''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 an English 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 (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002) was an English actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes in his long career. Early life Denham was born on 23 December 1909 in Beckenham, Kent, the son of Eleanor ...

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

Miriam Margolyes Miriam Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Marti ...

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 Townsen ...

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 music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...

. ''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 19 ...

. ''

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 1 and BBC Radio 2. 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 owned and operated by the BBC. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes, and is the sister station of Radio 4. It is the pri ...

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, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' 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 Doctor Who missing episodes, completely missing sixth serial of the Doctor Who (season 5), fifth season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in six weekly parts from 1 ...

''. 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 Radio dramas BBC Light Programme programmes {{UK-radio-show-stub