RNEST Shackleton was born in Kilkea Castle, Co Kildare, which is not far from where I grew up and my father would always tell me stories about his adventures when I was a kid. He was introduced to me as a figure to admire and so I formed an interest in him at a very early age.

I used to beg my father to tell me over and over again about his Endurance voyage, when he attempted to lead 28 men across the Antarctic by foot. I was completely in awe of their journey and how they became stuck in the ice of the Weddell Sea for 11 months. As a child, I was utterly fascinated by how they managed to survive by living on penguins and seals.

I was reminded of my childhood hero during a recent visit to the Antarctic with the No Frontiers team. I have never been so surprised by a foreign climate before.

Nothing could have prepared me for the harsh weather conditions and the environment; it is the most inhospitable and remote place I have ever experienced.

Even though we had the luxury of a nice boat, hot showers and thermal knickers, I have never been so cold in all my life! The whole time we were there I was reminded of Shackleton's journey and his adventures on the Weddell Sea.

During his now infamous 1914 expedition, their boat, Endurance, got stuck in the ice for almost a year. When they eventually landed on Elephant Island, Shackleton hand-picked a team of five men to go in search of assistance and they took off in a small boat to make the 800-mile journey to South Georgia.

Their journey and survival is legendary;

they had to walk the final 22 miles to the South Georgia whaling station and I think it took them over a week. When they finally arrived at the station, the men working there couldn't believe their eyes because Shackleton and his men had been given up for dead. The story goes that the four men who greeted them broke down in tears at the sight of Shackleton. Threeand-a-half months later, Shackleton made it back to Endurance and rescued the remainder of his crew.

For me, his most striking characteristics are his sense of leadership coupled with his humanity. He always put the well-being and safety of his men before his own personal goals, unlike his rival explorer Robert Scott. Scott was the first man to reach the North Pole, which of course is a wonderful achievement, but it came at a price that Shackleton was not willing to pay.

I have always been fascinated by the way Shackleton went about assembling his crews; instead of choosing the best navigator he would select a navigator who could play the guitar along with a chef who could sing. Not only did he want a crew, he wanted a happy band of men. He created a group that could forge ahead together, not just a team obsessed with achieving a goal.

The one thing I know I have in common with Shackleton is a love of the sea. He went to work on the seas at the age of 16.

EHis father was a doctor and he was expected to follow suit but instead went off and joined the Royal Navy. He went on expeditions with Robert Scott when he was very young so even as a very young man he had a drive and a determination to explore.

During my trip to Antarctica, I was so struck by the importance of the light; in the winter it is dark most of the time and in the summer it is light which I imagine would also send people slightly mad. How Shackleton managed to not only survive, but to also keep his men sane is an achievement in itself.

I believe being able to work as a team is an extremely important asset to anyone's character. I went to boarding school, where there was very little privacy, so I had to learn how to be understanding and sympathetic to the eccentricities of people's personalities. I value this now in my work because when we head off to make a No Frontiers programme we have to work together, otherwise there simply wouldn't be a programme worth watching.