They should have beat the crap out of themselves in confinement to at least make the Iranians seem to have abused their rights. They should have done something... anything... but instead they wet their british panties.
Union Jack with no balls to play.
I recall something like that. I think it was in Col George "Bud" Day's book Return With Honor. He recounts how an American Naval Officer did something like that when he knew he was going to be used for propaganda purposes. As the French film crew was setting up, he put the side of his face into a corner wall. It immediately swelled up. 20 minutes later, the French and North Vietnamese came to drag him to the propaganda conference and were livid.