Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

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Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history.

Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.

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Hugh Bonneville

Steve O'Hagan

Michael Poole

Timeshift: Series 14: Episode 4: Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

Episode 4

Episode 4: Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

Series 14

BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 14, Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

How film-makers turned the conquest of Himalayan peaks into great propaganda.

The story of how film-makers turned the conquest of Himalayan peaks into great propaganda by Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany and superpower America from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Between the 1920s and the 1960s the world's great powers sent vast military-style expeditions to conquer the peaks of the Himalayas, with Everest at their head. This was a great game played - camera in hand - by Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany and superpower America. As a result, Himalayan mountaineering's most iconic, epic and tragic moments didn't just go down in history, but were caught on film - from the deaths of Mallory and Irvine on Everest in 1924, to Everest's final conquest in 1953 by Hillary and Tensing. Using footage never before seen on British television, this is the story how of how film-makers turned the great peaks into great propaganda.

Timeshift: Series 14

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Episode 4: Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

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