THEY went off as a highly-trained cohesive unit. A tight-knit Army team who relied on each other for their survival. They emerged from the Borneo jungle dirty, dishevelled, disorganised, and defeated. It was to have been the expedition of a lifetime, but it became the journey into a living hell.

Now comes a two-hour feature (ITV, today 9pm) on the remarkable story of 10 soliders who aim to conquer an unexplored gully in the heart of the Borneo mountains - with disastrous consequences.

"The Place of the Dead" is part of a double deal set up by LWT's factual department. First comes the dramatisation of the adventure that split friendships and broke up the crack unit. The following week, in an hour-long documentary, "Return to the Place of the Dead", two of the real-life soliders return to Borneo for the first time since their ordeal. Ironically, the pair who go back are now considering legal action against LWT. They argue the way they have been portrayed in the dramatisation bears little relation to what happened.

They got separated from colleague Corporal Hugh Brittan at a crucial fork in the jungle path. Why, and how, is now the centre of an acrimonious argument.

The expedition was the brainchild of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neill who had been obsessed with the gully after learning of its existence more than a decade before. It had never been explored, the Borneo natives thought it was possessed by spirits, and the Japanese had been unable to penetrate its depths during the Second World War.

Neill's plan was to take a team of relatively inexperienced troops from his Army Corps. Three totally untested soldiers from Hong Kong made up the party of Brits.

But, within a few days, Neill (later to be severely censured by a Board of Inquiry) began to lose control. His expedition was slowly being ripped asunder by suspicion, elitism, and personality clashes.

The account of the expedition is largely based on Corporal Brittan's version of events - which the other two now dispute. Then 24, Brittan was an experienced paratrooper and a veteran of the undercover drugs war fought against Colombian traffickers. He's a working-class, Tunbridge Wells lad who joined the Army for all the best reasons. In the film, Brittan is played by actor Greg Wise (Sense and Sensibility, The Moonstone). Unlike his commanding officer, Hugh was commended by the Ministry of Defence for his bravery. He initially refused all offers from LWT to make a movie of his story. "But for some strange reason," he said, "I agreed to meet a researcher."

Hugh became a technical advisor on the film, even going back to Borneo and Mount Kinabalu. It was far from being an easy shoot.

Actor John McArdle, who plays Major Ron Foster, collapsed with hypothermia and his condition was discovered by Greg Wise just in time. Other members of the crew contracted tropical diseases.

"They saw all the hazards first hand," says Hugh, "and observed how difficult life in the jungle really is. There were no luxury facilities, five-star hotels."

Looking on the positive side, Corporal - now Sergeant - Brittan says, "it taught me - and the others - what corporate responsibilities are, and how we all react under pressure. My promotion to sergeant had nothing to do with my commendation or the gully expedition. I worked bloody hard for it before it all happened."

However, he certainly hasn't lost his love of adventure. "Later in the year I'm taking some Army cadets on an expedition to the Inner Hebrides, and some others along the West Highland Way. I'd like to go back to the Far East for another crack at some of the terrain there. But I don't think that that will include the Gully.

"I still have bad dreams. But not about the gully. About personal things. Oh, and none of us have made any money out of this film. It wasn't a financial agreement. That would not have been right."

Copyright 1997 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.

Thanks to Missy for the find!