At Cambridge, he became President of the Footlights, and famously recruited Peter Cook.

Slade was a Liberal Party parliamentary candidate in the 1960s and 1970s,[1] contesting Putney in 1966,[2] February 1974[3] and October 1974.

[5] He scored an upset electoral victory in the 1981 elections to the Greater London Council (GLC), winning the Richmond seat from the Conservative Edward Leigh by just 115 votes.

His eldest brother, Sir Christopher Slade, was a Lord Justice of Appeal (1982–91) and his sister was Pauline Hamilton-Russell.

[7] Slade had two children, Nicola and Rupert, with his wife Sue (née Forsyth).