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An Inspector Calls

82 replies

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 12/09/2015 20:54

DS will be studying this book this year (I've read it myself years ago) so I'm sure he'll be delighted to watch this on BBC.

Hopefully it follows the book and doesn't wander on track too much.

Love David Thewlis (ever since Prime Suspect 3 where he played the creepy leather clad pimp in leather )

OP posts:
Clawdy · 13/09/2015 22:24

I was uneasy about the flash backs but by the end I was completely won over. The acting was wonderful, and the whole thing was incredibly moving. I've seen several productions of this play over the years, but this was outstanding.

EverydayAnya · 13/09/2015 22:25

Yeh exactly Grin
The kids at school (who groan at the thought of watching something black and white love the ending but it's hard to then get them
Off the 'he's a ghooooost' track

SwedishEdith · 13/09/2015 22:26

Thanks Noeuf I can see the flashbacks do kind of ruin it. Well, not ruin it as still very good. I like this season of dramas.

Girlfriend36 · 13/09/2015 22:27

I enjoyed it, didn't know much about the play other than a vague memory that the inspector was a ghost.

Thought all the actors/ actresses were brilliant.

Would have liked there to be some recognition that there was some of the family that clearly did feel bad and had regret vs the others who even when they realised their implications didn't really give a shit!

Preferred it to Lady C last week.

PigeonPie · 13/09/2015 22:30

We enjoyed it too. I didn't study it for O Level but DH and I went to see a production at the National many years ago. We felt this one made much more sense and was great.

Snoopadoop · 13/09/2015 22:31

I thought it was excellent and superbly acted! It's programmes like this that the BBC does best.

mollyonthemove · 13/09/2015 22:31

DS and I watched it together. We both enjoyed it but he kept talking!!! His main comment is that Mr birling is more affected by his social standing than anything. Flashback irritating but I guess as a TV adaptation they are needed.

SouthWestmom · 13/09/2015 22:33

The ending has,always struck me as odd. Kind of a neat way of finishing on a 'dur dur duuurrrrrr' but not really very meaningful.

Girlfriend36 · 13/09/2015 22:39

I would have preferred the ending to be that Eric contacted Eva before she topped herself and they all started being a lot nicer and realised the error if their ways Grin but then i do like a happy ending!

OddlyLogical · 13/09/2015 23:06

DS not happy with the ending. It raised too many questions with him about when she killed herself.

Helenluvsrob · 13/09/2015 23:12

Excellent production. Didn't need the morgue bit though we aren't thick ( are we?)

Found the music hugely irritating though !

scatterthenuns · 13/09/2015 23:25

I liked it very much.

I'm not of the school of thought that film/TV adaptations have to mimic the books/text.

I thought, taking it at face value, that it was an entertaining, well produced and interesting story and for that reason it got my thumbs up.

fuzzpig · 14/09/2015 07:48

I liked it and thought they showed the different levels of guilt really well, they showed how the kids felt really disgusted by the parents' delight when they thought nobody had died.

I was confused by the diary bit though, the way the inspector found the diary, and then was sitting by the girl when she actually died... I don't think anything like that could've been in the play, what were they actually getting at with that bit?

fuzzpig · 14/09/2015 08:00

Oh and the Go-Between next week looks really good. I'd never even heard of the book but I've requested it from the library (there's already a queue!)

LIZS · 14/09/2015 08:28

We all enjoyed this . Dd will be studying it and was completely jaw dropped at the end. Agree we didn't need the flashbacks or the end shots, I prefer the tightness of the one set . There are so many ironic overtones to the setting of the play decades before it was written and the social changes in the interim, reflected by the generational differences.

squoosh · 14/09/2015 11:17

Oh poor Eva.

I'd never read the book or seen a previous production so it was all new to me.

squoosh · 14/09/2015 11:20

I am enjoying this series of Sunday night drama adaptations. Feels quite 1970s, in a good way.

Bue · 14/09/2015 13:55

fuzzpig I was really baffled by that bit as well. I've never read/seen the play so had no previous knowledge.

Alfieisnoisy · 14/09/2015 15:07

I think that's just spoon feeding us that he was mysterious, a ghost or time traveller.
It also spoon fed the viewer that he'd read her diary.

SaveOurBogBrushes · 14/09/2015 15:22

So glad to find a bunch of people equally distressed at the flashbacks. The ending felt like they'd let an advertising mogul who adds indie style dramatics to the selling of loo paper loose on it though...

Narp · 14/09/2015 18:17

I've seen the play, and I think it would not have worked as well for a modern audience on TV as the adaptation did.

Really well-acted. My DSs (12 and 15) enjoyed it

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 14/09/2015 19:03

My DS (15.6) just asked "if she's that poor where did she get the money for the poison"?

Seriously DS is that all you took from that? [connfused]

OP posts:
Muskey · 14/09/2015 19:07

He does have a point 70isa Grin

SouthWestmom · 14/09/2015 19:42

Narp think the intensity of being set in one place works really well. With some imagination I think they could have avoided the stupid flashbacks and everyone could have felt very clever, saying 'ahhh he didn't let him see the photo' and 'what if it's not the same girl?' The ending was dreadful and really 'sad'

Clawdy · 14/09/2015 22:15

It wasn't poison, it was disinfectant which burnt her throat out. Anyone could buy that very cheaply.