Setting all politics aside, Jackie Morrison finds herself hearing a certain past prime minister as she steps into the shoes of Mrs Birling in J B Priestley’s classic An Inspector Calls.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06to speak to Jackie about, well, it's one of the greatest plays ever, isn't it? An Inspector
00:11Calls, and it's on the road, it's taking in Eastbourne and also Southampton, and you are
00:17the deeply reprehensible Mrs Birling, and you were saying so interestingly now, just now,
00:22that there's sort of, well, an interesting character in the back of your mind as you play this, isn't
00:27that? Yes, well, you know, she's so convincing and her delivery is so strong that, putting politics
00:38aside, this is just to do with a strong woman and delivery, I was thinking of Margaret Thatcher.
00:46She, and I started following an Instagram post called The Grossest Daughter to watch
00:53her delivery, because she was immovable and so convincing with everything she said,
01:01because she utterly believed it, and she wasn't going to do anything other than get her own way,
01:08and she believed that she was 100% true, and that is what Mrs Birling is like. When she's talking
01:17in the Inspector interrogation, she's just, he's wrong and she's right, there's no negotiation.
01:23It's almost that Trump thing of never admit defeat, isn't it?
01:27Never admit defeat, oh gosh, two weeks to go. Anyway, but yes, so it's really, of course,
01:36you have to find the human side in everybody. Yes.
01:41It took me a while in rehearsal, actually, because I'm listening to the girl who's playing
01:45my daughter, Sheila, in the play, thinking, that's really good what she's saying, because
01:52her character starts to sway and realize and questions her behavior and her responsibility
01:58to this girl, Eva Smith. At the beginning of rehearsal, I was thinking, yeah, you're quite
02:04right, and I found it difficult to sound convincing as Mrs Birling, because I thought,
02:11gosh, this is terrible. So what I decided was that she is a prominent member of the Bromley
02:18Women's Charitable Organization, and she feels she does a very good job at supporting and helping
02:27women who need assistance and help. She's so convinced she's doing the right thing, isn't she?
02:34And she believes she is. It's high status, that's what she always likes to be, high status,
02:40and dealing with, you know, lower classes. She talks about class a lot,
02:47but she wants to help them in some way. And so that's what she feels she's doing,
02:51and it just so happens that she feels she did her duty in making the decision she makes
02:57about whether to help this girl or not. But people have to come and see it.
03:02Absolutely.
03:03See what?
03:03And it's nearly 80 years old, the play, isn't it? It's obviously British.
03:0770, 70.
03:0970. That's my key maths. But the point is, however old it is, it's utterly timeless,
03:16isn't it, in the moral dilemma it depicts?
03:19It really is.
03:19Or the accusation it levels, doesn't it?
03:22And just the inspector has this speech when he says we are all members of one society. We don't
03:29live alone. We are responsible for each other. I mean, it gives me goose pimples just thinking
03:35about it when he says that. And it's true. And Priestley wrote that in the 1945 or 6 or 7,
03:44I can't remember which, and we're in 2024 and it rings just as true today, maybe even more so.
03:51And is that a blessing then, that Priestley has not been heeded, has he?
03:58Well, I don't know. I just think it's important that it makes people think.
04:05And do you know what? The audiences have been really enjoying it, really listening
04:13and loving the show. It's short. It's not a long show. You'll be out by 20 past nine.
04:19You can go for dinner.
04:21Out with plenty to think about.
04:24Yes, exactly. And I remember when I saw it, I was kind of gobsmacked. It went so quickly,
04:32but you're just, he's like, the inspector's almost like a family therapist that comes in
04:39and starts interrogating each different member of the family and making them question themselves.
04:46And well, you have to come and see it to see what happens in Act Three, but it's exciting.
04:53Eastbourne and Southampton, really lovely.
04:56And I'll never see Mrs. Burling in the same light again.
05:00I know! Come on!
05:03Great to talk to you. Thank you.
05:06Thanks.