DEBORAH’S MUST-WATCH TV CLASSICS

An Inspector Calls (2015) UKTV Play

J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, which is set in 1912 and was first performed in Moscow in 1945, concerns a wealthy industrialist (Mr Birling) and his family being forced to confront their complicity in the death of a destitute local woman. It’s a sort of Murder On The Orient Express – whodunnit? Youalldunnit – as threaded through socialist politics, and while it still stands up, and even felt timely, it was the performances that made this special and made you forget the play-ness of it. (Plays on TV almost always feel like plays.) Ken Stott was blissfully monstrous as the greedy Mr Birling, while Miranda Richardson, as his snobbish wife, well… could you take your eyes off her? Same with David Thewlis, left, as the mysterious Inspector Goole, who may or may not exist.