BBC Drama: An Inspector Calls. 2015.

                        An Inspector Calls by J.B.Priestley. BBC1 Drama. 2015.

"There are millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths, still left with us, with their lives and hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness all intertwined with our lives and what we think, and say, and do."

I feel as if I've grown up with Priestley's play and it's not just my northern roots. When I went into teaching in the 1970s it was on the syllabus and it was a good choice to cover in our limited time for O level and GCSE. It is, after all, a short play, easy to read and study so not a particularly great challenge for most students.  It's now 2015 and Priestley's play is still on the literature syllabus and I still come across it in my capacity as an examiner.

This adaptation was by playwright Helen Edmunson who develops the character of Eva Smith by showing frequent flashbacks, highlighting the hardships for the working class at a time when war was imminent. It was meant to be 1912. Thankfully she chose to omit the long-winded, laborious speeches of Arthur Birling at the start of the play, full of snobbery and pretentiousness. Aisling Walsh directed it.

A star-studded cast complements a good script and accomplished acting particularly from David Thewlis, as Inspector Goole, better known for his role in The Theory of Everything" and "Harry Potter," who plays a leading and powerfully enigmatic role of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. Ken Stott, Miranda Richardson, Chloe Pirrie, Kyle Sollar ( recently in Poldark), Finn Cole and Sophie Rundle play supporting roles.

Filmed in Location at Scampston Hall in North Yorkshire and the scenes from the mill were shot closer to Priestley's roots in Saltaire (near Bradford): Salts Mill, Albert Terrace and William Henry Street.

The play was premiered in 1947 and first opened in Russia 70 years ago. The 1954 Alastair Sims film sticks closer to the play. I find it interesting comparing interpretations. One of the best staged versions was the 1992 National Theatre production. During the 50s and 60s the play fell out of favour, being considered too bourgeois which is ironical considering that the bourgeoisie came out of it very badly.

It resembles a drawing-room classic thriller, Agatha Christie style which allows it to translate well into a gripping modern drama for the 21st Century and a modern audience. Almost 6 million viewers tuned in to watch it when it was first screened.

The drama begins with two people in bed. The man asks the woman an intriguing and odd questions considering they have just made love: "Do you believe in God?" The answer is yes and the woman continues to explain her disillusionment with people. "I can't believe in people. I have to believe in something or I'd fall. Fall down through the cracks and never stop falling." It sounds ominous and will lead into a didactic piece of theatre with the playwright pleading for shared humanity between upper/middle and working classes.

The main scene is set in the dining-room of the Birlings, an affluent family. The maids are laying the table for a special occasion. Sybil Birling, a haughty and proud woman arranges the flowers as her daughter gets ready. We catch a glimpse of the men at work, Arthur and son Eric, in the Yorkshire mill where they employ hundreds of girls before leaving in style and donning formal dress for the engagement of Sheila to Gerald Croft, son of a rival family in business. Birling hopes that the marriage will unite the two families and create a business empire, giving him ultimate power and prestige.

When Gerald arrives, he removes his coat and then grabs Sheila, embraces her and pins her to the wall, moving well away from Priestley's play but trying to muster up some sexual chemistry to engage the masses no doubt. When everyone is seated there's plenty of drink, toasts to the wonderful couple and light-hearted banter with a bit of moralising from the father of the family, a loathsome, self-important and self-made man. In the actual play he moralises at length, referring to war and the Titanic.

"The way these cranks talk now, you'd think that everybody has to look after everybody else, we're all mixed up together like bees in a hive."

John Plunkett from The Guardian compares his views to Thatcherism-everyone for themselves.

A union between two powerful families would secure Sheila's whole future as Sybil points out to her. After the meal and toasts the women vacate the room to allow the men to have a man-to-man talk. Birling is keen to tell Gerald of his prospect of getting a knighthood as long as he keeps out of trouble, spoken light-heartedly. "It's not where you start in life, it's where you finish." So, at this point when he is feeling confident he receives an unexpected visitor and this is when Goole arrives, like a bat out of hell and demolishes this jovial atmosphere stating that a young woman died in the infirmary three hours ago after drinking disinfectant which burnt her insides out. She died an agonising death. Her name was Eva Smith.

We are then given graphic flashbacks taking us back to 1910, showing us this Eva Smith deailing her involvement with each of the members of the Birling family and Gerald Croft. It seems that these people were partly responsible for Eva's suicide and Goole wants to make sure that they accept responsibility for their thoughtless behaviour. He is sombre throughout, removes his coat and refuses to budge until he had done his duty, which means name and shame the culpits.

"We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will come when if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish."

 What still baffles audiences is what the Inspector represents. There is metaphysical speculation that the playwright has created a supernatural manifestation reminiscent of the Old Testament

The older generation will not accept any responsibility but the impressionable Sheila and Eric do. From then onwards, things will never quite be the same again.

I close with a remark from Alison Graham, journalist: "The Inspector exposes the Birlings' class-strapped hypocrisies. And, to this day, its final twist still tingles the spine." No spoilers, sorry. Worth a watch though.
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An Inspector Calls was a spellbinding production of the J.B.Priestley classic. A perfect cast who were all convincing in their parts, together with great photography and atmospheric (and not too intrusive) music that added suspense and the right amount of menace to a story that seemed to unfold at the right pace. The BBC is at its best.
Keith Fleming. Poole. Dorset. Reproduction with kind permission from the Radio Times 26th September -2nd October 2015.
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Those detractors and bean counters should be ashamed of their criticism of the BBC and their desire to reduce the corporation when drama of the quality of its Sunday evening productions is considered. An Inspector Calls (13th September BBC1) was sublime.
The intensity of the music, the brilliant photography and the superb ensemble performances, led by the perfectly cast Ken Stott, brought home with a vehemence J.B.Priestley's searing attack on the hypocrisy of the Birling family, and reminded us that we are responsible for each other. Could there be a more forceful and timely reminder of such an important tenet today, when we need to show our humanity in the face of the current refugee crisis?
Peter Woodroffe. Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Reproduction with kind permission from the Radio Times 26th September-2nd. October 2015.
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Yes it was splendidly acted and presented. But why the interpolated flashbacks showing events that are subtly suggested in the text? Eva Smith is a shadow, a half or completely forgotten memory to the Birling family, until the Inspector creates her and their destructive actions.
There is an unfortunate tendency in TV drama to dot every "i" and cross every "t", presumably because viewers aren't trusted to understand without prompting. J.B. Priestley knew what he was doing, and so did the many theatre audiences who have understood and enjoyed this magnificent play.
Dorothy Kyne, Mirfield, Yorkshire. Reproduction with kind permission from the Radio Times 26th September-2nd. October 2015.
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Available on dvd from the BBC.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2015. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.