559 An Inspector Calls

First  viewed : 17  August  1982

J  B  Priestley's  socialist  morality  play  has  been  an  English  Literature  exam  staple  for  decades and  so  this  1982  three-part   adaptation  was  originally  made  as  a  schools  programme. It  was then  decided  that  it  would  probably  work  as  a  prime  time  drama  although  with  actors  of  the calibre  of  Bernard  Hepton  and  Nigel  Davenport  on  board  that  should  have  been  a  no-brainer.

Hepton  plays  Inspector  Goole, a  detective  who  intrudes  on  a  bourgeois  family  dinner  party  as part  of  an  investigation  into  the  suicide  of  a  young  working  class  woman. He  then  politely but  inexorably  exposes  that  each  person  present  bears  some  responsibility  for  her  death. I won't  reveal  the  twist  at  the  end  but  I  think  it's  pretty  well  known.

The  budget  wasn't  enormous  but  it  didn't  need  to  be  given  that  all  the  action  takes  place  in  the  one  room  ( hence  the  play's  popularity  with  Am  Dram  companies ). Sarah  Berger  from  The  Crucible  plays  a  more  sympathetic  character  here.