Expedition to the End of the World (BBC Four)
Derek (Channel 4)
The marine biologist is wearing a T-shirt that says, “F*** everything and become a pirate.” The captain smokes a fag, and fires a flare-gun at a polar bear on a distant shore. The resident artist has a piece of A4 paper, on which he has written down the meaning of life.
“This is it,” he says, showing it to everyone on board. The boat groans against the pack ice.
The drawing shows a large yellow triangle with what appear to be red balloons tied to one side. The artist has tried, on numerous occasions, to show this existential diagram to everyone on the boat — something that invariably devolves into a sweaty, snappy