GCSE English Literature podcasts - An Inspector Calls

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature Podcast.

Jean: I'm Jean Menzies, author, and ancient historian.

Carl: I’m Carl Anka, I'm a journalist and author.

Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature.

Carl: It's worth noting that there will be spoilers in this as we look into each text as a whole. So if you're not quite finished reading, or you're not quite ready for spoilers, just come back later.

Jean: And don't forget that whilst you're in the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists, and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different subjects. We also think it's really important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: And in this episode, we're going to take a look at the plot of An Inspector Calls to find out the who, what, where and why of the play, and find out about all of the key moments from the story and what An Inspector Calls is all about.

Carl: Alright, it's time to get on my best shoes and polish the cutlery because tonight we're going for dinner with the Birlings. As the play begins, Mr and Mrs Birling are having a dinner party with their son Eric and their daughter Sheila. Sheila’s fiance Gerald is also there. The family is celebrating Sheila and Gerald’s engagement.

Extract:
Birling: (raising his glass) So here's wishing the pair of you – the very best that life can bring. Gerald and Sheila.
Mrs Birling: (raising her glass, smiling) Yes, Gerald. Yes, Sheila darling. Our congratulations and very best wishes!

Jean: Oh, they seem so happy in this scene, don't they?

Carl: Oh, yes, they do. A nice, happy family dinner. They toast to Sheila and Gerald and then Mr Birling pulls his son Eric, and soon-to-be-son in law Gerald to the side and gives them some advice.

Jean: That's nice of him.

Carl: I wouldn’t quite call him nice. Here's Mr Birling:

Extract:
Birling: (solemnly) …But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.

Jean: I take that back. He does not seem like a very nice guy

Carl: No. But before Mr Birling finishes his speech about why you should only look out for yourself and your family, an inspector rings the doorbell and walks into the Birling’s house in the middle of their dinner party. He tells them that he's here to talk to them, because earlier on a woman took her own life. The inspector says he wants to ask the family some questions, but he wants to question them one by one. The first person on that list is Mr Birling.

Extract:
Inspector: Do you remember her, Mr Birling?
Birling: (slowly) No – I seem to remember hearing that name – Eva Smith – somewhere. But it doesn't convey anything to me. And I don't see where I come into this.

Jean: So the inspector shows Mr Birling a photo and it turns out he does recognise the woman. Eva used to work in Mr Birling's factory but he sacked her for going on strike for better pay.

Carl: Mr Birling refuses to take any responsibility for the way that his sacking of Eva sent her life into a downward spiral.

Extract:
Birling: (moving) No, leave this to me. I must also have a word with my wife – tell her what's happening. (turns at the door, staring at the inspector angrily.) We were having a nice family celebration tonight. And a nasty mess you've made of it now, haven't you?
Inspector: (steadily) That's more or less what I was thinking earlier tonight when I was in the infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it.

Carl: Well, the inspector doesn't hold back there does he?

Jean: Not in the slightest, he just goes straight to the point. So after questioning Mr Birling, the inspector moves on to questioning Sheila. He reveals that after being sacked by Mr Birling, Eva got a job at a nice clothing store called Millwoods. But then Sheila got her fired.

Carl: Why?

Jean: Well, you know, sometimes you walk into a shop and see an outfit on a mannequin and think, wow, I'd look great in that and then sometimes you might try that outfit on in the harsh light of the changing rooms and realise it looks nothing like you thought it would. Well, that's what happened to Sheila. She went to the clothing shop that Eva worked at and tried on a dress. When she saw herself in the dress she didn't think it looked good on her.

Eva was working at the shop and Sheila caught a glimpse of Eva holding the dress up to her body and it looked good on Eva. This brought Sheila’s insecurities out. She thought she saw her smile at the other assistant. So she thought Eva was laughing at her. So she got her fired.

Extract:
Inspector: In fact, in a kind of way, you might be said to have been jealous of her.
Sheila: Yes, I suppose so.
Inspector: And so you used the power you had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well known in the town, to punish the girl just because she made you feel like that?
Sheila: Yes, but it didn't seem to be anything very terrible at the time. Don't you understand? And if I could help her now, I would—
Inspector: (harshly) Yes, but you can't. It's too late. She's dead.

Jean: One thing about the inspector is he's going to tell it exactly as it is.

Carl: He does not care about sparing their feelings at all. So once the inspector is done questioning Sheila, he then moves on to Gerald, Sheila's fiance. The inspector drops a bombshell when his questioning reveals that Gerald had an affair with Eva Smith.

Carl: Gerald had an affair with Eva Smith when he knew her as a woman called Daisy Renton. Gerald actually made Eva happy when they were together.

Jean: Which the inspector says he found out by reading Eva's diary entries. There will be more on Gerald later. But I think it's worth noting here that there was a big power imbalance in that relationship. And he took advantage.

Extract:
Inspector: She kept a rough sort of diary. And she said there that she had to go away and be quiet and remember ' just to make it last longer'. She felt there'd never be anything as good again for her – so she had to make it last longer.
Gerald: (gravely) I see. Well, I never saw her again, and that's all I can tell you.

Jean: So Gerald made Eva happy for a little while. But as soon as he ended the relationship with her, he left her heartbroken with nowhere to stay. Then he just went back to his life as if nothing had happened.

Carl: Yes. And it turns out that Sheila had already suspected that Gerald had been having an affair. Rather than getting really angry when she finds out the truth, she kind of just respects him for being honest about it. However, she does make it very clear that she is not prepared to accept the husband who has affairs.

Jean: Nope, no happily ever after here. Sheila gives him the engagement ring back.

Extract:
Sheila: We'd have to start all over again, getting to know each other—

Jean: After questioning Gerald, the inspector talks to Mrs Birling, and it's revealed that a few months after Gerald ended things, Eva Smith was pregnant. And after she was in a tough spot when it came to money, she went to the local women's charity to ask for help. And guess who was an influential member of the Women's charity? Mrs Birling, of course.

Carl: Eva went to go and get help for her baby but instead of helping, Mrs Birling used her power and influence to stop Eva from getting any help because Mrs Birling thought Eva wasn’t acting in a way that a working class woman is supposed to act - humble and polite.

Eva called herself Mrs Birling which foreshadows what we will find out in Act Three. The original Mrs Birling (Sheila's mother) did not like the fact that Eva was going around calling herself Mrs Birling. So she refused to help Eva and instead insisted that it was the baby’s father’s responsibility.

Extract:
Mrs Birling: …I blame the young man who was the father of the child she was going to have. If, as she said, he didn't belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler, then that's all the more reason why he shouldn't escape. He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him.

Jean: But then guess who walks in?

Carl: Eric! It turns out that it was Eric who was the unborn baby's father. Eric stole money from his father, Mr Birling, to try and help Eva and the baby. However, when Eva found out, she refused to take it from Eric.

Jean: And a few months later, Eva Smith took her own life.

Carl: Yes, the inspector ends the play with a speech about how each one of them played a part in making Eva's life so much harder than it should have been.

Extract:
Inspector: But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.

Carl: When the inspector leaves, Sheila starts crying. Mrs Birling collapses into a chair. Eric is caught in deep thought and Mr Birling pours himself a drink.

Jean: But then Gerald comes back in the same room. It turns out that he went to speak to a police officer he knew. He discovers there’s no one in the local police force called Inspector Goole.

Carl: Inspector Goole is a play on words. Ghoul - like a ghost.

Jean: They call the infirmary and find out that woman hadn't died that night, either.

Carl: The Birlings and Gerald then begin to start talking and they realise why they all did the things they did. Nothing the inspector said proves they actually knew the same Eva Smith.

Jean: Eric and Sheila are thinking seriously about everything that happened, because they do seem to actually feel some responsibility. Mr and Mrs Birling’s response is much more self-centred, and they are relieved, because if Eva Smith didn't die, there's no chance of the story ruining their reputations. But then…

Extract:
Birling: Yes?. . . .Mr Birling speaking. . . .What? - here-
Birling: That was the police. A girl has just died – on her way to the Infirmary – after swallowing some disinfectant. And a police inspector is on his way here – to ask some – questions –

Jean: What an ending!

Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast. We hope this has been helpful for you and your revision. Don't forget you can listen back to this or any of the episodes at any time to help your revision on BBC Sounds.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the BBC Bitesize English literature podcast.

Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature. Don't forget that whilst you're in the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help your with revision. It's important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley. To explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, author and ancient historian.

Carl: and I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist, and in this episode, we are going to take a look at the first set of characters in An Inspector Calls. Today we're going to talk about Inspector Goole. Mr Birling, and Mrs Birling.

Jean: We're introduced to the inspector just a few pages into the play. When he walks into the living room in the middle of the Birling's family dinner.

Carl: We get a really clear description of him through the stage directions:

Extract
The inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking.

Jean: The inspector investigates the family's role in the death of Eva Smith by questioning them one at a time. And by doing that he reveals the domino effect that sent Eva's life into a downward spiral.

Extract
Inspector: This girl died a horrible death, but each of you helped to kill her. And don't ever forget that, but then I don't think you ever will.

Carl: We also learn a lot about the inspector through Priestley’s stage directions, specifically the way the inspector speaks and interacts with the other characters. The inspector is cutting through massively.

There's also a bit where the inspector is talking coolly, looking hard at him. He is also described as talking gravely and also talking dryly. There's also a lot of things happening impressively, harshly, sharply and very sternly.

Jean: The inspector interrupts a character when they're speaking and doesn't show any deference or submission to Mr and Mrs Birling, and unlike their parents who treat them like children, the inspector treats Sheila and Eric like adults.

Carl: the inspector drives the drama forward getting the characters to reveal a shocking truth with each question. He acts as the moral voice of the play, getting the audience to empathise with each other.

Jean: We'll talk about this more in episode four and seven, but the inspector is a mouthpiece for JB Priestley's own views on this too.

Extract:
Inspector: A girl died tonight. A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony – hating life.

Jean: By the end of the play, it's revealed the inspector isn't actually a local inspector, but it's not revealed who he really is. Priestly leaves it up to the audience to imagine who he could be

Carl: His name, Goole (ghoul) suggests something supernatural. It's suspicious that he seems to know what the characters are going to say before they say it.

Jean: So the inspector could be a ghost, the conscience of the audience or something else. But it doesn't really matter. What matters is what the characters did to Eva. That's actually a really big point going into exams. It's so easy to get hung up on who the inspector really was. But actually, we want to look at how Priestley uses these characters to present ideas.

Carl: The inspector also delivers a pretty ominous message before he leaves just before the end of the play, too.

Extract:
Inspector: 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 soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they well be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish. Good night.

Carl: The inspector delivers an ominous message to all before he leaves where he references the hell that awaits men who do not learn a lesson.

Jean: Let's move on to the next two characters Mr and Mrs Birling.

Carl: One thing you notice reading the play is the clear differences in attitudes and values between the Birling parents and the Birling children.

Jean: Mr and Mrs Birling represent the older generation’s old fashioned values. Let's start with Mr Birling. We get our first introduction to him in the stage directions

Extract:
Arthur Birling is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in this middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in this speech

Carl: So, he's a serious man. But priestly describes him as provincial in his speech, which is his way of seeing that Mr Birling comes from a lower class background, and we also learn a lot about him through the way he speaks and acts.

Carl: He speaks explosively or angrily, lines are delivered sharply or even very sharply. He's very often furious. Mr Birling is the arrogant head of the Birling household who made himself and his family wealthy by owning a factory, and he tells the younger generation that it is a man's job to look out for number one, and not to waste time trying to help other people.

Extract:
Birling: Take my word for it. And I've learned in the good Harvard School of experience. A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.

Jean: He didn't grow up wealthy, like his wife or Gerald. And during quite a few moments in the play, he comes across as insecure and self-conscious about this.

Extract:
Birling: I have an idea your mother feels you might have done better for yourself socially.

Jean: So Mr Birling has decided to become an active member of the Brumley community, which is all in order to boost his own social status, rather than from a genuine desire to help his community.

Extract:
Birling: I thought you must be. I was an alderman for years – and lord mayor two years ago – and I’m still on the bench – so I know the Brumley police offices pretty well – and I thought I’d never seen you before.

Jean: He thinks that he might be in the running to receive a knighthood.

Extract:
Birling: there's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next honours list. Just a knighthood, of course.

Carl: When the inspector arrives, he reveals that Mr Birling knew Eva Smith because she once worked at his factory, but then she went on strike.

Extract:
Birling: They wanted the rates raised so that they could average about twenty-five shillings a week. I refused, of course.
Inspector: Why?
Birling: (surprised) Did you say 'why?'?\ Inspector: Yes. Why did you refuse?
Birling: Well, inspector I don't see that it's any concern of yours how I choose to run my business.

Jean: From Mr Birling's point of view, he didn't need to pay Eva and the other workers a better wage, so he sacked them for talking too much. What he actually means there is that she had opinions about worker’s wages and wouldn't just be quiet like he wanted her to be.

Carl: And he doesn't take any responsibility for ruining her life. In fact, when the questioning is done, Mr Birling is more worried about the damage that the investigation could do to his reputation than he is about the girl who just died.

Extract:
Birling: Nothing much has happened! Haven't I already said there'll be a public scandal – unless we're lucky – and who here will suffer from that more than I will?

Carl: And then when the play ends, Mr Birling is shaken up and shocked by son's behaviour when the inspector leaves. It's clear he didn't really learn anything.

Jean: When he finds out that the inspector might have been an imposter, he's overjoyed and mocks everyone else for having been tricked by the investigation.

Carl: He's happier that he's reputation isn't going to be ruined than he is that Eva Smith might still be alive, which tells us a lot about his character. He's selfish, he's arrogant, he's unremorseful.

Carl: Let's move on to the next character. Mrs Sybil Birling. Mrs Birling is about 50, rather a cold woman and her husband's social superior. We find out more about her through the way she speaks and acts. She speaks grandly, bitterly, with sudden anger and she also is alarmed and speaks severely. Mrs Birling is Mr Birling’s wife and Sheila and Eric’s mum. She has pretty traditional ideas when it comes to gender and how to be a good wife. Ideas that she tries to pass on to her newly engaged daughter Sheila.

Extract:
Mrs Birling: When you're married, you will realise that men with important work sometimes need to spend all their time and energy on their business. You will have to get used to that just as I had.

Jean: Mrs Birling treats Sheila and Eric like children, even though they're adults. She doesn't see Eric's poor behaviour and unlike the rest of the family refuses to admit or see that he has a dependency on alcohol.

Extract:
Inspector: (cutting in) isn't he used to drinking?
Mrs Birling: No, of course not. He's only a boy.
Inspector: No, he's a young man. And some young men drink far too much.\

Carl: Like her husband, Mrs Birling cares more about how things look to other people than how things actually are. Throughout dinner, she tells Sheila and Eric off for things that she considers impolite while turning a blind eye to Eric's drinking.

Jean: And despite being a key member of the local women's charity, Mrs Birling is quite prejudiced and cold-hearted.

Carl: The inspector reveals that Mrs Birling used her influence to stop Eva from getting the help that she needed. This is all because Eva didn't act in a way that Mrs Birling expected from a lower class woman who needed help.

Jean: But despite being the person who refused to help Eva Smith when she needed the charity’s help more than ever, like her husband, Mrs Birling doesn't accept any responsibility for her part in Eva Smith's death.

Carl: She doesn't appear to have learned anything or changed her mind when the play ends.

Extract:
Mrs Birling: You're quite wrong to suppose I shall regret what I did to her.

Jean: Her cold, uncaring actions are what leads to Mrs Birling's downfall. She unknowingly condemned her own son in one of the most dramatic scenes of the play. When she says that the baby's father should be the one to take responsibility for Eva.

Extract:
Inspector: (grimly) Don't worry Mrs Birling. I shall do my duty. (He looks at his watch.)
Mrs Birling: (triumphantly) I'm glad to hear it.
Inspector: No hushing up, eh? Make an example of the young man, eh? Public confession of responsibility – um?
Mrs Birling: Certainly. I consider it your duty. And now no doubt you'd like to say good night.
Inspector: Not yet. I'm waiting.
Mrs Birling: Waiting for what?
Inspector: To do my duty.
Sheila: (distressed) Now, mother – don't you see?
Mrs Birling: (understanding now) But surely …. I mean … it's ridiculous . . .
Birling: (terrified now) Look Inspector, you're not trying to tell us that – that my boy – is mixed up in this - ?
Inspector: (sternly) If he is, then we know what to do, don't we? Mrs Birling has just told us.
Birling: (thunderstruck) my God! But – look here –
Mrs Birling: (agitated) I don't believe it. I won't believe it . . .
Sheila: Mother – I begged you and begged you to stop-

Jean: We'll find out more about him, his sister Sheila and his soon-to-be-brother in law, Gerald in the next episode.

Carl: We’ve still got a lot to discuss. So have a listen to the other episodes to find out more.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the BBC Bitesize English literature podcast.

Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature. Don't forget that whilst you're in the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with revision. It's important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, author and ancient historian.

Carl: and I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist, and in this episode, we're going to take a look at the second set of characters in An Inspector Calls and get to know Sheila, Eric, and Gerald.

In the last episode we talked about Inspector Goole who acts as the play’s moral conscience, we talked about Mr And Mrs Birling, parents of the family who live by more old fashioned 19th century values. But in this episode, we're going to be looking at the younger generation of characters. So let's get back to the dinner party.

Jean: When the play begins, the family is celebrating Sheila and Gerald's engagement. Let's start with Gerald since he's the only one who isn't a Birling. We get our first introduction to Gerald through the stage directions:

Carl: Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about 30 years of age, but very much of the easy well-bred young man about town.

Jean: The Birlings are pretty pleased about Sheila and Gerald's engagement. Gerald comes from a family of upper class business owners and Mr Birling hopes their families can join forces in business

Carl: and that by marrying Sheila, Gerald will improve the Birling’s social status.

Extract:
Birling: Your father and I have been friendly rivals in business for some time now – though crofts limited are both older and bigger than Birling and company – and now you've brought us together, and perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher prices.
Gerald: Hear, hear! And I think my father would agree to that.
Mrs Birling: Now, Arthur, I don't think you ought to talk business on an occasion like this.

Jean: At the beginning of the play, Gerald is confident and charming, but this quickly changes when the inspector reveals that he had an affair with Eva Smith when she was going by the name Daisy Renton.

Carl: First, Gerald is evasive and tries not to talk too much about it. But then he realises that Sheila already suspected they had an affair. So Gerald opens up and reveals that he knew Eva/ Daisy.

Jean: But she was not happy with him.

Extract:
Sheila: Well, Gerald. Were you in love with her?
Gerald: It's hard to say. I didn't feel about her how she felt about me.
Sheila: Of course not. You were the wonderful fairy-tale prince. You must have adored it.
Gerald: All right, I did for a time.\

Jean: You don't really get to be a knight in shining armour if you end up having an affair and cheating on your girlfriend.

Carl: Not at all, but unlike the Birlings, Gerald did make Eva/ Daisy happy. She adored him. And he gave her a safe place to stay when they were having their affair. But then he ended it. Eva was left heartbroken.

Jean: There's such a problematic power dynamic in this relationship. Eva/ Daisy is totally dependent on Gerald for money and shelter. So the play does hint at the ways that society is unfair to women. This kind of relationship is not healthy.

Gerald: She told me she'd been happier than ever before, but that she knew it couldn't last - hadn't expected it to last. She didn't blame me at all. I wish to God she had now. Perhaps I’d feel better about it.

Jean: Now Sheila gives him back her engagement ring after she hears the truth. And at the end of the play, when the family finds out that Inspector Goole isn't who he said he was, Gerald tries to give Sheila her ring back, which really shows he hasn't changed.

Extract:
Gerald: Everything's all right now. So what about this ring?
Sheila: No, Gerald, not yet. It's too soon. I must think.

Jean: now, it takes a lot for a party to start with someone trying on their engagement ring and then for it to end with them calling off the engagement.

Carl: Yep. And that's because Sheila goes through a real transformation. Let's rewind to the start of the play.

Extract:
Sheila: (excited) Oh – Gerald – you’ve got it – is it the one you wanted me to have?
Gerald: (giving the case to her) Yes – the very one.
Sheila: (taking out the ring) Oh – it's wonderful! Look – mummy – isn't it a beauty? Oh – darling - (she kisses Gerald hastily.)\

Jean: Sheila is a privileged and naive young lady whose parents treat her like a child. She's introduced to us through the stage directions:

Extract:
Sheila is a pretty girl in her early 20s, Very pleased with life and rather excited

Jean: In the first half of the play, she speaks gaily, half serious, half playful. But by the end of the play, she speaks severely and passionately.

Jean: So when the inspector first arrives, she's shocked by the news of Eva Smith's death and feels really bad. She has an emotional response, which really highlights the difference between her and her mother.

Extract:
Sheila: Sorry, it's just I can't help thinking about this girl destroying herself so horribly. And I've been so happy tonight.

Carl: But when the inspector starts to question Sheila, she almost immediately knows what part she played in Eva's death. She looked at a dress in a shop and she didn't think it looked good enough. But then she caught a glimpse of Eva Smith holding the dress up to her body, it looked so good with Eva that it instantly brought Sheila's insecurities out.

Extract:
Sheila: It just didn't suit me at all. I looked silly. I went to the manager of Millwoods. And I told him that if he didn't get rid of that girl, I would persuade mother to close our account with them.

Carl: using your influence to punish someone just because you can. I wonder when she picked her up from…

Jean: The apple does not fall very far from the tree in this case. But unlike her mother, Sheila immediately feels guilty for her actions and takes responsibility for the negative effect they had on Eva's life.

Extract:
Sheila: I felt rotten about it at the time. And now I feel a lot worse.

Carl: As the play goes on, Sheila matures and shows her assertive side by standing up to her mother and her father. She also refutes their belief about working class people. This really speaks to a growing sense of social responsibility.

Extract:
Sheila: These girls aren't cheap labour. They're people.

Jean: She shows us that she's insightful and intelligent. She can see where the inspector's investigation is going and tries to warn her family not to deny the role they played in Eva Smith's death.

Carl: Indeed, by the end of the play, Sheila has matured and has realised that her actions can and did have grave consequences. She knows that the story of Eva Smith has changed the way that she sees the world.

Jean: And unlike her parents, Sheila isn't the same person at the end of the play. She matures from a girl to a woman. She ends her engagement with Gerald and shows genuine remorse.

Extract
Sheila: Everything we said had happened really had happened. If it didn't end tragically then that's lucky for us. But it might have done.

Jean: Unlike her parents, she will actually learn something from the inspector and so does her brother Eric.

Carl: When the play starts we’re introduced to Eric, the Birling's son. He's a man but his parents still treat him as a boy.

Jean: Eric is in his early 20s. Not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive.

Carl: And you can see that boyishness in the way that the stage directions describe the way he speaks and acts

Jean: Rather noisily, uneasily, defiantly, miserably and sulkily

Carl: When the dinner party starts you can tell that Eric isn't very confident. And at one point, he tries to stand up to his father, but his father talks down to him.

Jean: It becomes pretty clear that Eric is drunk at the dinner table and later it’s revealed that he's been drinking too much for quite some time. But his mother thinks that Eric is just her perfect baby boy.

Carl: Mrs Birling is completely oblivious to who her son really is. Until she finds out that Eric aggressively pushed Eva Smith into sleeping with him when he was drunk. And then Eva Smith became pregnant. We have to pause here and call out what that behaviour really is, because it really isn't acceptable.

Jean: Although the words aren't used in the play themselves, we know as an audience that what Eric has done is sexual assault.

Extract:
Eric: Yes, I insisted – it seems. I'm not very clear about it, but afterwards she told me she didn't want me to go in but that – well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.

Jean: After getting her pregnant, Eric tried to take some responsibility for Eva and the unborn child. But instead of earning his own money, he stole it from his father's business so Eva refused to take it.

Carl: At the end of the play, Eric takes responsibility and stands up to his parents and gets angry at his mum for not helping Eva when she went to the women's charity.

Extract:
Eric: (almost threatening her) You don't understand anything. You never did. You never even tried – you.

Jean: Although he's still not my favourite character, Eric shows that he can be assertive when he's expected to actually act like an adult. The inspector’s questioning forces Eric to take responsibility for his actions. And by the end of the play, we as an audience no longer see him as the childish boy, his parents treat him as but as the grown man who has done something terrible that the inspector highlights him as.

Extract:
Eric: I stole some money. But the money is not the important thing. It's what happened to the girl. And what we all did to her that matters.
Eric: Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her. It's still the same rotten story.

Carl: The inspector has had a real effect on both Sheila Birling and Eric Birling. Their parents treat them like children, but the inspector treats them like adults and gets them to take responsibility for their actions.

Jean: By the end of the play, the audience has hope that the younger Birlings have learned some kind of lesson, that they'll leave the dinner party less likely to take advantage of their power and influence and more likely to take responsibility for their actions.

Carl: As Sheila said, they're not the same people sat down for dinner at the start of the evening.

Jean: No, they're not and in the next episode of the podcast, we're going to be talking about the key themes in An Inspector Calls.

Carl: We have a lot more to discuss. Listen to the other episodes to find out more.

Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to hear all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.

Jean: In the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.

It’s important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, an author and ancient historian.

Carl: I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist.

Jean: In this episode, we're going to be looking at the main themes of An Inspector Calls.

Jean: You can immediately tell that the Birlings belong to the upper-middle class, as soon as the play begins.

Carl: Yes, they are all wearing fancy dinner outfits, and the men are wearing white tie suits with tails. White tie is even more formal dress than black tie. Tails refers to the rear of the suit, which is often pointed.

Jean: I love to get dressed up as much as the next person but I'm not sure I could imagine putting on all these fancy suits and adornments just to have dinner my own house.

Carl: Indeed, it was different time and place and what people wore to dinner symbolised their social classes. When audiences watched the play for the first time, in 1945, they were living in a version of Britain that had just experienced two world wars. Everyone had to ration and look out for each other. So we got to the point where both rich people and poor people were eating the same meals, dressing in the same clothes and spending time in the same places. It was an equaliser.

Jean: It was an equaliser to an extent, but there was a black market and rich people still had advantages, of course.

Jean: The play is set in 1912, a few years before World War One. Before the wars Britain was strongly divided by class. The middle class was made up of wealthy people like the Birlings who owned land and factories. And then the working class were people like Eva Smith, who worked in those same factories. So Priestley wanted to show what life was like when people in different classes lived really differently and to caution about going back to those ways.

Carl: He also wanted to highlight how the upper classes look down on the working classes, and to show the unfairness of it all. You can really see it in the way that Mr And Mrs Birling talk. You can see what Mrs Birling said about Eva here:

Extract:
Mrs Birling: Whatever it was, I know it made me finally lose all patience with her. She was giving herself ridiculous airs. She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position.
Inspector: (very sternly) Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab. ( As Birling tries to protest, turns on him.) Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people. What did she say?
Mrs Birling: (rather cowed) she said that the father was only a youngster – silly and wild and drinking too much. There couldn't be any question of marrying him – it would be wrong for them both. He had given her money but she didn't want to take any more money from him.
Inspector: why didn't she want to take and more money from him?
Mrs Birling: all a lot of nonsense – I didn't believe a word of it. Inspector: I'm not asking you if you believed it. I want to know what she said. Why didn't she want to take any more money from this boy?
Mrs Birling: Oh – she had some fancy reason. As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!

Carl: Mrs Birling completely refused to believe Eva's story about not wanting to take the baby’s father's money, because she was poor. Why would you ever think about things such as morals when there's money on the line?

Jean: Mrs Birling thought that a girl of that sort wouldn’t dare to refuse stolen money because she thinks that working class people don't have the same moral values as her, so Mrs Birling refuses to help Eva. The play encourages us to sympathise with Eva and highlights the unfairness of the class system that it puts the vulnerable at even more of a disadvantage.

Carl: Mr Birling isn't much better when the workers at his factory go on strike for fair wages. He just sacks the ringleaders and then gets the others that come back for the same poor pay.

Extract:
Birling: Right, Gerald. They mostly were. And so was the strike, after a week or two. Pitiful affair. Well, we let them all come back – at the old rates – except the four or five ring-leaders, who'd started the trouble. I went down myself and told them to clear out. And this girl. Eva Smith, was one of them, she'd had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go.
Gerald: You couldn't have done anything else.
Eric: He could. He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck.

Jean: This extract takes us right onto our next theme, which is social responsibility.

Carl: Yes, that old thing that Mr Birling doesn't really believe in.

Jean: Social responsibility is the idea that we all have a role to play when it comes to looking after each other, especially the most vulnerable and at-risk people in society. An Inspector Calls was first performed in the UK just after the end of World War Two. Life after the war was really difficult.

Carl: Priestley wanted to highlight the importance of social responsibility by reminding the audience of what the world would be like without it. A lot of people had health conditions and couldn't afford to go to the hospital. Some people had lost their jobs and didn’t have enough money to rent out somewhere else to live. And many people couldn't really afford to buy food or look after themselves and their families.

Jean: People just like Eva.

Extract:
Inspector: That doesn't make it any the less yours. She came to you for help, at a time when no woman could have needed it more. And you not only refused it yourself but saw to it that the others refused it too. She was here alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate. She needed not only money but advice, sympathy, friendliness. You've had children. You must have known what she was feeling. And you slammed the door in her face.

Carl: For Eva, losing a job sets off a domino effect. That meant she didn't have a safe place to stay, or enough money to look after her baby. All this was caused by a member of the Birling family.

Jean: JB Priestley believed that if people were considerate and cared more about the people in their community, it would improve everybody's quality of life.

Carl: So he wrote this play to encourage the audience to be more socially responsible. Inspector Goole is the main voice of social responsibility in the play.

Extract:
Inspector: …We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other…

Jean: Some would argue that Inspector Goole is a stand in for the voice of JB Priestley, who says everything that Priestley wants the audience to hear.

Carl: On the opposite side, playing the main voices against social responsibility are Mr And Mrs Birling?

Jean: Mr Birling started the domino effect and Mrs Birling ended it Mr and Mrs Birling never accepted responsibility for the effect their actions had on Eva.

Extract:
Mrs Birling: I'm sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all.
Inspector: who is to blame then?
Mrs Birling: first, the girl herself.

Carl: Well, what a great quote about social responsibility because Mrs Birling takes absolutely no responsibility.

Jean: We talked about it in the last episode, but there's a real divide between the Birling parents and their children when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions. Now this takes us to the next theme of the play: age.

Carl: Mr and Mrs Birling are from the older generation. They just believe that everyone had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, just get on with things, don't fuss, don't dwell, just get on and do the work. They don't have the same kind of empathy for Eva Smith that their kids do.

Extract:
Birling: (pointing to Eric and Sheila) Now look at the pair of them – the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can't even take a joke-

Carl: The Birling parents are pretty stubborn in their beliefs, whereas the younger Birlings are much more willing to learn and change their perspective.

Extract:
Eric: Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her…
Sheila: And Eric's absolutely right. And it's the best thing any one of us has said tonight and it makes me feel a bit less ashamed of us. You're just beginning to pretend all over again.

Jean: Priestley had hopes in the younger generation’s ability to learn and change, which you can see in the way that both Sheila and Eric seem to grow up over the course of the play, to take responsibility for their actions.

Carl: And then try to get the parents to take responsibility for theirs.

Jean: They're younger and more open to the lessons the inspector’s teaching them because they accept their mistakes. The younger Birlings offer the chance for a brighter future.

Carl: Eric still did some pretty terrible things. But at the end the play, even though she and Eric understand they can't undo the damage they've done, you finish with a sense of hope that both Sheila and Eric will leave the dinner party and try to become better people. Because the things the inspector has said have changed both of them.

Jean: Fingers crossed. Now, the final theme.

Carl: Yes, the final theme of the play is gender. So we know that An Inspector Calls was written after World War Two. At that time, many British men had left their homes and their towns to go and fight during the war. Women had to step in to fill the jobs that men usually did.

Jean: Like working in factories, mechanics, business and manual labour. Women did a good job which changed the perspective of what a woman's role in society is. Some people realised that women could be more than mothers, wives and homemakers. So with that new-found freedom, women were able to make their own money and look after themselves.

Carl: But the play is set before both wars. Many people had quite traditional views on gender. We can see that in the way that Mr Birling and Gerald talk.

Jean: Gerald says he hates hard faced women showing how superficial he can be when it comes to how he sees women. And Mr Birling talks about women wearing certain clothes as a sign of self-respect, suggesting that women who dress differently don't respect themselves, which is just a little bit sexist.

Extract:
Eric: (sitting down) Yes, please. (takes decanter and helps himself.) Mother says we mustn't stay too long. But I don't think it matters. I left'em talking about clothes again. You'd think a girl had never any clothes before she gets married. Women are potty about 'em.
Birling: Yes, but you've got to remember, my boy, that clothes mean something quite different to a woman. Not just something to wear – and not only something to make 'em look prettier – but – well, a sort of sign or token of their self-respect.
Gerald: That's true.

Carl: Throughout the play, we can see just how much of Eva's fate is in the hands of men like Mr Birling, who fired her, Gerald who had an affair with her. There's Eric who is the father of her unborn child and who failed to take responsibility and look after her and the baby. Priestley uses these characters to symbolise men, and what they do to people they view as less than them.

Jean: Even though Eva fit into conventional ideas of beauty, she faced struggles at each point in her story because of the men who used their power to take advantage of her and the women who use their power and influence to sabotage her.

Carl: So in the play, the themes of class, social responsibility, and age all come together to shape the way Gerald and the Birlings see the world.

Jean: And they come together to shape the negative impact they all have on Eva's life. There are four different themes all intertwined, so be sure to think about how they cross over when you're reading the play and revising it.

Carl: Be sure to listen to the next episode of this podcast. We're going to talk about the form, the structure and the language of An Inspector Calls. We'll be getting into all the parts of play that you want to highlight and underline.

Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast.

Carl: We have a lot more to discuss our listen to the other episodes on BBC Sounds to find out more.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to hear all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.

Jean: In the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.

It’s important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: Jean Menzies, an author and ancient historian.

Carl: I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist.

Jean: In this episode, we're going to be looking at form, structure and language in An Inspector Calls. Let's start with form. An Inspector Calls is written in the form of a play and it draws on three different genres of play: one - the well-made play, two - the morality play, and three - the crime thriller.

Jean: The well-made play was actually a popular sub-genre of play in the 19th century. In a well-made play, the plot is intricate and complex and the drama of the story builds to a big climax.

Carl: Like in the end of act two.

Extract:
Inspector: (grimly) Don't worry Mrs Birling. I shall do my duty. ( He looks at his watch.)
Mrs Birling: (triumphantly) I'm glad to hear it.
Inspector: No hushing up, eh? Make an example of the young man, eh? Public confession of responsibility – um?
Mrs Birling: Certainly. I consider it your duty. And now no doubt you'd like to say good night.
Inspector: not yet. I'm waiting.
Mrs Birling: Waiting for what?
Inspector: To do my duty.
Sheila: (distressed) Now, mother – don't you see?
Mrs Birling: ( understanding now) But surely …. I mean … it's ridiculous . . . (she stops, and exchanges a frightened glance with her husband.)
Birling: (terrified now) Look Inspector, you're not trying to tell us that – that my boy – is mixed up in this - ?
Inspector: (sternly) If he is, then we know what to do, don't we? Mrs Birling has just told us.
Birling: (thunderstruck) my God! But – look here –
Mrs Birling: (agitated) I don't believe it. I won't believe it . . .
Sheila: Mother – I begged you and begged you to stop-

Jean: So that's a pretty dramatic climax. A well-made play is a genre of play that started becoming popular around the 1800s. In a well-made play, the action is caused by events that happened before the events of the play, with the story pulling everything back into order at the end.

Priestley moves away from the genre of the well-made play by ending the play with a revelation that actually puts the characters back into jeopardy.

Carl: The audience thinks everything's going to go back to normal when they realise the inspector isn't who he said he was, but then the phone rings and everything goes straight back into chaos. Because when it comes to form, An Inspector Calls is also a morality play.

Morality plays were really popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. In morality plays, characters committed sins and were punished. If they repented, the play showed how the character could redeem themselves. Priestly wanted to remind the audience that they needed not to slip back into old ways after the war had brought about greater quality.

Jean: In An Inspector Calls, Sheila and Eric take responsibility for their actions and say that they're not going to go back to the way things were.

Carl: Whereas Mr and Mrs Birling just want to go back to the way things were before. So Priestley uses the form of a morality play, to invite the audience to judge the characters. Sometimes it feels like inspector’s speeches are being said to the audience.

Jean: Morality plays were also meant to encourage the audience to question their own behaviours. So sometimes when the inspector is talking, he isn't just talking to the characters, he's talking to us, too. It's called breaking the fourth wall, which is when a character acknowledges the fact they're fictional, by addressing the audience directly.

Extract:
Inspector: (dryly) I’ve had that notion myself from time to time. In fact, I've thought that it would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women counting their pennies, in their dingy little back bedrooms.

Carl: The final form that the play An Inspector Calls takes is that of a crime thriller. Now, crime thriller is a genre in which a play tells a gripping tale based around a crime.

Jean: In this case, though, the play revolves around the moral crime of who was responsible for making Eva Smith's life so miserable.

Carl: Exactly. In crime thrillers, the audience receives clues by who's committed the crime. And then they watch the play to try and figure out the twist before the big reveal.

Jean: And in An Inspector Calls the audience spends a whole play slowly learning that everyone in the family was responsible for Eva's death in different ways, which is what makes it such a gripping mystery to watch unfold.

Extract:
Eric: And I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her. And that's what matters.

Jean: Okay, let's move on and talk about structure. The play has three acts, and Priestley structured each act to end on a gripping cliff-hanger, which heightens the sense of tension and suspense in the story.

Carl: There's a twist in act three when they realise that maybe Inspector Goole wasn't real. And then another twist at the very end when the phone rings telling them that a woman really did die, and that an inspector is coming over to question them.

Jean: Everything about this play is structured really intentionally. To keep the momentum up, Priestley slowly peels back new parts of the mystery and reveals more about the character and themes of the story. And the play, especially the end, also reflects Priestley's interest in theories about time. Including the idea that people re-enter their lives again after death, and live life all over again.

Extract:
Inspector: 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.

Carl: Priestley was interested in idea that people could learn how to live better lives and make changes to their past actions to begin a new cycle where they didn't have to repeat the mistakes of their past.

Jean: You can see it in the play, each of these stories the inspector draws out of the characters is kind of like a cycle of its own, which in literature is called a cyclical structure. The play is a cycle of Eva trying to create a better life for herself, being disappointed or punished, then not getting the support she needs, so having to start over again.

Carl: Eva’s life is a cycle of events, she gets knocked down and tries again, over and over and over again until unfortunately, she dies. The play itself also has a cyclical structure. It starts and ends with an investigation into the young woman who has taken her own life. And the older Birlings go right back to avoiding responsibility as they did at the start of the play.

Jean: Sheila and Eric have learned something from their mistakes and act differently to break the cycle.

Extract:
Birling: Now listen, you two. If you're still feeling on edge, then the least you can do is to keep quiet. Leave this to us. I'll admit that fellow's antics rattled us a bit. But we've found him out – and all we have to do is to keep our heads. Now it's our turn.
Sheila: Our turn to do – what?
Mrs Birling: (sharply) To behave sensibly, Sheila – which is more than you're doing.
Eric: ( bursting out) What's the use of talking about behaving sensibly. You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all. And I can't see it like that. This girl's still dead, isn't she? Nobody's brought her to life, have they?
Sheila: (eagerly) That's just what I feel, Eric. And it's what they don't seem to understand.
Eric: whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her. It's still the same rotten story whether it's been told to a police inspector or to somebody else. According to you, I ought to feel a lot better - ( To Gerald.) I stole some money, Gerald, you might as well know - ( As Birling tries to interrupt.) I don't care, let him know. The money's not the important thing. It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters. And I still feel the same about it, and that's why I don't feel like sitting down and having a nice cosy talk.
Sheila: And Eric's absolutely right. And it's the best thing any one of us has said tonight and it makes me feel a bit less ashamed of us. You're just beginning to pretend all over again.\

Carl: The final aspect of this play that we're going to talk about today is language because An Inspector Calls is a play. It's made up of dialogue and stage directions. Priestley wrote the dialogue to be realistic. So there isn't a lot of emphasis on imagery here as you would find in a novel. So instead, there's more of a focus on plain emotive expressions.

Jean: The characters are given lines to perform but then it's them and the director's choice as to how they want to interpret the language and act it out. But Priestley also fills the play with stage directions about how to say things and what needs to be emphasised, to add to the drama of the play.

Carl: There are so many ways to say a line in a play. So Priestley gives some direction. For example, in the first act of the play, Sheila says to Gerald “you be careful” in a response to the idea they will get “too busy for it” when they get married, which can be said in a bunch of different ways. It could be said jokingly or seriously.

Jean: So throughout the play, Priestley specifies how the line should be delivered in the stage directions for that line. Here, he writes that it should be said in a half playful, half serious way.

Carl: Foreshadowing

Jean: Foreshadowing is to suggest what's going to happen in the future. At the start of the play, we don't know that Gerald had an affair, or that Sheila had already suspected it. So the stage directions half playful half serious gives a very early hint to the audience members who are really paying attention that something's not quite right with Sheila and Gerald.

Carl: All the dramatic choices that precede makes it so the form, the structure and the language of An Inspector Calls have a real impact on how the audience experiences the play.

We go deeper into that in the next episode. We're going to talk about dramatisation and all the different ways the play could be performed.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to hear all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.

Jean: In the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.

It’s important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, an author and ancient historian.

Carl: I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist.

Jean: In this episode, we're going to be looking at dramatisation which is the technical word for how the play would have been performed. It's important to remember that this is a play and plays are written to be performed and watched not necessarily read.

Carl: An Inspector Calls is a play. Priestley wrote it knowing that the directors and actors would develop it further and bring it to life.

Jean: He knew that they would enhance the way the story is told with costumes, lighting, scenery, and a bunch of different technical and artistic choices. Those choices would have a real influence on how the audience would react to the play. So today, we're going to focus on casting, performance and staging and maybe you could think a little bit about how you would like to cast, perform or stage this play.

Carl: In the very first page in the stage directions, Priestley outlines who the characters are, and he's pretty specific about the age, appearance and demeanour.

Jean: He writes that Mr Birling is:

Carl: A heavy looking, rather portentous man in his middle 50s with fairly easy manners, but rather provincial in his speech.

Jean: Portentous is a description of him being a serious man, but the provincial speech shows him as not being sophisticated. Priestley says that Mrs Birling is:

Carl: About 50, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior.

Jean: But the character that has the most detailed description is the inspector:

Carl: The inspector need not be a big man, but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity, and purposefulness. He's a man in his 50s dressed in a plain dark suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily, has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking.

Jean: Because the inspector is one of the most important characters in the play, his casting is particularly important.

Carl: While Priestley gives us a description, casting is often up to interpretation. So in some performances of An Inspector Calls, Inspector Goole can be very confrontational, taking charge and shouting accusations at the Birlings.

Jean: In other interpretations he's softer and more sympathetic. Casting is key. But every director and performance can interpret it differently. So it's worth having a think about some of the different ways that different actors might have interpreted and performed the role of each character. The essentials can be given different shades of meaning through the actors’ choices.

Carl: Okay, that's casting done. Let's move on to the next dramatic choice - staging.

Jean: Like casting, Priestley gives directions for how the performers and directors could stage the play, but it's ultimately up to their interpretation.

Carl: On the first page of the script, Priestley provides pretty clear instructions about how the play should be staged. In some ways, staging is quite simple. The whole story takes place in real time and in one location, which is the Birling dining room.

Extract:
The dining room is of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer…Edna, the parlourmaid, is just clearing the table, which has no cloth, of the dessert plates and champagne glasses,etc, and then replacing them with decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes. Port glasses are already on the table… All five are in evening dress of the period, the men in tails and white ties, not dinner-jackets.

Jean: We should say that the presence of cigars and cigarettes is really relevant to this era to paint an accurate picture because this was long before public health messages about smoking. Priestley gives a whole list of props and the stage directions for each act of the play.

Carl: You can have the dining table centred downstairs during act one when it's needed there and then swinging back can reveal the fireplace back for act three. You can show a small table with a telephone.

Jean: And one of the stage directions immediately tells us a lot about the play when Priestley describes the Birling home as heavily comfortable but not cosy and home-like. It's a beautiful house but it's not supposed to feel like a warm and cosy home, which gives the audience their first insight into what the family who lives there is like. Mr And Mrs Birling are very concerned with appearances over pretty much everything else.

Carl: You can use that to describe the whole family as comfortable but not cosy. They are wealthy and from the outside are quite successful. But the reality is they're not a perfect happy family at all.

Jean: No, they are not. And another way the staging reflects the themes that Priestley wanted to explore in his play can be seen in the stage directions. He writes about the lighting of the stage. He says that:

Carl: the lighting should be pink and intimate until the inspector arrives. Then it should be brighter and harder. Because at the start of the play, they're having a private family dinner, which is reflected in the pink intimate light, but then when the inspector comes to interrogate them, and shine a light on who they really are, the lighting becomes brighter and harder.

Jean: Like an interrogation room.

Carl: But like most dramatisation choices, the staging is up to interpretation in Priestley’s stage directions. He acknowledges that the set doesn't have to be realistic.

Jean: Different productions of the play have taken different creative choices with their staging. Some directors have set the play in an industrial area, and another performance set the stage to include an outside area to show Eva Smith acting out her life.

Carl: There's even one performance that built a set of the Birling’s house onto the stage and then had it burst into smoke and flames.

Jean: Finally, performance. Because plays are meant to be performed, not just written.

Before each performance the director and actors make their own choices about how each character, stage direction and idea should be performed. They read the stage directions to see how Priestley originally imagined each scene, but then they put their own spin on it.

Carl: The actors and the director will discuss each character's motivation, which is why a character behaves in the way they do. And they'll use that to inform how they perform each line.

Jean: The director will consider the different themes in the play and might choose to emphasise some and pay less attention to others. For example, if the director was really interested in class, they might make the Birling’s costumes even fancier. Or if they were really focused on gender, they might get the men in the play to speak over the women in the play more.

Carl: Like with all of the dramatisation choices, the performance of the play is all up to each individual director and the actors’ interpretations. So when you're reading the play, be sure to think about all the different ways each line and stage direction could be interpreted.

Jean: Watch any interpretations of a play that are available to you in person or online, because seeing them read the lines out loud and act out each scene will help you to understand the characters and themes that little bit better.

Carl: The next episode of this podcast will be going back in time to 1912 and 1945 to tell you more about the context of An Inspector Calls.

Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast.

Carl: We’ve still got a lot more to discuss. So have a listen to the other episodes to find out more about Inspector Calls and other books in the English literature podcast series.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to hear all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.

Jean: In the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.

It’s important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, an author and ancient historian.

Carl: I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist.

Jean: In this episode, we're going to be looking at England during the time An Inspector Calls was written.

Carl: The interesting thing to note about An inspector Calls is that while the story is set in 1912, it was written over 30 years later and was first performed in 1945. The setting is a lot different to the world in which Priestley wrote in.

Jean: What happened in 1912?

Carl: The United Kingdom was just coming out of the Victorian era, women in didn't have the right to vote yet. And while there had been some reforms for people living in poverty, Britain was still a pretty individualistic society. So people just looked after themselves and their families and there wasn't really a strong sense of social responsibility. The government wasn't doing much to help people in need.

Jean: You can see the values of that era reflected in the characters.

Carl: The Birlings are somewhere between middle class and upper class. They're a family that has beautiful candlelit dinners, talk about business and politics, but you get the sense that their lives aren't that affected by the world around them. In fact, let's step back into their family dinner to find out more.

Extract:
Sheila: Yes, go on, mummy. You must drink our health.
Mrs Birling: (smiling) Very well, then. Just a little, thank you.(to Edna, who is about to go, with tray.) all right, Edna. I'll ring from the drawing room when we want coffee. Probably in about half an hour.
Edna: (going) Yes, ma'am. (Edna goes out. They now have all the glasses filled. Birling beams at them and clearly relaxes.)
Birling: Well, well – this is very nice. Very nice. Good dinner too, Sybil. Tell cook from me.
Gerald: (politely) Absolutely first class.

Jean: So they seem pretty content and relaxed.

Carl: Yes, they are. It's 1912 and it's a good time to be in business. There's stuff going on in the background of the Birlings’ lives like labour reforms and rumours about the First World War. But the Birlings themselves are not too concerned because they believe that their wealth protects them from the harsh realities of the world. Unlike Eva.

Extract:
Birling: …And we're in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity.
Gerald: I believe you're right, sir.
Birling: …Now you three young people, just listen to this – and remember what I’m telling you now. In twenty or thirty year's time – let's say, in 1940 – you may be giving a little party like this – your son or daughter might be getting engaged – and I tell you, by that time you'll be living in a world that'll have forgotten all these capital versus labour agitations…

Carl: World War One started in 1914, two years after Mr. Birling called the idea of war “fiddle sticks,” which is a good example of what is known as dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters don't. Another good example of dramatic irony is where Mr. Birling describes an exciting new ship that's just been built as “unsinkable.” And that ship would go on to be the Titanic, which of course would go on to sink in the spring of 1912, on a voyage between the United Kingdom and New York.

Jean: Priestley uses dramatic irony to discredit Mr. Birling’s views and by extension, the type of man that he represents. Priestley is basically telling us that old businessmen who think they know everything, actually don't.

Carl: This irony is enhanced when Mr. Birling calls his children “the famous younger generation who know it all.”

Jean: The play is set in 1912. But it was written and first performed much later in 1945, and a lot had changed by then.

Jean: In 1945, Britain was a whole different country to what it had been in 1912. The country had gone through World War One and World War Two. Two wars that changed so much about British society.

Carl: When men left to fight the wars, women stepped in to do the work needed to keep the country afloat during the wars which led them to win the right to vote.

Jean: Then the government created laws and reforms to look after people living in poverty, which helped them get better access to healthcare, gave them support while trying to find a job and made it so that they had better living conditions. That's when the NHS was invented.

Carl: It completely changed the class structure.

Jean: During the war, everyone, both rich and poor had to ration food and clothes. There was a bit of a black market, that meant some people had access to luxury goods. But generally all the classes were eating and dressing the same.

Carl: They were also fighting side by side. And so the class barriers that had existed in 1912 started to break down, not totally, but just a little bit. Let's fast-forward to when the play was first performed.

Jean: By 1945, there were more British women in the workplace, and there was more movement when it came to people going up and down from working to middle class.

Carl: So when the audience of 1945 went to the theatre, to see Inspector Calls for the first time, it must have felt like going back in time a little bit.

Jean: It was 30 years later. The values and social structures had changed a lot. That's why Priestley set the play in the past.

Carl: The characters in the play had no idea about how much the world would change. So Priestley uses them to make important points about what life used to look like to remind the audience how important it is not to go back to old ways, and how they acted back then, in the 1910s.

Extract:
Inspector: …Well, Eva Smith's gone. You can't do her any more harm. And you can't do her any good now, either. You can't even say “I'm sorry, Eva Smith.”
Sheila: (who is crying quietly) That's the worst of it.
Inspector: But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other…

Jean: So the play is like a reminder to keep looking after each other because life could be so much worse for the Eva Smiths of the world, if people forget what they learned during the wars. It's a story about how caring for one another and having a sense of social responsibility benefits everyone.

Carl: That's right. Priestley uses characters like Mr Birling to show the audience what middle class snobbery and ignorance looked like before the World Wars. And to highlight just how cold and thoughtless that behaviour was, and in fact still is right up to the modern day.

Extract:
Birling: …But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense…

Jean: That speech would have sounded ridiculous to a post war audience, because they’d just seen how important it was to look after each other during the war.

Carl: At the end of the play, they're not the same versions of themselves that they were at the start of this dinner. At least Sheila, Eric and Gerald aren’t. These characters had an experience that changed them.

Jean: The audience who had been around before the war, and then lived through the war up until 1945, would have felt the same way. They weren't the same people they had been before the war had changed every part of their lives.

Carl: That's one of the key reasons that Priestley set the play in the past. To contrast the values of 1912 when compared to the values 1945. JB Priestley was a social commentator, which means he wrote stories that commented on the politics and society around him.

Jean: He was also a socialist, which means that he believed that things like health care, housing and welfare should be managed by the government in order to do the best for the most people.

Carl: Things like the NHS and state schools are run by the government.

Jean: Although the NHS wasn't founded until a couple of years after the play was written. Priestley believed that it was everybody's responsibility to help the most disadvantaged people in society, and that was something he campaigned for in his own life.

Carl: He's the opposite of Mr Birling. Remember that speech Mr. Birling gave at the start of the play to remind the audience of what life was like in 1912. By the end of it, Eric has learned just how wrong his father is.

Extract:
Eric: Yes, and do you remember what you said to Gerald and me after dinner, when you were feeling so pleased with yourself? You told us that a man has to make his own way, look after himself and mind his own business, and that we weren't to take any notice of these cranks who tell us that everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together. Do you remember? Yes – and then one of those cranks walked in – the Inspector. (laughs bitterly.) I didn't notice you told him that it's every man for himself.

Carl: It's like Priestley started the play with that speech so he could spend the rest of the play proving just how wrong Mr. Birling was. This is something known as straw man fallacy or a straw man argument. You take another person's argument or point of view, and then you distort it and exaggerate it in some sort of extreme way to create what is known as a straw man. And then you go on to attack that extreme distortion as if that's really the claim the first person was making.

Jean: The play is Priestley's way of encouraging the audience of 1945 to put the lessons they learned in the war into practice, so they can build a better, more caring society.

Carl: While it cannot be described as a hopeful play, by the end of it, you get a sense that at least some of the characters within it, have begun to learn their lesson. Maybe the audience will too.

Carl: In the next episode, we will be doing a recap quiz to test just how much you learned.

Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast. Don't forget you can listen back to this or any of the episodes at any time to help your revision on BBC Sounds.

Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to hear all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.

Jean: In the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the text you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.

It’s important to let you know that in this podcast, there will be discussions of suicide and sexual abuse.

Carl: In this series, we're going all the way back to 1912 and into a fictional town in the Midlands called Brumley to explore JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls.

Jean: I’m Jean Menzies, an author and ancient historian.

Carl: I'm Carl Anka, an author and journalist.

Jean: In this episode, we're going to be testing everything we've learned so far with a recap quiz. Are you ready?

Carl: Question one. What is the name of the inspector that shows up at the Birling’s dinner party:
A. Inspector Brumley
B. Inspector Renton
C. Inspector Google

It's C. Inspector Google. Now a good way to remember this is to think about how at the end of the play, the characters aren't sure if the inspector was a real person, or a ghostly ghoul. You can listen back to episode two, about the all the characters in this play.

Jean: Question number two:

Extract:
Inspector: But just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.

Jean: What key theme is most prominent in this extract?
A. Gender
B. Class
C. Social responsibility

And the answer is C. Social responsibility. This is a quote from the inspector before his final exit, where he tells the characters that each action they take can have an effect on somebody else. It's his way of reminding the characters and audience that we are all connected and have a responsibility to look after each other. If you want a quick recap on the themes of the play, including social responsibility, then go back to episode four, where we talk about each of the key themes.

Carl: Which of these genres does the play not fall into? Which one is the odd one out? Is An Inspector Calls…
A. A well-made play
B. A morality play
C. A crime thriller
D. An immersive play

Remember, I'm looking for the odd one out.

Have you spotted the one that should not be there? Because the answer is D. An Inspector Calls is a well-made play, a crime thriller and a morality play. But it is not an immersive play. So if you go and watch the play, please do not feel any reason to get up and enter the Birling’s dining room.

Jean: In the final act of the play, it's revealed that Eric stole money to try to help Eva Smith. But where did he steal the money from?
A. Sheila's savings
B. His father's business
C. Gerald's bank
D. His mother's charity

If you answered B. His father's business then you would be correct. Eric doesn't really have a career of his own and spends most of his money on alcohol. So the fastest way he thought he could get money to help Eva and their unborn baby was to steal from his father's business. Eva refuses the money because of where it came from. To learn more about Eric and how he grows up over the course of the play listen to episode three about him, Gerald and Sheila.

Carl: Next question.

Extract:
Eric: whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her. It's still the same rotten story whether it's been told to a police inspector or to somebody else. According to you, I ought to feel a lot better - ( To Gerald.) I stole some money, Gerald, you might as well know - ( As Birling tries to interrupt.) I don't care, let him know. The money's not the important thing. It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters. And I still feel the same about it, and that's why I don't feel like sitting down and having a nice cosy talk.
Sheila: And Eric's absolutely right. And it's the best thing any one of us has said tonight and it makes me feel a bit less ashamed of us.

Carl: What does this extract teach us about how Sheila and Eric’s transformation over the course of the play?
A. That when the play ends, they're worried about the rumours that might come out about them
B. That when the play ends, Sheila and Eric have taken responsibility for their actions and now they can't go back to how they used to be
C. That she and Eric are embarrassed that the inspector told their parents about what they did to Eva Smith

The answer to this question is Option B. When the play ends, Sheila and Eric have taken responsibility for their actions, for the most part, and they can't go back to how they used to be. An Inspector Calls is a morality play, which is a type of play where a number of characters confess that what they did was wrong, and become better people through this. Priestley showed us his hopes for the younger generation. To learn more about morality plays and the form, structure and language of the play, go back and listen to episode five.

Jean: The inspector gets Sheila to reveal that she got Eva Smith fired from her job at a clothes shop. But what did she tell the manager that Eva had done to get her fired?
A. Eva hadn't let her try on the dress
B. Eva had been impertinent to her
C. Eva had refused to give her a jacket in another colour

And the answer is number two, Sheila lied and accused Eva of being impertinent, which means rude and disrespectful to get Eva fired. But really, Sheila was just jealous of Eva and resented her for looking better in that dress. To learn more about Sheila and how she changes over the course of the play, head on over to episode three to learn more about the characters in the play.

Carl: In what year was An Inspector Calls set?
A. 1908
B. 1912
C. 1945

The answer is B. 1912. The play was set just before the First World War, but was first performed in 1945, after both the First and Second World War, which would have had a really significant influence on what the first audience thought about it. Be sure to go back and listen to episode seven to learn more about the context of the play if you need more information.

Extract:
The way some of these cranks talk. And right now you think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive. Community, all that nonsense. But take my word for it. And I've learned in the good old Harvard School of Experience. A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own.

Jean: Which character said this?
A. Inspector Goole
B. Gerald Croft
C. Mr Birling

And the answer is C. Mr Birling. He says this to Eric and Gerald right at the start of the play, just before the inspector knocks at the door. Goole spends the rest of the play proving him wrong. So it's definitely one to try and remember. For a quick recap of the plot of the play, you can go back and listen to episode number one.

Extract:
The dining room is of a fairly large suburban house, belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. It has a good solid furniture of the period. The general effect is a substantial and heavily comfortable but not cosy and homelike

Carl: What do these stage directions not tell us about the Birling family?
A. Their house is very comfortable
B. They are working class
C. The house doesn't feel like a home

B. They are working class. The Burling family are not working class. They’re upper-middle class. Their house is very comfortable, but it doesn't really feel like a home which tells us a lot about the characters and what the family is like. To learn more about what's stage directions and props tell you about the play, why not go and listen to episode six, which is all about dramatisation.

Jean: Final question: Gerald comes back to the dining room to tell the family that he has a theory about the inspector. What is that theory?
A. The inspector was supposed to interview their next door neighbours.
B. The inspector had written a fake diary and said it was Eva’s
C. The inspector was not a real inspector
D. The inspector had been hired by his parents to end his engagement.

And the answer is C, that the inspector wasn't a real inspector. And when Mr And Mrs Birling and Gerald find out the news, they are more relieved the story won't ruin their reputations than they are that the girl might not have actually died. To find out more about what happens in the final act of the play, go back and listen to episode one to get a recap of the plot.

Carl: And there you have it. That's the end of our recap quiz, and of our series on An Inspector Calls. Thank you so much for listening to the Bitesize English literature podcast all about this fantastic play.

Jean: Remember, you can listen back to any episode at any time on BBC Sounds if you need to.

Carl: And we'll also be exploring some more GCSE literary texts in the Bitesize English podcast, including Macbeth, Jane Eyre, and Blood Brothers. So we hope you join us for more. See you soon