A National Front sympathiser was the best player, team members rowed in public and their own fans pelted them with flour - Great Britain's run to the 1978 Davis Cup final was anything but dull.
This week Andy Murray leads his nation's attempt to win the sport's premier team competition for the first time since 1936.
The only occasion they have come close in the intervening 79 years was at a time of turmoil in Britain, with widespread public sector strikes and the Labour government of James Callaghan close to collapse.
A team of disparate and occasionally volatile characters - the brilliant but divisive Buster Mottram, chalk-and-cheese brothers John and David Lloyd, and veteran doubles specialist Mark Cox - came together to win five ties before losing to a John McEnroe-inspired United States.