The film is set in 1912 and follows the events of a single evening on which the wealthy Birling family is holding a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of their daughter.

The festivities are interrupted by a visit from what is taken to be a policeman, Inspector Goole, who is investigating the recent suicide of a local young woman.

Goole’s interrogations of each member of the dinner party make it clear that all of them have contributed to the tragedy through individually unjust, selfish or exploitative behaviour.

After dinner Mr Birling lectures Sheila, Eric and Gerald on the importance of men looking after themselves, which will lead them to a perfect future (which he believes will include a place on the next honours list for him).

Before she left for the tea room, Mrs Birling held up the dress against Eva Smith, who, because of an influenza epidemic, had been able to find employment at Milwards without a reference.

Gerald is noticeably startled, and admits having met a woman by that name in the Palace Bar, a pub well known for being a place for men to pick up prostitutes.

Goole then plays his final card, forcing Mrs Birling to lay the blame on the 'drunken young man' who got Smith pregnant.

Eric then enters, and after brief questioning from Goole, breaks down and admits responsibility for the pregnancy, having raped Alice after a drinking spree at the Palace Bar.

After finding out that she was pregnant, Eric stole £50 (£7,306.83 today) from his father's business in order to support her and their child, but she refused the stolen money and dismissed him.

With a further call to the infirmary confirming that no recent cases of suicide have been reported, the family surmise that the inspector was a fraud and that they have been the victims of a hoax.

The inspector's identity is left unexplained (though a clue is in the name), but it is clear that the family's confessions over the course of the evening have all been true, and that public disgrace will soon befall them.

[citation needed] Like the 1954 version, this adaptation employs flashbacks to the events described (allowing some dialogue to be eliminated), as well as additional scenes showing more of the life and death of Eva, and the Inspector after he leaves the Birlings' home.

[7] For The Daily Telegraph, Anita Singh was generally positive, writing that the programme was 'as good an adaptation as it could be' and praising Helen Edmundson for her 'decent job of expanding the drama'.

[8] The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston was positive in his review, writing that Priestley’s 'play might be set over a hundred years ago, in 1912, but the messages and sentiments – about social responsibility and a shared humanity – remain important and relevant...An Inspector Calls, sensitively adapted here by Helen Edmundson, time-travels remarkably well: it translates into gripping 21st-century television.