An Inspector Calls (2015 TV film)

An Inspector Calls is a 2015 British thriller television film written by Helen Edmundson, based on the J. B. Priestley play of the same title. It is directed by Aisling Walsh,^[2] produced by Howard Ella^[3] and stars David Thewlis^[4][5] as the titular character. The story is centred on a mysterious inspector, who investigates the socially ambitious Birling family and a dinner guest following the suicide of a young woman. The film was first broadcast on 13 September 2015 on BBC One.

Plot

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 makes it clear that all of them have contributed to the tragedy through individually unjust, selfish or exploitive behavior.^[6]

Cast

• David Thewlis as Inspector Goole
• Sophie Rundle as Eva Smith/Daisy Renton/Mrs Birling/Alice Grey
• Chloe Pirrie as Sheila Birling
• Finn Cole as Eric Birling
• Miranda Richardson as Sybil Birling
• Ken Stott as Arthur Birling
• Kyle Soller as Gerald Croft
• Lucy Chappell as Edna
• Flora Nicholson as Miss Francis
• Gary Davis as Alderman Meggarty
• Wanda Opalinska as Charity Lady

Production

In February 2015, filming began in Saltaire, West Yorkshire.^[7] Although the exterior shots of the mill were filmed at Saltaire, the interior shots of the mill were filmed at Queen Street Mill on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire . A full sized office was built in the middle of the Weaving Shed for this production and was dismantled once filming was completed. A large number of scenes were also filmed at Scampston Hall, near Malton, and in the market town of Malton.

Like the 1954 version, this adaptation employs flashbacks to the events described (allowing some dialogue to be eliminated), as well as additional scenes showing more of the life and death of Eva, and the Inspector after he leaves the Birlings' home. Additionally, like the 1954 film, Goole's implied supernatural aspect is more explicit than in the play: he is seen staring up at Eva's window, as she seemingly looks down on him, but from her point of view the street is empty. In the hospital, Eva sees the Inspector as she convulses from the swallowed disinfectant and has her stomach pumped. After she has died, Goole sits by Eva's body and gently cradles her lifeless hand, but when the shot switches to the viewpoint of a nurse and a police constable he is not there. Likewise, at the end, the Inspector is shown, walking alone down a hallway. This adaptation seems to set Goole as an 'avenging angel' representing a higher authority than the Yorkshire Constabulary.

The majority of the action in this play takes place within the Birlings' home. For the 2015 production, the interior is that of the Dining Room at Scampston Hall.

Critical reception

The programme was watched by nearly 6 million viewers.^[8] Reviewing the production for UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Anita Singh began by noting, "Few people feel nostalgic about the works of JB Priestley. An Inspector Calls (BBC One), his most famous play, was first performed in 1945 but fell out of fashion decades ago and is rarely filmed, although Stephen Daldry’s striking Nineties revival at the National Theatre gave it a fillip. These days it’s most commonly encountered on the GCSE curriculum, stodgy as the pudding and custard served up in the school canteen". Singh went on to add, "This was as good an adaptation as it could be", praising both the filming location (Saltaire) and the "decent job" done by its screenwriter, Helen Edmundson, and finding that the "fine performances from Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson as the smug Birlings elevated the material". "But", she concluded, "there is a reason why Priestley’s didactic play is no longer loved. Part drawing room whodunit, part socialist manifesto, it has the subtlety of a sledgehammer".^[9]

The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston was more impressed:

[Priestley’s] play might be set over a hundred years ago, in 1912, but the messages and sentiments – about social responsibility and a shared humanity – remain important and relevant. […] An Inspector Calls, sensitively adapted here by Helen Edmundson, time-travels remarkably well: it translates into gripping 21st-century television. It’s hard to see how it fell out of favour in the 1950s and 60s, dismissed as bourgeois and banished to amdram and regional rep, when Priestley’s own political leanings are so blatantly on show and it’s the bourgeoisie who come out of it so badly".^[10]

Of Thewlis’s portrayal, Woolaston said: "It’s [his] laconic inspector who captivates (not just the audience, but the not entirely morally vacuous young Sheila Birling too) and makes off with the show before disappearing back into the shadows, or wherever it is he comes from".^[10]

References

External links

• An Inspector Calls at the Internet Movie Database