In the coming months, 14 Milnthorpe Road is likely to become a place of pilgrimage thanks to its adventurous former resident.

The modest semi-detached Edwardian house in a leafy Eastbourne suburb was for some years the home of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his family.

In 1994, a blue ceramic plaque recording that fact was unveiled at the house by Eastbourne Civic Society.

Shackleton's unrivalled record as an Antarctic adventurer has been somewhat overshadowed by the tragic story of Captain Scott and his men, who in 1912 perished on the ice in a vain bid to become the first explorers to reach the South Pole.

But 80 years after Shackleton's death, his remarkable exploits have finally captured the imagination of TV and movie moguls.

On January 2 and 3, Channel 4 is screening Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh, followed by a documentary called Breaking The Ice on January 5.

Next year, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group plans to start shooting a big-budget feature about the intrepid explorer, directed by Wolfgang Peterson, who made Das Boot and In The Line Of Fire.

Shackleton's ambition was to become the first man to reach the South Pole and in 1908 he got to within 100 miles of his goal before being forced back.

Despite his disappointment he was knighted by Edward VII for his exploits.

In 1914, he led an expedition to cross the entire Antarctic continent but his ship, The Endurance, was trapped by sea ice.

Frozen fast for ten months, Endurance was crushed by ice pressure and the crew had to abandon ship.

Stranded hundreds of miles from safety, the explorers faced a lingering death from cold and, ultimately, starvation.

After camping on the ice for five months, six of them jumped in an open lifeboat and sailed 800 miles to the remote island of South Georgia.

There, they crossed 35 miles of glaciers and snow fields to reach Stromness whaling station, the edge of civilisation, and raised the alarm.

In his journal, Shackleton wrote of the moment they reached the whaling station: "Our beards were long and our hair was matted. We were unwashed and the garments that we had worn for nearly a year without a change were tattered and stained."

Shortly before his last expedition to Antarctica, 10,000 people visited his vessel, The Quest, anchored off Eastbourne, where he and his family had moved in 1917.

Shackleton died in South Georgia in 1922, aged 47, after suffering heart failure brought on by influenza.

With the 80th anniversary of his death looming, nothing has so far been planned in Eastbourne to stir local interest in the Shackleton phenomenon, although there is a display in Meads parish hall.

Lionel Jones, chairman of Eastbourne Local History Society, said: "As far as I am concerned we have not been contacted or approached by anybody to do anything.

"Eastbourne is not very good on its history. If you can interest young people in local history they might take more pride in their town and stop damaging it so much."

Richard Callaghan, curator of Eastbourne museums, said: "He spent some time in Eastbourne but we don't have any display on him.

"We are tied by what we have got in the collection. Off the top of my head I don't think we have got anything relating to Shackleton."

But his story has fascinated John and Jane Pettigrew, some of the current occupants of 14 Milnthorpe Road, which has been converted into flats.

She said: "I have come across a letter in which Shackleton wrote it was the dearest little house he had ever lived in.

"Although Ernest Shackleton was a remarkable man, I believe behind every man there is a woman and Lady Shackleton was that woman in this case. She really did hold the fort."