Following in Hillary’s footsteps

Hillary, a new six-part drama starting on TV One this week, looks at the triumphs and tragedies of legendary mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, as Kerry Harvey reports.

Edmund Hillary (left) gained worldwide fame as the first man to conquer Mt Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. But there was far more to the rugged Kiwi, says Andrew Munro (above right), the actor who portrays him in the six-part TV One drama Hillary, which aims to introduce the man behind the legend that is Sir Edmund Hillary.

“I mean you look at the $5 note and you think Everest but there was so much more,” says Andrew. “I think viewers will see more than just a person who climbs a hill.”

Hillary, made with the help of $6,418,835 funding from New Zealand On Air, is the story of Sir Edmund Hillary and the people who were most important to him, particularly his first wife Louise (Amy Usherwood) and his best mate and fellow mountaineer George Lowe (Dean O’Gorman).

It explores the life of the legendary mountaineer, from his lonely childhood, his struggles with his pacifist beliefs at the start of World War II to the man who, in 1953, became the first person to conquer Mt Everest.

Created and written by Tom Scott, it is based on the stories that Hillary told his great friend Scott, who wrote Sir Ed’s biography. The series’ makers – and cast – are at pains to insist Hillary is about the man, not just the mountaineer, a claim borne out by the way the conquest of Everest features in just one of the six episodes in the series.

His personal relationships are put under a microscope and his life after Everest is explored, much of it probably unknown to many modern-day New Zealanders.

Andrew admits he felt a huge sense of responsibility in portraying a man lauded as a hero worldwide.

“It’s the biggest job that I’ve ever had,” he says. “I think I put a lot of pressure on myself when I first got it because it’s not something I would want to screw up.

“It’s intimidating for me but, at the same time, a real honour to be given a chance to help tell his story.”

Andrew did his research on Hillary, who died in 2008, aged 88.

“I read and watched interviews on line to try to understand a little bit more of what he went through. I think we all know the Everest story but there was more to him than that one mountain,” he says, adding that it wasn’t Hillary’s conquest of Everest he found most impressive.

It was what came after that stayed in the actor’s mind.

“The fundraising he was doing for the hospitals, building the schools, and the hospitals in Nepal. Climbing a mountain is a very tough feat, especially Everest, but I think he really tried to leave the world a better place. I think that should be the key aim for humanity and I think he really went out and tried to do that.”

Andrew and co-star Dean O’Gorman, who went to Nepal to film part of the series, saw that work firsthand and witnessed the high regard in which Hillary is still held in that country.

There were other surprises as well, including discovering the adventurer had gone on a yeti hunt with best mate George and also taken part in an epic expedition to the South Pole.

However, despite adventures that have led Hillary to be likened to fictional action hero Indiana Jones, it was the mountaineer’s personal relationships that made the biggest impression on the actor.

“It’s a love story, I think, a love story between Ed and Louise because she was such a major part of it all,” Andrew says. “Being away (from her) for such long periods of time must have been mentally such a drain on him.”

However, Louise, who was an accomplished mountaineer in her own right, was no 50s housewife.

“She would get out there and get amongst it as much as him,” Andrew says. “I think they had a lot of happy travels, taking the children off trekking through Nepal, around the United States camping. She shared a sense of adventure as well and I think that really suited him.” The couple had three children – Belinda (who died in a plane crash along with Louise in Nepal in 1975), Peter and Sarah.

Andrew says he met both surviving children while making the series and felt a strong need to make sure he did the best job possible on their father’s story.

“I’m nervous. I want to do his story justice and I want to do their family justice. I’m not trying to do an impression of Ed. I’m doing my interpretation of him. I hope they’re happy.”

“I think he really tried to leave the world a better place. I think that should be the key aim for humanity.” – Andrew Munro