Many a Slip

Synopsis

Panel game where teams of Ladies vs. Gentlemen had to identify a number of mistakes in a series of passages read out by the host. The mistakes might be factual or grammatical. Steve Race, the "Musical Mistakes Man", challenged the teams to spot errors in musical pieces he played on the piano, either playing wrong notes to light classical or easy listening songs, or giving inaccurate factual statements about the pieces or composers in question.

Ladies usually consisted of Laby Isabel Barnet (later Gillian Reynolds) and Eleanor Summerfield. The boys were usually David Nixon (replaced after his death by Lance Percival for the final 1979 series) and Richard Murdoch (later, Tim Rice).

1 point per mistake spotted. The team who spotted the most won.

Inventor

Ian Messiter, who also wrote the passages.

Trivia

The title comes from the English phrase "Many a slip twixt cup and lip" (i.e. people make mistakes when they're drunk).

Plomley and Race hosted the programme throughout the 14 years on air.

Web links

Episode guide - compiled by the Global British Comedy Collaborative