The Demon King — J. B. Priestley’s Strange Boxing Day Tale

It is Boxing Day in Bruddersford, and the local pantomime is heading for disaster.

The company is struggling; the audience is restless—and the actor who is supposed to play the Demon King has failed to appear.

Then the Demon King walks onto the stage.

He is magnificent.

There is only one problem: who is he?

J. B. Priestley’s The Demon King is a wonderfully peculiar mixture of Christmas comedy, backstage drama and supernatural mystery, in which a shabby provincial theatre becomes the setting for something that may be considerably stranger than make-believe.

Originally broadcast by the BBC Home Service on Boxing Day, December 26, 1962, this production stars Ian Wallace and Marjorie Westbury, with an adaptation by Michael and Mollie Hardwick, production by Charles Lefeaux, and special effects from the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Preserved through the BBC Transcription Service, it is exactly the sort of half-forgotten radio treasure worth hearing again.

Turn down the lights. The curtain is going up. And whatever happens, don’t miss the entrance of the Demon King.

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