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Survivors is a British post-apocalyptic fiction drama television series created by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC, that broadcast from 1975 to 1977. It concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an apocalyptic plague pandemic, which was accidentally released by a Chinese scientist and quickly spread across the world via air travel. Referred to as "The Death", the plague kills approximately 4,999 out of every 5,000 human beings on the planet within a matter of weeks of being released. Production History The programme ran for three series and 38 episodes (series 1 and 2 comprised 13 episodes each, the third series just 12; budget cuts and technical problems reduced the planned last double episode to a single, as some scenes were lost during shooting). All series were broadcast on Wednesday evenings on BBC 1, from April 1975 to June 1977. Popular writer Terry Nation (whose work included many scripts for Doctor Who) created the series, but he left the show after the first series due to disputes with producer Terence Dudley. The series' main actors included Carolyn Seymour (Abby), Lucy Fleming (Jenny), Ian McCulloch (Greg), and Denis Lill (Charles). The child actor Stephen Dudley (John) was given his part by his father, the show's producer Terence Dudley; while the child actress Tanya Ronder (who in series 1 and 2 played Lizzie) is the daughter of Jack Ronder, who wrote eight episodes of Survivors. In addition, the few appearances of Greg and Jenny's baby son Paul on Survivors saw Lucy Fleming's real-life son Diggory appear as Paul, although uncredited. Notable guest stars in the series included Patrick Troughton, Peter Jeffrey, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Philip Madoc, Bryan Pringle, Iain Cuthbertson, and Peter Bowles. Appearing in the series before becoming famous were Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean), Robert Fyfe (Last of the Summer Wine), Denis Lawson (Star Wars), David Neilson (Coronation Street), Peter Duncan (Blue Peter), June Brown (EastEnders), David Troughton, and Roger Lloyd-Pack (Only Fools and Horses and The Vicar of Dibley). In a High Court case in the mid-1970s, which was abandoned by both sides due to escalating costs, writer Brian Clemens claimed that he had told Terry Nation the concept for the series in the late 1960s and had registered the idea with the Writers' Guild of Great Britain in 1965. Nation strenuously denied this. A BBC Four documentary, entitled The Cult of... Survivors, featuring interviews with actors Lucy Fleming, Ian McCulloch, and Carolyn Seymour, director Pennant Roberts, and scriptwriter Martin Worth, was broadcast on 5 December 2006, as part of the channel's Science Fiction Britannia series. The Cult of... series also included documentaries on Blake's 7 (another series devised by Terry Nation) and Doomwatch (produced by Terence Dudley). Locations The majority of the locations for all three series of Survivors were in the Welsh Marches, the counties of Monmouthshire, Shropshire, Powys, and, for the first two series, the characters most often seen in Herefordshire. The first episode of series 1 ("The Fourth Horseman") featured several locations in Worcestershire, including Great Malvern railway station. Much of episode 2, "Genesis", was filmed around the village of Rose, Cornwall. Later episodes had the characters move around Herefordshire, from places like Ross-on-Wye to Welsh Newton Common. Llanarth Court in Monmouthshire was also featured. Brockhampton Court near How Caple, Herefordshire was used as "Waterhouse" in the episode "Garland's War". Towards the end of the first series, the action moved to a more permanent base at Hampton Court, again in Herefordshire. (This was the property referred to as "The Grange" by the characters.) For the beginning of series 2 the focus moved to a new location, at Callow Hill Farm, near Monmouth (but again just within Herefordshire), as "Whitecross". The Lights of London episodes featured Hanwell railway station, The Oval, and other locations in London, while the Waterloo & City line and the Camden Town deep-level shelter were used to represent parts of the London Underground. The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and village of Skenfrith also made appearances. During series 3, production occasionally moved further afield to Suffolk, Derbyshire, and Wiltshire, with the last episode filmed in the Scottish Highlands. Extensive use was made of the Severn Valley Railway. There are a great number of technical and continuity errors visible as the series was shot quickly on early video cameras, which did not work well in the gloomy conditions in which much of the programme was shot. Two cameras were used, but one of them had a recurrent fault, which shows as multiple reflections on the left hand side of pictures in many scenes, particularly visible in series 3. Primitive equipment meant that many shots suffered from a green tint. Due to audience complaints about this, the production crew replaced the cameras. 2008 version In 2008, the BBC began airing a new version of Survivors, with Adrian Hodges as the main writer. In the credits, this version is said to be based on Terry Nation's novel Survivors (1976), rather than the previous series. This statement was made to avoid copyright problems, as the rights to the television series were vested with a different legal entity from the rights to the book. The principal characters of Abby, Greg, Jenny and Tom Price were retained, but new elements were introduced, including a subplot about the origins of the virus and a stronger focus on action. The show took pains to make sure these characters represented a broader spread of racial and social backgrounds. The show received mixed reviews, but initial viewing figures were strong. The 2008 series ran for two seasons, and the BBC announced in April 2010 that there would be no third series. Audio drama version In June 2014, Big Finish Productions released the first four-episode volume of an audio drama expansion of Survivors, with Seymour, McCulloch, and Fleming reprising their screen roles. The second and third volumes were released in 2015, and the fourth and fifth in 2016, with sixth and seventh volumes scheduled for 2017. On 21 December 2016, Big Finish announced an eighth and ninth volume to be released in 2018. Series overview Episodes Series 1 (1975) As the world's population is almost annihilated by a mysterious pandemic, accidentally unleashed by an unnamed Chinese scientist, the crisis is first seen through the eyes of two characters—Jenny Richards, a young working woman in London who is naturally immune to the disease, and Abby Grant, a middle-class corporate wife living a comfortable existence in a suburban commuter village who caught the virus but barely recovered, while her husband died. As Abby goes in search of her son Peter, who was away at boarding school when the pandemic occurred, Jenny wanders aimlessly through the countryside. Other .... Discover the Geoff Powell popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Geoff Powell books.