A high point of our history

By GREG DIXON

Avalanche is a good sort of mountain word, so we'll use it. From tonight, there is an avalanche of television coverage marking the 50th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reaching the top of Mt Everest.

In a fit of summit fever, TV One and Prime have peppered their schedules over the next few days with documentaries and discussions on the successful 1953 expedition and Sir Ed, the local bloke who knocked the bastard off.

Tomorrow night's On Top Of The World (8.35pm, TV One) looks to be the most obsequious anniversary offering with Paul Holmes hosting "a special commemorative live show".

It will feature One News political editor Mark Sainsbury interviewing Hillary in Nepal, as well as a studio audience of the great and the good (including well-known mountaineer Helen Clark) talking about the greatest living New Zealander and his achievement half a century ago.

On Top Of The World will be followed by Race For Everest (9.30pm, TV One), a sturdy, interesting BBC documentary which will give viewers who are unfamiliar with the story - are there any? - an insight into who did what and how all those years ago.

Hillary does not feature, although other members of the expedition and/or family members are there talking about what it all meant.

"You mustn't call it the conquest of Everest," says Joy Hunt, wife of the late leader of the '53 British expedition to the mountain, John Hunt. "It was the thing that John would never do. It was always climbing ... you can't conquer a mountain ... it's too large and too beautiful and too wonderful. You must never call it conquest."

How times have changed. The first documentary made on the Everest climb - which screens tonight on Prime - is called The Conquest Of Everest (7.30pm).

But then, back in '53 when the documentary was made, the Brits were still clinging to the Empire, if only just.

Here's how The Conquest Of Everest opens: "June the 2nd, 1953," says the breathless narrator as if giving a Bible-reading in a Cecil B. DeMille picture. "People in London were excited - and with good reason. A Queen had been crowned. On June the 2nd, everything was new and exciting. And to add to the cheers, the newspapers had given an extra of extras - Britain had a new victory. Men had climbed Mt Everest."

It's almost enough to make you stand to attention and belt out an impromptu rendition of Rule Britannia. But the Oscar-nominated, Bafta-winning The Conquest Of Everest is still a rather fun and genuinely thrilling watch 50 years on.

Prime says it has edited a small amount from the originally 78-minute film to fit it into a commercial hour, and to concentrate more on the expedition and the climb than on the preparation.

This is a slight pity. The preparation is all very Boys' Own, with news of "vac packing", "assault rations" and the declaration: "let there be ladders, but let they be of aluminium".

But there are quirky moments aplenty throughout the rest of the film.

To give us a sense of scale, for example, Everest is compared in size to St Paul's Cathedral, while a disembodied hand uses a felt tip pen (which runs out at one point) to draw the climbing route on a map.

Then there is the English-looking-down-their-noses-at-the-bloody-scruffy-foreigners stuff: "Like all the bridges in this country," says the narrator, "this one looks unsafe. But the Sherpas have seen to that. It carries a prayer flag on it."

Oh dear. But don't let it put you off. The Conquest Of Everest tells the story of Sir Ed and Tenzing's climb the way it should be told - like a sermon from the world's highest mount.

Screening

* The Conquest of Everest, Prime, 7.30 tonight

* On Top of the World (Holmes), TV One, 8.35pm tomorrow

* Race for Everest, TV One, 9.30pm, tomorrow

* Getaway Live From Everest, Prime, 9pm tomorrow

* Hillary on Everest, TV One, 7pm, Monday June 2