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Seriously...

The Crowning of Everest - Episode 3

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1885 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1953 the 9th British expedition to the top of Mount Everest finally reaches the summit.

In the final team was a New Zealander and a Nepalese Sherpa. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay come down the mountain to a blaze of publicity. They were soon to become the most famous men in the world. To the team involved and the wider world the expedition was a British one, but Britain, New Zealand, Nepal and even India would lay claim to its success.

Just as Britain was preparing Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation, the world would learn that Everest itself had been crowned.

Presenter: Wade Davis Series producer: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham Sound design: Richard Hannaford Editor: Tara McDermott Production co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed and Helena Warwick-Cross

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.

0:05.0

The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.

0:09.0

And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.0

The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.5

The IRA inmates who found a way.

0:14.5

I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path

0:19.5

through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.

0:25.0

The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.

0:28.5

Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:35.0

BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:39.0

Come on in and get comfy.

0:41.0

This is seriously from BBC Radio 4.

0:47.0

I'm Wade Davis. I'm an explorer and anthropologist. For years I've written about and been

0:58.6

obsessed by the extraordinary British expeditions which set out to climb Mount Everest.

1:05.0

Illinois has succeeded in conquering Mount Everest.

1:09.0

1953 is the year they triumphed.

1:12.0

Just as a young Queen Elizabeth the second is preparing for

1:16.5

her coronation.

1:20.5

I hear present unto you Queen Elizabeth your undarted Queen.

1:23.7

In this series, the crowning of Everest.

1:26.8

I'm exploring how these two events shape Britain.

1:30.8

I knew we had just climbed a mountain.

...

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