On New Year's Day 1986, competitors set off from Paris in a snowstorm.  Three weeks later the leaders roared down the Atlantic Coast to Dakar in searing heat.  But it is the story of the 8,000 miles in between on which this brilliant video concentrates.

Justifiably described at the toughest event in the world, it attracted  a full complement of trucks, cars and motor-cycles bidding to overcome almost insuperable odds to conquer the deserts and bush of Algeria, Nigar, Mali, Mauretania and Segegal.

Hundreds of miles' solitude through mirage-inducing, strength-sapping dunes.  Day after day battling alone through the wilderness, praying for mechanical reliability. And, after inevitable breakdown or, worse still, crash, each competitor must somehow find the will to continue his personal crusade against the most inhospitable terrain.

The marathon run from the French capital threw up drama right from the start.  But not until the last few heroes to complete the distance had been accounted for, could the full story begin to unfold.  And Videovision have done a superb job in every sense of telling the full story, with all its drama and excitement vividly portrayed.

Watch this programme. Watch it again. You'll never tire of the spectacular action in the year's most gruelling long-distance test.