An Inspector Calls

Summary: 1948 BBC live studio production of J. B. Priestley’s drama An Inspector Calls.
Theatre play: An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) [more information]
Play synopsis: 'The play is a three-act drama, which takes place on a single night in 1912, focusing on the prosperous middle-class Birling family, who live in a comfortable home in Brumley, "an industrial city in the north Midlands". The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith (also known as Daisy Renton). The family are interrogated and revealed to have been responsible for the young woman’s exploitation, abandonment and social ruin, effectively leading to her death. Long considered part of the repertory of classic "drawing room" theatre, the play has also been hailed as a scathing critique of the hypocrisies of Victorian/Edwardian English society and as an expression of Priestley’s Socialist political principles.' Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inspector_Calls.
Production history: First performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK.
Date of transmission: Tuesday 4 May 1948
Time: 8.30-10.15pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984)

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Title: Radio Times, 30 April 1948 (Magazine)
Linking notes: article by John Swift, ‘The Inspector Points a Moral’, p. 25; article, p. 24; listing, p. 26

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