Virologist Dr Anna Hastings (Barbara Murray) creates a virus called RD7 which she believes will wipe out rats and other plague-carrying vermin – but when lab assistant Peter Warner (Roger Croucher) is bitten by an infected rat and falls into a comatose state, she is ordered to halt her work.
Determined to finish her work, Dr Hastings spirits the injured assistant off to a deserted boathouse in the Essex marshes to observe his degenerative state whilst continuing with her experiments.
In order to ensure that Warner does not panic and flee, Dr Hastings infects herself with the same virus to placate him and assure him that she is determined to find a cure.
When she too falls ill from the infection and is prevented from continuing her work in the laboratory, she is forced to seek assistance from the dubious financier Patrice Constantine (Patrick Cargill) – a man who can recognise the lucrative potential of a cure for a viral epidemic.
As local villagers and residents near the laboratory also being to exhibit symptoms of the infection, Dr Hastings realises that she has indirectly become responsible for the epidemic in her pursuit of virus RD7.
Dr Anna Hastings
Barbara Murray Peggy Butler
Jennifer Wright Dr Mary Carter
Ellen Pollock David Cardosa
Derek Waring Peter Warner
Roger Croucher Mackie
Nigel Arkwright Tucker
Edward Malin Glass
Tony Bronte Mrs Warner
Joan Newell George Warner
Victor Platt Patrice Constantine
Patrick Cargill Dr Protheroe
John Dearth Dr Harrington
William Fox Dr Blenkinsop
Philip Holles
Episodes
Out of Hand | The Glass Is Shattered | Twice Bitten | The Trap | A Matter of Business
