BBC Light Programme
Who was the original broadcaster of Many a Slip (radio series) from Mar 1964 to Jul 1967?
Many a Slip ( radio series ) Many a Slip is a British panel game created by Ian Messiter which was broadcast from 1964 to 1979 . It was chaired by Roy Plomley , with a musical mistakes round supplied by Steve Race . The title of the show is a reference to the English proverb Theres many a slip twixt the cup and the lip . The BBC received requests from school teachers and lecturers for transcripts of Ian Messiters pieces as a fun way of teaching educational subjects to pupils . Contestants . For the first couple of series , the contestants were Isobel Barnett and Eleanor Summerfield versus Richard Murdoch and Lance Percival . Temporary replacements for Lance Percival in the first series ( each for one show ) were Kenneth Horne , Terence Alexander and Jon Pertwee . When the annual radio series returned , magician David Nixon replaced Lance Percival . When Nixon died in 1978 , Percival returned to the show , In the early 1970s , Isobel Barnett and Richard Murdoch were replaced by Katharine Whitehorn and Paul Jennings . The new panellists were replaced after only one series by Tim Rice and Gillian Reynolds who remained until the show ended in 1979 . Over 250 shows were recorded . Roy Plomley was in every show but Steve Race missed a few shows due to illness and was replaced by pianist Alan Paul . Eleanor Summerfield only missed two shows ; her temporary replacement was Andrée Melly . The only other stand-in player for one show was Graeme Garden . Format . In a typical round , Plomley read out a piece of text prepared by Messiter , and contestants buzzed in if they detected an error . Correctly identifying an error scored one point and supplying a correction was worth a second ; if a contestant buzzed in when there was no error , two points were awarded to the opposing team . Occasionally a third point was awarded when a contestant spotted a mistake Messiter had not intended . Mid-way through each show , for one round , Plomley handed over to our musical mistakes man , Steve Race , who would play short extracts from well-known pieces of music , each preceded by a spoken introduction , while contestants attempted to detect errors in the introduction , the piece , or both . A regular feature was a memory round : Plomley read a short piece , usually of verse or song lyrics , then read it again later on in the show with funny alterations which the teams scored points for correcting . Other regular features were the Many a Slip library with its books of incorrect titles and authors ; a murder mystery round with the Many a Slip detective ; travelogues of different countries and the Many a Slip chef and his way of cooking with ingredients that no sane chef would use . For each series , the chairman kept a running total of how many games each team had won and in the last show he announced which team had won the series . Broadcast information . From its inception in 1964 , Many a Slip was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme , with the programme repeated the same week on the BBC Home Service . In July 1969 , this changed , with the original broadcast now on BBC Radio 4 and the repeats on BBC Radio 2 . Radio 2 stopped broadcasting the weekly repeats in 1970 . The BBCs archive digital radio station , BBC Radio 4 Extra , occasionally broadcasts repeats of the show . The show was played on Saturday nights on RNZ National ( then known as National Radio ) in New Zealand in the 1980s . Other versions and connections to other shows . In the mid-1960s , Many a Slip was tried out on television for one series . Peter Haigh took over as chairman and Steve Races contribution was replaced by a spot the mistakes in the picture round , but it was deemed too static for TV . Personnel from Many a Slip took part in two special editions of Brain of Britain in which they were pitted against the current years Brain of Brains . The first , in 1970 , featured Eleanor Summerfield , Richard Murdoch and Roy Plomley and was chaired by Franklin Engelmann . The second , in 1976 , featured Eleanor Summerfield , David Nixon , Tim Rice and Gillian Reynolds and was chaired by Robert Robinson . In the first series of Just a Minute after Kenneth Williams died in 1988 , for a double recording at the Paris Studio in Lower Regent Street ( the home of many Many a Slip recordings ) , Many a Slip one-time team-mates Richard Murdoch and Lance Percival were reunited to do battle against Clement Freud and Wendy Richard in another of Ian Messiters panel games . Richard Murdoch remained a regular guest on Just a Minute till he died in the early 1990s . In the late 1990s , the BBC recorded a pilot of Many a Slip at the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House . The shows new host was one-time fill-in panellist Graeme Garden . The teams were Helen Lederer and Lorelei King versus Miles Kington and David Stafford . The show had a new musical mistakes man at the piano . Theme music . The theme music for the series was composed by John Baker at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop . Sources . - BBC Public Archives in Caversham , Berkshire .