The Demon King by J B Priestley

The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast

Tony Walker

Science Fiction, Fiction, Drama

4.9 • 835 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's Boxing Night in Bruddersford and the pantomime's a disaster waiting to happen. The company's second-rate, the theatre's half empty, and the actor playing the Demon King hasn't turned up. Then he does—and suddenly everything changes. The performance takes on an authority it never had in rehearsal. The comedy gets sharper, the villain more convincing, and by the end something has happened that nobody can quite explain. Priestley wrote this in 1931, drawing on his Bradford theatre days and the tradition of the pantomime devil who enters from stage left. The BBC adapted it for radio in 1962 with Ian Wallace, adding Radiophonic Workshop effects to a story that's as much about provincial theatre life as it is about the supernatural. First published 1931. BBC Home Service radio adaptation December 1962. Author: J. B. Priestley (1894–1984), Bradford-born novelist and playwright. Best known for The Good Companions, Angel Pavement, and An Inspector Calls. During the war his BBC radio talks reached audiences of 16 million. Listen to a 24/7 Stream of Classic Ghost Stories Ad Free here: www.gravenheim.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Listen up, loser.
0:02.1	Bam!
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0:08.2	Bam!
0:09.2	Want to get bigger than Bigfoot?
0:10.8	Lean it in the Tower of Pisa?
0:12.6	Mama-mea!
0:13.4	I'll get you shredded in your sleep.
0:15.6	Get sleep-threaded!
0:17.1	Show evolution, who's balls?
0:19.4	Ban!
0:20.4	You what? Don't fall for fads this January?
0:24.0	Holland and Barrett give you the facts.
0:26.3	Get expert advice on products you can trust.
0:29.0	Holland and Barrett.
0:39.3	Everybody dies, don't they? Everybody come back.
0:41.3	Isn't that so?
0:43.3	You tried to get into the locked drawer today, didn't you?
0:47.3	How do the dead come back, mother?
0:49.3	What's the secrets of they'd come back?
0:52.3	The Demon King by J.B. Priestley.
0:57.0	Among the company assembled for Mr. Tom Burt's grand annual pantomime
	...

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