Based on a four-part documentary series shown on TVNZ, Everest - View from the Top has been adapted for Channel 4 and Channel 4 International by Peter Williams Television and Tom Scott Productions. Peter Williams is the Executive Producer. Tom Scott is the Producer/Director. Ian McKellen recorded a new narration in Wellington, New Zealand on 21 June 2002.

To make the original documentary the production team travelled across the US with Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary as he spoke at fund-raising dinners, accompanied them to old haunts in Delhi, Darjeeling and Varanasi in India, and visited aid projects in the Solu Khumbu district below Everest in Eastern Nepal. They also took Hillary back to the South Pole.

Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary visited the WETA studios during the filming of Lord of the Rings. He is an avid Tolkien reader.