Prompted by the sad news about the death of Neil Innes, I was watching the very very first episode of Rutland Weekend TV, when at 13:10 up popped a photo of 3 long haired scruffy men, wearing what look to be wetsuits and a helmet. It's in the context of spending days and weeks underneath priests (well, it was 1974, as you can imagine).

The voice-over goes: "The British Expedition of Bradford, Wells and Dee, who spent a fortnight under a Monsignor in very difficult conditions"

Does anyone recognise them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrjP8ltFgw&t=790

I did a screen grab of the cavers and used it for a reverse image search. Unfortunately Google decided that the key characteristic of the picture was ?bare chested?, but with less illuminating results than one might hope/expect.  I gave up at that point. It looks like a late 60s shot.
But thanks for the clip. It?s got me searching for ?Bert Fegg?s Nasty Book? which came from the same stable.

Fabulous stuff -  I dimly remember that episode even though I was only a nipper. Thankfully my parents weren't averse to surrealism in comedy. They wouldn't let us watch 'Bless This House', for example, merely as it was rubbish. 'On The Buses' was totally banned.

I owe them big for that tip :halo:

alanw said:

Does anyone recognise them?

Click to expand...

I believe that this may possibly be (if you get the point) a photograph taken at the 1974 Langcliffe Pot rescue. I furthermore believe that the gentleman second from the left may possibly be one of the Ellwood brothers.

langcliffe said:

I furthermore believe that the gentleman second from the left may possibly be one of the Ellwood brothers.

Click to expand...

The same gentleman appears on page 156 of Race Against Time.

Looks like Willy Rushton's one of them.

Willie Rushton was indeed one of the potholers in the following clip, but not the photo:
https://www.aveleyman.com/TVEpisode.aspx?FilmID=300&Episode=1

My first thought was it's likely to be a rescue for BBC to have sourced the picture, & Langcliffe Pot was well covered by the media.

langcliffe said:

alanw said:

Does anyone recognise them?

Click to expand...

I believe that this may possibly be (if you get the point) a photograph taken at the 1974 Langcliffe Pot rescue. I furthermore believe that the gentleman second from the left may possibly be one of the Ellwood brothers.

Click to expand...

I am now in a position to be more definitive about the photograph. It was indeed from the August 1974 Langcliffe Pot rescue, and shewn from left to right in the clip are Richard Ellwood, David Ellwood, and Vernon Unsworth. The shoulders on the right belong to John 'Spike' Bagshaw. The original photograph has Howard Rothwell on the left, as below.