Paul Gardner

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is credited as being the World’s Greatest Living Explorer. Among his extraordinary achievements, he was the first to circumnavigate the world from pole to pole, crossed the Antarctic on foot, broke countless world records, and discovered a lost city in Arabia. He has travelled to the most dangerous places on Earth, lost half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and was nearly cast as James Bond. But who is the man who prefers to be known as just ‘Ran’?

Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.

The film looks at the myths and markings of South Africa's prison 'Number' gangs. Shot in graphic black and white, it investigates the secret code spelt out and spoken across the bodies of the inmates. The film immerses its audience in the world of the Number gangs, their history, personal journeys, codes and body markings.

In this special follow-up programme, the only television team with access to the dig and the scientific tests on the skeleton uses unseen footage and conducts two days of additional interviews to tell this extraordinary forensic detective story in even greater scientific and archaeological detail.