To The Ends Of The Earth (BBC2), The World's Most Photographed (BBC2): IF To The Ends Of The Earth was being shown on ITV, it would be called Voyages From Hell - a sort of costume version of those Holidays/Honeymoon From Hell programmes.

For what happens aboard the knackered old warship taking settlers to a new life in Australia in the early 19th century makes the Titanic's maiden voyage look like a luxury cruise.

Anyone expecting a rollicking, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum adventure in the Hornblower mould will have been startled by the first part of this adaptation of William Golding's trilogy.

Our hero Edmund, seeing water running down the inside walls and smelling the horrid smell in his cabin (or "hutch" as he calls it), asks if the ship will make it to Australia. "She'll float till she sinks," replies his cabin attendant, advising him to learn "to ride the ship". Alas, this new sailor begins throwing up as soon as the craft casts off.

Edmund soon finds his sea legs - and those of lusty fellow passenger Zenobia. Soon he's busy below decks (a nautical term for getting your leg over) with the aforementioned female while on deck, a parson is being subjected to a ducking by the crew.

The captain, crew and passengers are a rum lot whose behaviour makes mealtimes resemble the Mad Hatter's tea party. Never mind, afterwards Edmund can retreat to his cabin where he can listen to the person next door breaking wind and smell it as the aroma wafts through the sleeping quarters. It was never like that on the Royal Yacht Britannia (as far as I know).

The whole thing plays as a black comedy of seaborne bad manners with an appealing performance from Benedict Cumberpatch as Edmund and Jared Harris looking and scowling just like his famous actor dad Richard Harris as the plant-loving captain.

Edmund records the voyage in his diary as he doesn't have his camera with him, unlike those photographers whose work provided a concise history of the King of rock 'n' roll in The World's Most Photographed.

The idea of the series is to show how pictures have been used to build up an image of a famous person. Today, magazines are filled with unflattering photographs of celebrities, revealing fat, spots, cellulite and other imperfections.

How different back in the late 1950s, as Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker clamped down on all candid photography of Elvis. Everything was controlled to promote a clean-cut, wholesome Elvis. He was "manufacturing a commodity for the mass market" so the real Elvis had to be kept hidden.

When Parker wasn't looking, the odd photographer slipped through the net and captured the real Elvis, a recognisable human being rather than a money-making machine. His manager would have gone bananas if he'd known that the performer's after-hours trip to a Munich nightclub, where he mixed with strippers and drunks, was being photographed.

The photographer agreed the pictures would only be seen on the nightclub notice board. Today, of course, he'd have been on the phone to sell them to the highest tabloid or sleazy magazine bidder.

Published: 07/07/2005