The late Lindsay Dodd, who was the sound recordist who worked closely with Sid Perou on his
Beneath the Pennines series of films, was the caving and specialist technical advisor behind 'Once in a Lifetime: The Underground Eiger' (1979), directed by Barry Cockcroft for Yorkshire Television:
http://trentofestival.it/en/archive/1980/once-in-a-lifetime-the-underground-eiger/
It's an absolute classic and a highly motivating film.
The tragedy behind Oliver 'Bear' Statham's death is that he was due to give a lecture with Geoff Yeadon on the highly successful diving venture to the Royal Geographical Society (who supported the Keld Head project) on 1st October 1979, but instead took his life three days earlier. There were two notes left showing the act was intentional, but their contents were not published. (
Descent (44), January/February 1980, 6)
I think all too often there is a drive in the public media to single out a person who was 'first' in great adventurous endeavours, but, in most cases, with cave exploration work involving great cave systems, which are not defined by any one particular moment in time - rather a
series of landmark milestones, linked together one after another and continuing on into the unknown future . . . - the person who might be 'first' today may well be 'second' or not there at all tomorrow. These are achievements jointly brought about - since 'No Man is an Island' in himself - and, rightly, jointly shared in the limelight amongst "those who were there" and
made it happen:
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
John Donne, 1624
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/
So, RIP Bear Statham:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3953027