Handmaid’s Tale star Joseph Fiennes reveals emotional moment his explorer uncle opened up about devastating diagnosis
LEGENDARY explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis to his actor cousin Joseph while filming their new TV show.
Sir Ranulph, 80, one of Britain’s most famous living explorers, opened up about his condition while shooting their latest travel series together in Canada in 2019.
Joseph, known for his role as Fred Waterford in The Handmaid’s Tale and more recently playing Gareth Southgate in stage show ‘Dear England’, was struck by how brave his uncle was discussing his condition.
The pair embarked on a trip to Canada to retrace the steps of Sir Ran’s 1971 Headless Valley Expedition, having previously joined forces in 2019 to revisit his 1969 hovercraft expedition of The Nile.
He led the North American expedition in the early 70s across the north-west territory where much of it can only be accessed by air, water or a long trek.
And even now, much of the area is still unexplored.
Joseph was speaking to Sir Ran in an interview ahead of the launch of Fiennes: Return to the Wild which airs on National Geographic on Sunday at 8pm.
He said: “This particular expedition, a journey reflecting back on your visit back 50 years ago in Canada revealed something, which I thought was you were very brave at telling – which was the condition of Parkinson’s.
“And it’s not easy – it’s very brave to talk about it.
“I think maybe in doing it allows other people that are dealing with this condition to face the hard truths and I think for you to champion that that discussion was incredibly brave and important thing to do.”
Now 80 years old, retracing these steps with his younger third cousin now takes place predominantly by car along the journey.
During the series the explorer candidly discusses his health, as well as male aging, frailty, and love.
Opening up about the difficulty of Parkinson’s disease, Sir Ran said: “I think the Parkinson stuff is very different with different sufferers from it.
“I find you get sudden spells of dizziness, and when they are happening, you need to be careful until the dizziness goes otherwise, you’re going to go flat, and the injury that you get from falling over because of it is going to be worse than Parkinson’s.
“Looking at what gives me the most hope to try and cure myself is cold swimming. And I intend to do that.
“Unfortunately, you have to like getting into cold water – I spent my life trying to avoid getting cold.”
As for what’s next for the family duo, Joseph joked Elon Musk had reached out, offering them a chance to go to space.