North Pole Ice Airport

Every year, for one month only, a bizarre community springs up in the planet's most hostile environment. Men and machinery, parachuted onto the barren polar wastes from Russian transport planes, sculpt an airport from scratch on the drifting ice of the Arctic Ocean. For the next four weeks, before the ice melts, Ice Station Barneo becomes a magnet for people passionate about living on the edge: not just scientists and explorers, but skydivers trying to land on the roof of the world, a couple looking for the ultimate wedding venue, extreme golfers who think nothing of teeing off in -35, and the hardy souls whose idea of fun is the notorious Arctic Marathon. North Pole Ice Airport takes us inside this world to tell stories of bravery, eccentricity and emotion. The pole changes the people who visit it, and our cameras are with them as they face up to themselves in this awe-inspiring, unforgiving landscape. Across three episodes it tells the story of Barneo's short season, following the visitors whose arrival there is the fulfilment of a lifetime's ambition, and the workers for whom freezing temperatures and cracking runways are everyday obstacles. And it shows how - 700 miles from civilisation, they have to be ready for anything.