Sylvester Stallone would have had them out without a scratch.

But there are no Rambos in real life so the foolhardy 1994 expedition to conquer an unexplored gully in the heart of the Borneo jungle ended in disaster.

The fight for survival of the 10-strong Army team was told in The Place Of The Dead (ITV).

We knew from the headlines at the time that they all got out alive, but that did not make the drama documentary any less gripping.

Their nightmare was told in flashback from the official Army inquiry which ruled that the exercise had been over ambitious.

The blame was placed on controversial leader Lt Col Robert Neill, played by Simon Dutton. He was obsessed with going where no one had gone before.

But it was clear paratrooper Corporal Hugh Brittan (Greg Wise) and marine commando Lance Corporal Richie Mayfield (Dougray Scott) were guilty too. They had failed to wait for the weaker members of the party who fell behind.

In the beginning everyone was full of Boys Own bravado, convinced they would be home and dry in 10 days.

They had about them that air of camaraderie men in uniform always bang on about and people in Civvy Street know nothing of.

The Colonel even insisted on everyone being on first name terms to show how chummy they all were.

That went out of the window when things started going wrong. It was the 2,000ft drop called The Point Of No Return that separated the men from the boys - and came dangerously close to living up to its name.

They split into two groups and progress slowed as they got to grips with the hostile environment.

You shared the perils from the safety of your armchair - looking helplessly on as one of the team seriously injured himself crashing down a rock face and gasping in horror as another accidentally slashed his hand with a bush knife.

Stamina and stiff upper lips ran out with the rations. Macho men were reduced to tears.

Two feared the worst and wrote their wills on scraps of paper. A third made an emotional farewell on video to the son he was convinced he would never see again.

The only break from the gloom was when one of them dreamt of his former girlfriend. She came out of a lagoon like a contestant in a Miss Wet T- shirt competition. Well it, was ITV.

The expedition was officially classified as "adventure training" so I reckon they must have got that old slogan wrong.

It's not so much a man's life in the Army as a madman's.

Copyright 1997 MGN Ltd.

Thanks to Missy for the find!