History's Toughest Heroes: Peter Freuchen: Surviving the Arctic Wilderness

An arctic explorer is trapped in a snow drift the size of a coffin. How will he survive frostbite and make it out alive?

In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.

Danish born Peter Freuchen looked like a Viking, 6ft 7, huge beard, massive furs. His life was one non-stop adventure. He started out as well-to-do young man in Copenhagen – destined for a life as a doctor. But there was a race for the North Pole going on, and explorers would pass through the city to tell their incredible stories. Freuchen was inspired. He dropped out of medical school and joined an expedition to the extreme north. From that moment on, his life was fraught with danger, severed limbs, murderous wolves and lost dogs, extreme isolation and loneliness and very unlikely survival. He was undefeated by the frozen desert of the arctic and, as the century wore on, by Nazi oppression, even by the dazzling glare of Hollywood celebrity.

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Producer: Suniti Somaiya Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Imogen Robertson Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts