Devil's Holiday, Episode 8

This is episode 8 of Devil's Holiday.

'Going… down?' This Donovan Joyce production featured radio star (and ironically named) Keith Eden as the nefarious Nicholas Lucifer, who takes his lift up from the depths of the underworld to tempt weak-willed souls to villainy. A self-proclaimed heating expert, this show’s Old Nick spends each of these fifty-two episodes focusing on a different 'client', offering them their darkest desires for a steep price. Sometimes his targets succumb, sometimes they resist - but the inevitable plot twist at the episode’s close always satisfies.

First airing on Melbourne’s 3KZ in May of 1953, this well-constructed series was penned by aspiring actor Frank Thring at only twenty-eight years old. Thring would come to make a name for himself as Australian acting royalty, featuring in Ben-Hur and later in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Narrator Keith Eden’s gravelly, gleeful laughter echoing down the elevator shaft is a sound you won’t soon forget.