The Wroughton Lecture: Finding and Filming Shackleton’s Endurance | Box Office | King Edward's School, Bath

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OptimizedImage,OptimizedTHE WROUGHTON LECTURE:

Finding and Filming Shackleton’s Endurance

With Filmmaker Natalie Hewit

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER, 2025   |   19:00

We are delighted to be welcoming award-winning filmmaker and Old Edwardian, Natalie Hewit, to King Edward’s to give the School’s 21st Wroughton Lecture. 

OriginalImage,,Event,OriginalThe KES community and friends of the School are warmly invited to this fascinating evening as Natalie transports us to the world’s most remote continent and behind the scenes of Endurance, the documentary that she filmed and directed about the epic search for the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. Natalie will give an in-depth look at how the Endurance22 expedition successfully located “the impossible shipwreck” and how she planned and executed one of the most complex filming expeditions to be undertaken in the challenging conditions of Antarctica.  Her compelling lecture will also reveal the months of painstaking historical research that informed the film and the innovative techniques she used to thread the inspiring stories of Shackleton’s expedition over a century ago, together with that of the modern-day explorers setting out to find his sunken ship – both bound by their shared grit and determination.

speaker profile

Natalie left KES in 2002 and began her career at the BBC after graduating from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts, followed by an MA in Chinese Studies from SOAS, University of London. Initially working in educational events and outreach, she soon moved into making television, working across specialist factual and documentary television.

In 2016, she directed her first documentary, Antarctica: Ice Station Rescue, spending three months solo on the continent for the BBC. Since then, she has created prime-time documentaries and series for leading broadcasters and streamers including the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and Netflix on a wide range of topics centred on human narratives.

Her passion for Antarctica has not waned and in 2021 she was appointed as Head of Media and Documentary Director for the Endurance22 expedition. The resulting film, Endurance, was co-directed with Oscar-winners Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and premiered at the BFI Film Festival 2024 before a UK-wide cinema release and is now streaming on Disney+. It has won an Emmy, a Broadcast Digital Award for Best Documentary Programme, and a Gracie Award for Best Director – Documentary.

Natalie’s wider body of work has also received critical acclaim and industry recognition. She has been nominated for a BAFTA and a Grierson Award and has won a Royal Television Society Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the Explorers Club, and has served on the Documentary Awards Jury for the Directors Guild of America.

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 Image © Natalie Hewit

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The Wroughton Lecture series was founded in 2001 by former Headmaster, Dr John Wroughton, to support the School’s Bursary Programme and is open to pupils, parents, staff, the wider KES community and friends of the School. This year, the Lecture forms part of our Giving Day celebrations and guests can make a donation when booking their free ticket. All donations will go towards the Wroughton Bursary Fund, which awards transformational bursaries to children with potential who would not otherwise be able to attend KES. 


THE lecture:

  • Doors open at 18.30 for complimentary drinks reception
  • Lecture starts at 19.00 (End time approx. 20.30)
  • Location: Top Floor, The Wessex Building (Senior School Site)
  • SUPPORT LIFE-CHANGING BURARIES AT KES: Guests are invited to make a donation to The Wroughton Bursary Fund when booking their free ticket.

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