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.

Birling: (raising his glass) So here's wishing the pair of you – the very best that life can bring. Gerald and Sheila. The second reason is that it is a gripping piece of drama that maintains the shape and atmosphere of a thriller. It is a play that demands answers to questions that can only be found by continued watching. As soon as the Inspector walks into that drawing room we are hooked. Who is this girl Eva Smith? Why did she kill herself? Did each member of this family really have a hand in her demise? What did they do? Why did they do it? Who is this Inspector? Is he a real Inspector or someone or something else? And then of course at the very end the telephone rings bringing more questions and questions about questions.Carl: Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about 30 years of age, but very much of the easy well-bred young man about town. Arthur Birling, a self-made businessman, had fired Eva from his factory because she led a strike for higher wages.

Hypocrisy: The Birlings are initially portrayed as a respectable upper-class family, but as the play progresses, their actions reveal them to be hypocritical. They preach high moral standards but fail to live up to them, illuminating the hypocrisy prevalent in the upper classes of society. When considering who is responsible for this helpless waif’s death Esther Summerson tells Mr Skimpole that ‘everybody is obliged to be’. In An Inspector Calls Priestley does not treat it as an obligation, but as an imperative: 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? 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.

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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. Birling: (terrified now) Look Inspector, you're not trying to tell us that – that my boy – is mixed up in this - ?