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Written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, An Inspector Calls is a compelling and haunting thriller. The story begins when the mysterious Inspector Goole calls unexpectedly on the prosperous Birling family home. Their peaceful family dinner party is shattered by his investigations into the death of a young woman. Writer-director Daldry’s ground-breaking production has accumulated 19 major awards, including four Tony Awards and three Olivier Awards, and played to more than five million theatregoers worldwide, en route to becoming the National Theatre’s most internationally lauded show. An Inspector Calls is a 2015 British thriller television film written by Helen Edmundson, based on the 1945 J. B. Priestley play of the same name. It is directed by Aisling Walsh, [2] produced by Howard Ella [3] and stars David Thewlis [4] [5] as the titular character. The film was first broadcast on 13 September 2015 on BBC One.
Hailed as the theatrical event of its generation, winning more awards than any other production in history, An Inspector Calls has thrilled more than 4 million people worldwide.
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Priestley, because he experienced two world wars, wants the audience to think about how to avoid another war and to consider the kind of future we want. He would like one in which we care for each other. While the morality of the play is not particularly nuanced—Arthur Birling, for example, is the archetype of the money-grasping industrialist, while his cold wife (Christine Kavanagh) embodies snobbery and moral disapproval—there is something undeniably satisfying about watching these appalling people being confronted with their misdeeds. Evlyne: “Well, Sheila’s absolutely besotted with Gerald. She is very self-absorbed and in her own world, as she’s been brought up that way. She absolutely adores clothes.” “Being an actor beats doing any other boring job,” says George Rowlands Frances Campbell’s theatrical career includes JB Priestley’s Music at Night, Blithe Spirit, Hedda Gabler, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Hobson’s Choice. As a performer of historical dance, Frances has appeared with Commedia Dell Arte.
But with acting it doesn’t work like that because being good is so subjective – there’s no grade. I think that’s quite hard. Putting lots of work in and not knowing really how it will go.” The film is set in 1912 and follows the events of a single evening on which the wealthy Birling family is holding a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter. The festivities are interrupted by a visit from what is taken to be a policeman, Inspector Goole, who is investigating the recent suicide of a local young woman. Goole’s interrogations of each member of the dinner party make it clear that all of them have contributed to the tragedy through individually unjust, selfish or exploitative behaviour. The "Inspector" leaves the subdued group with a warning that human beings have shared responsibility for each other and that this lesson will soon be taught "in fire and blood and anguish" — an apparent reference to the outbreak of World War I two years later. Goole delivers one of theatre's most resonant final speeches: "And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night."If there is no Inspector, then there can be no Eva Smith. This allows Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald to sigh with relief, as if the events they have been through didn’t happen, like waking from a nightmare. Priestley was interested in the idea of time, and wrote several plays, such as ‘Dangerous Corner’ (1932), that included the theme of time. In ‘An Inspector Calls’ he explores the idea that time could repeat itself so that events happen again. We discover in Act I that he also found Eva Smith’s diary in her room, which gives her timeline, and when she is involved with the Birlings and Gerald. Christine Kavanagh’s National Theatre credits include Man and Superman and Albert Speer and the National Theatre UK Tour of Hedda Gabler. Her West End credits include The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre. With the Royal Shakespeare Company, Christine has performed Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing. Her other credits include A Doll’s House, Travesties, She Stoops to Conquer and The Rivals. One night in April 1912, the comfortably upper-middle-class Birling family gather to celebrate the engagement of their daughter, Shelia. In attendance areher fiance Gerald, her younger brother Eric, and her parents,Sybil and the boorish, dominating Arthur. The party is soon interrupted by the appearance of the mysterious Inspector Goole, who has come to enquire upon the recent suicide of Miss Eva Smith, a young working-class woman known to the family.
He thinks that the future is just fine, with ‘increasing prosperity’ ahead. Eric is less certain, but his father dismisses him. This is a tragedy when you consider that Eric (and Gerald) would be the right age to fight in the First World War, when millions died, something Priestley would have known about. Dorset-born British theatre and film director Daldry will be at the directorial helm once more. Over the years, he has received Academy Award nominations for his films The Reader, The Hours, Billy Elliot and Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, while his West End theatre work includes David Hare’s Skylight at the Wyndham’s Theatre and Peter Morgan’s The Audience at the Apollo Theatre.Priestley presents Sybil Birling as a snobbish and unkind woman. She feels herself to be above other people who are not in the same class as she is, and when the Inspector arrives she treats him like an inferior. My mum advised me to go and see a youth company at the weekends, so I did that, and I didn’t realise how natural it was to act as it is to live in the real world. I was a lot freer.
The Inspector turns his attention to Mrs Birling, a patron of a charity that helps women in difficult situations, which Daisy (who was by then pregnant and destitute) had turned to for help. Daisy introduced herself as Mrs Birling, which offended the real Mrs Birling. Daisy then revealed that she had a new name, Alice Grey. Alice explained that the father of her child was an immature alcoholic who could not act as a father yet and could not support her. Mrs Birling, however, persuaded the committee to deny her a grant, believing that Daisy had been irresponsible and suggested that she find the father, despite Daisy repeating that he wouldn’t be of any use. Despite vigorous cross-examination from the inspector, she denies any wrongdoing. Goole then plays his final card, forcing Mrs Birling to lay the blame on the 'drunken young man' who got Smith pregnant. It slowly dawns on the family, except Mrs Birling, that Eric is the young man involved. The programme was watched by nearly six million viewers. [7] For The Daily Telegraph, Anita Singh was generally positive, writing that the programme was 'as good an adaptation as it could be' and praising Helen Edmundson for her 'decent job of expanding the drama'. [8] Here, George Rowlands (who will play Eric Birling) and Evlyne Oyedokun (Sheila Birling) escape Inspector Goole’s forensic scrutiny to answer questions of a different kind ahead of the 2023 tour of An Inspector Calls.Singh, Anita (13 September 2015). "An Inspector Calls, BBC One, review: 'subtle as a sledgehammer' ". The Daily Telegraph. London . Retrieved 14 September 2015. PW Productions are delighted to announce the full cast for the 30 th Anniversary UK and Ireland Tour of Stephen Daldry’s seminal production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller AN INSPECTOR CALLS which comes to York Opera House on the 7 th until 11 th February 2023. The Inspector is Priestley’s mouthpiece. This means he speaks about the need for a fair society with a strong sense of community. Investigating the death of a young woman in poverty, he is the ultimate outsider, exposing something rotten in the state of the Birlings/England. Goole by name, ghoul by nature, the Marley to bilious Arthur Birling's Ebenezer Scrooge, he is also Priestley's still prescient prophet on stage (JB foreseeing the need for change in GB that will sweep Labour to power in 1945). The voice of moral conscience, the harbinger in the moonlight, demanding a turning of the tide.
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