JB Priestley was always haunted by the smugness and hypocrisy of the Edwardian middle classes. In An InspectorCalls he treated the subject polemically. In this earlier play, written in 1938, he tackles it comically. And, even if he rushes to an over-hasty conclusion, it still proves a robustly enjoyable piece, which a critic once accuratelycompared to “a thick high tea”.