HOMEWORK PROJECT: An Inspector Calls

TASK ONE: J.B. PRIESTLEY’S LIFE

Find out at least ten facts or pieces of information about J.B.
Priestley, the writer of ‘An Inspector Calls’ . PUT THEM IN YOUR
OWN WORDS: NO CUT AND PASTE! Name the website from
which you got the information.

It can be a detailed paragraph or a series of bullet points – BUT the

information needs to be sorted into some sort of order, e.g.
chronological or grouped by theme (early life, education and
employment, writing career, interests, etc.) or importance.

Sets 1-3 should get the information from more than one website and name
the websites. They should use this (a) to check the information and (b) to
gain extra information.

TASK TWO: THE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND TIMELINE

Find out the answers to the following and present it as a TIMELINE.

Below is an example of a timeline about the history of litter! Use it as
a model. If you want a good ‘effort’ and ‘presentation’ mark, you
could include some pictures or other graphics.

Set 1 should find examples of other events that made life difficult for
working class people in the same period.
Sets 2- 5 should do all the questions.
Sets 6 & 7 can do just eight of the questions.

Include the answers to the following information:

a) When was the play ‘An Inspector Called’ first performed?

b) When did the First World War start and end?
c) When did the Titanic sink?
d) In what year(s) between 1910 and 1950 was there a miners’
strike(s) in Britain?
e) When was there a GENERAL strike?
f) In what year in Britain were women over 21 given the right to
vote in an election
 g) When was the Wall Street Crash which led to the worldwide
economic ‘depression’?
h) When did the Second World War start and end?
i) List three other important events that made the news in Britain
between 1910 and 1913.
j) Find out roughly when THE WELFARE STATE was
introduced in Britain (and in brackets, say what it means).

TASK THREE: SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND Continued.

Set 1 do all the below, or do 100 words each on just two of the questions.
Sets 2 – 3 do any six questions or 100 words on each of two.
Sets 4 -5 do any four questions or 100 words on just one.
Sets 6 -7 do any four questions.
a) Find out what J B Priestley did during the First World War.
Be specific. What did he think about it?

b) Find out what SOCIALISM means (or what a SOCIALIST is).

What do SOCIALISTS believe?

c) Find out what would happen to people who were unemployed

in Britain between 1900 and 1912 (the dates don’t have to be
exact). What were their lives like?

d) Find out what people got paid a week or month in some typical
jobs in about 1912 (e.g. factory workers, policemen, miners,
etc.)

e) Find out a few things about MUSIC HALLS including the

performers, the buildings and the audience types.

f) Find out what is meant by the term ‘WELL MADE PLAY’.

g) Find out the meanings of the following words.

Portentous
Hypocrite
Provincial speech
‘New Money’
Community
Society

TASK FOUR (Two weeks) : Your own script

(See end for what each set should achieve)

Choose a moment in your life – real or imaginary – when you
misused the power you had over someone. (It could be physical
power, age power or something else.) Or just an occasion when you
treated someone carelessly or badly. Imagine that some time later the
‘victim’ goes missing and a police inspector turns up to see you : he
or she has had a ‘tip-off’ that you had some sort of connection with
the person concerned.
Write the script for the ‘interview’. At first your character should be
very laid –back about it, maybe denying any knowledge of the person
or denying that there had been any conflict. However, by the end of
the conversation, the Inspector has not only got you to admit what
you did but has also got you feeling guilty and starting to think that
somehow it might have a connection with their later disappearance.

Set it out like a play. It is up to you if you have any other characters.

E.g.

There is a knock at the door. Chris opens it. A man in an overcoat is

standing there.

CHRIS: (smiling) Can I help you?

INSPECTOR: (serious but polite) Quite possibly.
They stare at one another.
CHRIS: (irritated) Well, how might I be able to help you?
INSPECTOR: I am a police inspector. Here is my warrant.
CHRIS: (more polite, looking round the street) I see. Would you like
to come in?
INSPECTOR (smiling) Thank you , sir.

They go through to the kitchen.

CHRIS: Sit down, Inspector. Sorry, I didn’t catch the name.

INSPECTOR: I didn’t tell you my name….Now, sir. Do you
remember someone called Richard Jones?
CHRIS: Er, Jones? No, I don’t think I …
INSPECTOR (interrupting) You were at school together.
CHRIS: Ah, yes. That rings a bell. Richard Jones. Yes, I think he
might have been in my Geography class.
INSPECTOR: Actually, Physics, I believe.
CHRIS: Well this is all very interesting, but I don’t see…
INSPECTOR: Mr Jones has gone missing, you see. We don’t know
where he might be. Two weeks ago. Family very upset, sir.
CHRIS: Well, that’s a shame, but, as I said, I haven’t seen him since
I was at school, so I don’t see how I can help at all.
INSPECTOR: He talked about you, sir.
CHRIS: He did?
INSPECTOR: Yes, to his best friend. Something about you seemed to
stick in his memory.
CHRIS: (starting to become uneasy) Well, I can’t think why.
Chris starts to fidget with his sleeve.

ETCETERA…

Set 1: Include one or more of the following ideas for how the Inspector
should speak:
- Repeats back things the other person says in a way that makes it
sound suspicious
- Uses emotive language to make the missing person’s situation
sound bad
- Uses imperatives to sound powerful when the other person
disagrees

Sets 2 – 5 should use at least one of the techniques listed above

Sets 6 & 7 should use at least four stage directions