''The Slide'' is a sci-fi radio serial in seven parts by

Victor Pemberton Victor Francis Pemberton (10 October 1931 – 13 August 2017) was a British writer and television producer. His scriptwriting work included BBC radio plays, and television scripts for the BBC and ITV, including ''Doctor Who'', ''The Slide'', '' ...

. The story begins with an earthquake in Southern England, and then the local wildlife starts to disappear. It starred

Roger Delgado Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 – 18 June 1973) was a British actor. He played many roles on television, radio and in films, and had "a long history of playing minor villains" before becoming ...

as Professor Josef Gomez,

Maurice Denham William Maurice Denham OBE (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002) was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes in his long career. Family Denham was born on 23 December 1909 in Beckenham, Kent, the son ...

as Hugh Deverill MP, David Spenser as Dr. Ken Richards and

Miriam Margolyes Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Tora ...

as Mrs. Wilson. The producer was

John Tydeman John Peter Tydeman OBE (30 March 1936 – 1 April 2020) was an English producer of radio and director of theatre plays. He was responsible for commissioning and directing the early plays of Caryl Churchill, Joe Orton, Tom Stoppard and Sue Towns ...

and sound effects were by the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electroni ...

. ''The Slide'' was Victor Pemberton's first science fiction story; it was accepted as a radio serial commissioned by future ''Doctor Who'' producer

Peter Bryant Peter Bryant (27 October 1923 – 19 May 2006) was an English television producer, script editor and former actor. He acted in ''The Grove Family'' as a regular cast member and later became the producer of ''Doctor Who'' from 1967 to 1969 ...

. ''

BBC Genome The BBC Genome Project is an online searchable database of programme listings initially based upon the contents of the ''Radio Times'' from the first issue in 1923 to 2009. Television listings from post-2009 can be accessed via the BBC Programme ...

'' lists the programme as first transmitted on the ''

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

'' on 13 February 1966 at 19:00 with the next six episodes following weekly.

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

broadcast a repeat run of the serial 10 - 18 August 2020.

The story in ''Doctor Who''

Victor Pemberton originally submitted ''The Slide'' to the BBC TV series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' in 1964; it was rejected by script-editor David Whitaker, but following a revision it did inspire the story ''

Fury from the Deep ''Fury from the Deep'' is the completely missing sixth serial of the fifth season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in six weekly parts from 16 March to 20 April 1968. In this serial, the Do ...

''. The story was to feature the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki discovering sentient mud invading London from a fishing bay. In September 2020, the serial was included as a bonus feature on the DVD & Blu-Ray release for the animated reconstruction of ''

''.

External links

''The Slide'' at Amazon

References

British science fiction radio programmes BBC Light Programme programmes {{UK-radio-show-stub