The "Place of the Dead" (ITV, 9.00pm) has the feel of the classic court-martial movie. At the start, we see a barracks, and uniformed personnel moving like clockwork towards a courtroom. It gets you excited from the beginning, in that prurient way peculiar to military films. Timothy West is stiffly in charge of the court perfect. Various men, including Greg Wise, are being led in. Even as I recount this, I can hear the roll of imaginary drums.

A military court-martial movie is the ideal thing for a cosy night's viewing; it provides us with the chance to observe, and vicariously suffer, as our heroes are subjected to two very different types of discomfort. Here, Wise and several other members of the British army go on an expedition into a gully in the heart of the jungle, a place where no man has gone before, and where, we know, they will be subjected to leeches, running out of rations, and probably terrible injuries, possibly including the creeping onslaught of gangrene.

Also, though, these poor chaps are going to have to face a grilling from West, as he attempts to unpick the strands of the expedition, asking the men specific questions about their jungle hell. The whole thing is well-paced, well-filmed, well-acted. I ate it up. The man in charge of the expedition is a nutty Colonel, played by Simon Dutton in a role reminiscent of Alec Guinness' nutty Colonel in Bridge on the River Kwai.

At the start, Wise is depicted driving along country roads in a sports car, and arriving late for a briefing. He sneaks in and sits down, and, of course, fields his question perfectly; one knows he'll be the existential hero of the piece. The substance of the briefing cranks up the excitement, as Dutton crisply delivers the dangers of descending into the gully. And then, after a bit of scary abseiling, the real horrors begin. This is a fine two hours of telly.

Copyright 1997 Guardian Newspapers Limited

Thanks to Missy for the find!