for seeking publicity. Without something that the newsmen can understand and support, there is no public; without the public there are no sponsors; without sponsorship there is no expedition."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "After today, nothing will be hard, ever again."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I love you. I couldn't go on without you, and that is the truth. But, I don't know what to do."
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "You have to go, I know you do. If you didn't, who would you be?"

Ken Drury as Henry McNish

  • (Ken Drury) "Why do you stay out here, in the middle of bloody nowhere?"
  • (Whaleman) "To get away from up there. Whalemen not fit up there. People up there not like queer folk like whalemen around. We not can write poetry, we not can paint pictures --"
  • (Whaleman) ". So -- we come here. No damn use anywhere else."
  • (Ken Drury) ": To those of us who are no damn use anywhere else."
  • (Unnamed) "No damn use anywhere else."
  • (Ken Drury) "I can make it waterproof, but no' iceproof."
  • (Ken Drury) "Where are we now?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "We're on South Georgia. But, unfortunately, the whaling station's on the other side of the island, and there's a mountain in between."
  • (Ken Drury) "I knew you shouldn't've been allowed to read a compass on your own."

Phoebe Nicholls as Emily Shackleton

  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "What do you call her? What do you call her?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "What?"
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "Her nickname."
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Mouse."
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "Everybody has a bloody nickname with you. Everybody, except me. Do you know, one of your men asked me what mine was, and I had to say I didn't have one? And he asked, what would I choose? I said, 'Honey.' Isn't that pathetic?"
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "Well?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Well, what?"
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "How did you do?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "Ahh, one invitation to go to the races, and a request from Mr. Morgan's office to keep in touch with developments. A zero, a naught, nothing."
  • (Phoebe Nicholls) "So what's next?"
  • (Kenneth Branagh) "I don't know. Rent an office and get started, I suppose."

Matt Day as Frank Hurley

  • (Matt Day) "And look right into the camera. That's where the rest of the world is. Straight into the lens, right here. Think of your wives, your sweethearts, your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. That's where they are, behind there."

Pip Torrens as James McIlroy

  • (Pip Torrens) "From up there, Grytviken looks almost romantic."
  • (Matt Day) "It's just a matter of choosing the right place to look at it from."
  • (Pip Torrens) "Hmm, really. In that case I have a couple of maiden aunts who'll be very interested to meet you."

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