Created by prolific TV writer Terry Nation, who is probably best known for creating Blake's 7 and the Daleks in Doctor Who, Survivors is one of only a handful of series that have dealt with the possibility of a global pandemic that could wipe out the majority of the Earth's population.

In the case of Survivors, the destructive agent is a virus that escapes from a Chinese laboratory — something that is unforgettable to anyone who has seen the eerie title sequence.

The series opens in the UK as the epidemic gets under way. Hospitals are full, the authorities are unable to cope and civilisation as we know it is rapidly coming to an end.

The three central characters were secretary Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming), engineer Greg Preston (Ian McCulloch) and housewife Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour), who all meet up by the conclusion of Genesis, the second episode, with Season One concerned mainly with Abby's quest to find her son, Peter, who was known to be uninfected before he left his boarding school, and the search for other survivors.

By the time of Season Two, Abby was written out — supposedly to go in search of Peter, and the basic community which had been established by the end of the previous season was destroyed in a fire. The survivors, including Greg and Jenny, join up with another community run by Charles Vaughan and the series proceded on its merry way.

Season Three saw a change of direction, as Greg had left Whitecross at the end of the previous season in a hot air ballon and, after receiving news of his exploits, Charles and Jenny set out on horseback to find him. Two of the episodes did indeed feature Greg — both of which were written by Ian McCulloch — but by the end of the season he was dead from smallpox and had posthumously been named King Greg.

To tie-in with the first season Terry Nation novelised four of his scripts, although the ending was to differ significantly from the series as Greg, Jenny and Abby leave for a new life with a community in France. The ending wasn't a particularly happy one either, as Abby is shot dead on the beach by her son, Peter. One further novel based on the series was released. Genesis of a Hero followed Peter and eventually saw the overthrow of President Wormley — the ex-union leader played so memorably in the television series by George Baker.

Despite only running for three seasons, Survivors has remained a firm favourite with fans of cult TV. Despite talk in the mid-1990s of a continuation of the series to be produced by BBC Scotland, nothing was to come of it. More recently it has been announced that the BBC has acquired the rights to produce a new version of the series for transmission on BBC One sometime in the next couple of years.

Intriguingly, it was revealed in December 2007 that the BBC have actually acquired the rights to Terry Nation's Survivors novelisation...

All three seasons of the original series have been released on DVD.