Living Dangerously with Sir Ranulph at Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn

But that is certainly not the case for British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

"For people who are ex-military, like me, we are inclined to plug away like a hand drill, it's in the DNA," says Ranulph, speaking ahead of his talk at Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn tonight.

Described by The Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer" Ranulph, or Ran as he is likes to be called, has just started a tour called Living Dangerously – and lived dangerously he has at times during 20 major expeditions around the world.

Ranulph was the first person to visit both the North and South Poles by surface means and the first to completely cross Antarctica on foot, and is the only person to have done this as well as climb to the summit of Mount Everest at the age of 65 – although he doens't know how much longer that will remain.

"Records are always taken off people by the next generation," he says with a small laugh.

Forefront

Ranulph is always trying to be at the forefront of discovery and expedition and shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

"The are three expeditions planned," he says. "We don't obviously give any details away because we don't want our rivals the Norwegians to find out, but there are things in the pipeline."

After Ranulph got frost bite in 2000 after attempting to walk solo and unsupported to the Antarctica he famously cut off his fingers with a saw. You might have thought anything involving climbing would be out. But just a few years later he managed to climb the north face of the dreaded Eiger in the Swiss mountains, or the 'murder wall' as it's also called.

"In Wales they created some form of hook, which I used instead of my fingers," he said. "I had trained for four or five years whilst in my 60s for that climb and they managed to teach me how to do it using my good hand as much as possible."

Stories like these will be the focus of his talks, which in themselves present a different challenge.

"It's obviously very different to expeditions," he said. "But if you get a sore throat and can't talk then that is a big problem when people have paid for tickets."

Tonight's show is sold out but you can get tickets for the talks in September on the theatre's website theatresevern.co.uk