As a long term resident of Buxton I've seen the inside of the Opera House on many an ocassion but never have I seen such complete reverence from an audience as that bestowed on Ran. If there are places you could hear a pin drop this wasn't one - no-one would have dared to drop the pin! After a short introduction from Ian Parnell the man who needs no introduction emerged to take a seat across the small coffee table set centre stage and the story of a man's obsession with the Norwegians commenced.

Over the course of an hour and a half, divided in two by a 20 minute interval, Parnell played Ernie Wise to Sir Ranulph's Eric Morecambe as the pair told the story of polar crossings and marathons. The bare bones of this man's adventures were probably already known to most if not every one of the packed theatre, but the night put flesh on the bones as it told of the struggles behind the scenes of a man in his sixties taking on the challenge of 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents - a challenge only taken on because Dr Mike Stroud couldn't get longer off work! As the first half of the show progressed Sir Ranulph eased into his role, becoming visibly and audibly more comfortable with his audience and the themes for the evening were set.

By the time the second half commenced both audience and performer had eased into their roles, just as Ian Parnell's part increased. The reverence that seemed to prevent the audience from laughing out loud or applauding in the first half started to loosen as the conversion moved on from marathons to more vertical challenges. Now in his own area of both expertise and involvement Ian Parnell carefully nudged and directed Sir Ranulph through the three attempts on Mount Everest and on to the challenge of the Eiger's fearsome North Face in an attempt to confront Sir Ranulph's fear of two things - Heights and getting beaten by the Norwegians. The same philosophy had worked for Fiennes in his early days with spiders, but vertigo and heights were a harder nut to crack even taken head on. From a first climb on The Old Man of Hoy -"just a place where seabirds shit on your head" to the Eiger's Nordwand Sir Ranulph was always going to struggle to overcome his fear, but the determination to succeed pushed him on till eventually he stood on the Eiger's summit. By now Everest had succumbed to a "secret" third attempt that revealed another side to Fiennes, a vulnerability that came as something of a relief as the audience learned that the fear of not succeeding, and thus letting others down, could eat away at an ex SAS officer who'd chopped his own frostbitten finger ends of with a dremmel.

It would be easy to recount the inside details of these epic expeditions here, as revealed by Sir Ranulph on stage, but that would only be half the story and this is a story you simply have to hear first hand! The style of the performance works fantastically with Ian Parnell taking on a Michael Parkinson role that gently directs Sir Ranulph through the last 20 years, and along the way reveals an almost archetypal British sense of humour in adversity. I went expecting a night full of adventure but left  laughing, and still laughing two days later, as Fiennes displayed the comic timing of a Tommy Cooper or John Cleese....in fact there's more than a little of John Cleese in Sir Ranulph Fiennes and that revelation alone makes the night worthwhile. Add in an hour and a half of spellbinding chat and you have one of those special nights that will live in the memory for a very long time. It was an honour and a privilege to be there.

Note: This article was restored from the archives. It's published creation date is inaccurate.