The first of a three part series starts tonight featuring three of Britain’s most ‘senior’ adventurers leading expeditions through their respective territories.

The polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 65, leads a polar expedition, while BBC World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, 64 kicks off the series with a voyage to Afghanistan and the Pakistan border area.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who circumnavigated the globe in the last Velux 5 Oceans race, leads the second expedition skippering a yacht and crew around Cape Horn, which will be broadcast on 3 April on BBC2

The yacht used for filming was Pelagic, owned and run by Skip Novak. The charter company’s website: www.pelagic.co.uk recounts the expedition:

Skip, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and John Simpson had an exciting, action packed eight days of filming in the Beagle Channel including a wild ride around Cape Horn in early December based from the original Pelagic.

This one hour programme in the series of three, entitled “The Three Dogs,” will be aired by BBC2 and followed by BBC World later this northern spring.

John Simpson was apparently violently sea sick and suffered equally badly in the polar expedition.

But the program is intended to make a statement against ageism in the world, as Knox-Johnston said: ‘Bureaucracy decides that at 65 you have a heart attack every time you climb the stairs. It’s nonsense. We go on as long as we can.’

Top Dogs: Adventures in War, Sea and Ice starts tonight on BBC2 at 9pm.