Inspector: After about a couple of months, just when she felt she was settling down nicely, they told her she'd have to go. An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945 in two Russian theatres (Moscow's Kamerny Theatre and Leningrad's Comedy Theatre), as a suitable British venue could not be found. [8] [9] Priestley had written the play in a single week and all Britain's theatres had already been booked for the season. [10] The play had its first British production in 1946 at the New Theatre in London with Ralph Richardson as Inspector Goole, Harry Andrews as Gerald Croft, Margaret Leighton as Sheila Birling, Julien Mitchell as Arthur Birling, Marian Spencer as Sybil Birling and Alec Guinness as Eric Birling. [11] York Notes for AQA GCSE (9-1) Rapid Revision: An Inspector Calls - Catch up, revise and be ready for 2021 assessments and 2022 exams Inspector: No, I don't. I know why she needed help. But as I wasn't there, I don't know what she asked from your committee. Birling: Rubbish! If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth.

Priestley, J. B. (1947). An Inspector Calls: A Play in Three Acts (Firsted.). London: Heinemann. OCLC 59564726. Inspector:(cutting in) Never mind about that. You can settle that between you afterwards. (to Sheila.) What happened? Sheila: When I was looking at myself in the mirror I caught sight of her smiling at the assistant, and I was furious with her. I'd been in a bad temper anyhow. Birling: I don't see we need to tell the Inspector anything more. In fact, there's nothing I can tell him. I told the girl to clear out, and she went. That's the last I heard of her. Have you any idea what happened to her after that? Get into trouble? Go on the streets?Inspector: Sometimes there isn't much difference as you think. Often , if it was left to me, I wouldn't know where to draw the line. 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? Birling: (angrily) Inspector, I've told you before, I don't like the tone nor the way you're handling this inquiry. And I don't propose to give you much rope.

Gerald: (distressed) sorry – I – well, I've suddenly realized – taken it in properly – that's she's dead-- In 1986 Richard Wilson directed a production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester with Geraldine Alexander as Sheila Birling, Hugh Grant as Eric Birling and Graeme Garden as Inspector Goole. [15] Birling: (cutting in) Just a minute, Sheila. Now , Inspector, perhaps you and I had better go and talk this over quietly in a corner-- she looks at him almost in triumph. He looks crushed. The doors slowly opens and the Inspector appears, looking steadily and searchingly at them.//

Inspector: (impressively) I'm a police Inspector, Miss Birling. This afternoon a young woman drank some disinfectant, and died, after several hours of agony, tonight in the infirmary. Inspector: ( very deliberately) then the next time you imagine it, just remember that this girl was going to have a child. Sheila: No, not really. It was my own fault. (suddenly, to Gerald) All right, Gerald, you needn't look at me like that. At least, I'm trying to tell the truth . I expect you've done things you're ashamed of too. Gerald : Then it'll be all right. The governor prides himself on being a good judge of port . I don’t pretend to know much about it . Sheila: yes, and it was I who had the girl turned out of her job at Milwards. And I'm supposed to be engaged to gerald. And I'm not a child, don't forget. I've a right to know. Were you in love with her, gerlad ?