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The Plays of J. B. Priestley

byJ B Priestley, Toby Jones (Read by), Harriet Walter (Read by), Alan Bennett (Read by), Brenda Blethyn (Read by), Martin Jarvis (Read by), Tony Britton (Read by)
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A BBC Radio Collection of 13 Full-Cast Productions including An Inspector Calls

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13 plays and dramatisations of the works of the influential playwright, novelist and essayist J. B. Priestley - plus bonus programmes

J. B. Priestley was one of Britain's most significant writers. His output was prodigious: in his lifetime, he penned 26 novels, 39 plays and hundreds of essays. He enjoyed great success on stage, notably with Dangerous Corner, Time and the Conways and An Inspector Calls, which experimented with narrative structure and unorthodox theories of time. Included here are some of his most esteemed works, adapted for radio and brought together in one statement collection.

We begin with Priestley's most famous play, An Inspector Calls, which sees Inspector Goole arriving unexpectedly at the prosperous Birling family home. Their celebratory dinner is shattered by his startling revelations about the death of a young woman. Next is Time and The Conways, telling the story of one family in several scenes set over 19 years, and When We Are Married, in which three couples receive a rude shock during their joint silver wedding party. In I Have Been Here Before, a group of strangers who meet at a remote Yorkshire inn discover that they are all interdependent - have they met before?

A happy gathering of friends discover that their relationships aren't what they seem in Dangerous Corner and, in Eden End, an elderly Yorkshire GP finds himself coming to the end of an era. The Linden Tree is set in England 1947, where rationing and austerity have fostered opportunism, escapism - and confrontation - within the Linden family.

The Good Companions, J. B. Priestley's classic story of a 1929 concert party tour, is followed by The Demon King, in which a Boxing Day panto is set to be a flop - until the Demon King comes on. In Lost Empires, Richard Hemcastle leaves his dead-end job to join his Uncle Nick in the glamour of the music halls, while in Bright Day, a chance encounter prompts a disillusioned scriptwriter to rediscover his past. Extraordinary and magical things happen on one elusive day in The Thirty-First of June, and in The Grey Ones, a patient fears evil is at work in the shape of a sinister conspiracy. Will his psychiatrist be able to help?

Among the array of stars in these stunning dramas are Toby Jones, Frances Barber, Harriet Walter, Alan Bennett, Brenda Blethyn, Lesley Nicol, Morvern Christie, Alun Armstrong, Roy Hudd, Tom Baker, Jack Shepherd, Geoffrey Palmer, Amaka Okafor, Martin Jarvis and Joan Plowright. Also included are two fascinating documentaries: Postscripts: J. B. Priestley, a five-part series of wartime observations originally broadcast in 1940 and read by Patrick Stewart, and Great Lives: J. B. Priestley, which sees Barry Cryer discussing his friend and fellow Yorkshireman with Martin Wainwright and Matthew Parris.

First published 1929 (The Good Companions), 1932 (Dangerous Corner), 1934 (Eden End), 1937 (Time and the Conways, I Have Been Here Before), 1938 (When We Are Married), 1945 (An Inspector Calls), 1946 (Bright Day), 1947 (The Linden Tree), 1953 (The Grey Ones), 1961 (The Thirty-First of June), 1962 (The Demon King), 1965 (Lost Empires)

Production credits
Written by J. B. Priestley


Contents List

An Inspector Calls

Time and The Conways

When We Are Married

I Have Been Here Before

Dangerous Corner

Eden End

The Linden Tree

The Good Companions

The Demon King

Lost Empires

Bright Day

The Thirty First of June

The Grey Ones

Postscripts: J. B. Priestley

Great Lives: J. B. Priestley

© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About J B Priestley

J.B. Priestley, the son of a schoolmaster, was born in Bradford in 1894. After leaving Belle Vue High School, he spent some time as a junior clerk in a wool office. (A lively account of his life at this period may be found in his volume of reminiscences, Margin Released.) He joined the army in 1914, and in 1919, on receiving an ox-officers' grant, went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 1922, after refusing several academic posts, and having already published one book and contributed critical articles and essays to various reviews, he went to London. There he soon made a reputation as an essayist and critic. he began writing novels, and with his third and fourth novels, The Good Companions and Angel Pavement, he scored a great success and established an international reputation. This was enlarged by the plays he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s, some of these, notably Dangerous Corner, Time and the Conways and An Inspector Calls, having been translated and produced all over the world. During the Second World War he was exceedingly popular as a broadcaster. Since the war his most important novels have been Bright Day, Festival at Farbridge, Lost Empires and The Image Men, and his more ambitious literary and social criticism can be found in Literature and Western Man, Man and Time and Journey Down a Rainbow, which he wrote with his wife, Jacquetta Hawkes, a distinguished archaeologist and a well-established writer herself. It was in this last book that Priestley coined the term 'Admass', now in common use. Among his latest books are Victoria's Heydey (1972), Over the Long High Wall (1972), The English (1973), Outcries and Asides, a collection of essays (1974), A Visit to New Zealand (1974), The Carfitt Crisis (1975), Particular Pleasures (1975), Found, Lost, Found, or the English Way of Life (1976), The Happy Dream (1976), English Humour (1976) and an autobiography, Instead of the Trees (1977). In 1977 J. B. Priestley received the Order of merit. He died in 1984.
Details
  • Imprint: BBC Digital Audio
  • ISBN: 9781787539921
  • Length: 1174 minutes
  • Price: £16.00