The family is visited by a man calling himself Inspector Goole, who questions the family about the suicide of a young working-class woman, Eva Smith ( also known as Daisy Renton ).

Inspector Goole arrives and explains that a woman called Eva Smith killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant.

After prompting from Goole, she admits to recognizing Eva as well.

Sybil enters the room and Goole continues his interrogation, revealing that Eva was also known as Daisy Renton.

Goole reveals that Gerald had installed Eva as his mistress, and gave her money and promises of continued support before ending the relationship.

Goole identifies Sybil as the head of a women's charity to which Eva / Daisy had turned for help.

Eric enters the room, and after brief questioning from Goole, he breaks down, admitting that he drunkenly forced Eva to have sex and stole £ 50 from his father's business to pay her off when she became pregnant.

A mysterious interrogator who introduces himself as " Inspector Goole ", claiming that he has seen the dead body of Eva / Daisy earlier that day after her slow and painful suicide by swallowing disinfectant, and that he has “ a duty ” to investigate the Birlings ’ responsibility for her death.

Throughout the play, it is suggested that Goole knows everything about Eva / Daisy ’ s life and the Birlings ’ involvement in her death, and is interrogating the family solely to reveal their guilt rather than to discover unknown information.

In Goole ’ s final speech, Eva Smith is referred to as a representative for millions of other vulnerable working class people, and can be read as a call to action for English society to take more responsibility for working class people, pre-figuring the development of the post World War II welfare state.

Alastair Sim starred as Inspector Goole, renamed " Poole " for the film, with Jane Wenham as Eva Smith, Eileen Moore as Sheila Birling, Arthur Young as Arthur Birling, Brian Worth as Gerald Croft, Olga Lindo as Sybil Birling and Bryan Forbes as Eric Birling.

Both during and after his interrogation of the family, the Birlings query whether he is actually a real inspector, and a phone call made by Arthur to the local police station reveals that there is no Inspector Goole in the local police force.

The struggle between the embattled patriarch Arthur Birling and Inspector Goole has been interpreted by many critics as a symbolic confrontation between capitalism and socialism, and arguably demonstrates Priestley's Socialist political critique of the selfishness and moral hypocrisy of middle-class capitalist society.

The play had its first English production in 1946 at the New Theatre in London with Ralph Richardson as Inspector Goole, Harry Andrews as Gerald Croft, Margaret Leighton as Sheila Birling, Julian Mitchell as Arthur Birling, Marian Spencer as Sybil Birling and Alec Guinness as Eric Birling.

The original production featured Kenneth Cranham as Inspector Goole ( later played by Barry Foster and Philip Whitchurch ), Richard Pasco as Arthur Birling ( later played by Julian Glover, Edward Peel and William Gaunt ), Barbara Leigh Hunt as Sybil Birling ( later played by Judy Parfitt, Margaret Tyzack and Marjorie Yates ), Diana Kent as Sheila Birling ( later played by Sylvestra Le Touzel ) and Louis Hillyer as Gerald Croft.

Kenneth Cranham recreated his role as Inspector Goole with Philip Bosco as Arthur Birling and Rosemary Harris ( later Siân Phillips ) as Sybil Birling.

Daldry returned to re-direct the production and casting includes Nicholas Woodeson returning to the role of Inspector Goole ( he previously took over that role from Kenneth Cranham during the same production's Broadway run in 1994 ) and David Roper as Arthur Birling, Sandra Duncan as Sybil Birling, Marianne Oldham as Sheila Birling, Robin Whiting as Eric Birling, Timothy Watson as Gerald Croft and Diana Payne Myers as Edna.

The play starred Tom Mannion as Inspector Goole, Karen Archer as Sybil Birling, Geoff Leesley as Arthur Birling, John Sackville as Gerald Croft, Kelly Hotten as Sheila Birling, Henry Gilbert as Eric Birling and Janie Booth as Edna.

In 1979, a Soviet made-for-television two-part film Инспектор Гулл ( Inspector Gull )) was produced, starring Juozas Budraitis as Gull ( Goole ), Vladimir Zeldin as Arthur Birling and Ivars Kalniņš as Gerald Croft.

Bernard Hepton starred as Inspector Goole, and the cast included Sarah Berger as Sheila Birling, Nigel Davenport as Arthur Birling, Simon Ward as Gerald Croft, Margaret Tyzack as Sybil Birling and David Sibley as Eric Birling.

On 14 July 2007 BBC Radio 7 broadcast an adaptation by John Foley originally aired on the BBC World Service, starring Bob Peck as Inspector Goole, John Woodvine as Arthur Birling and Maggie Steed as Sybil Birling.

Ian Arthur Cawsey ( born 14 April 1960 ) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Brigg and Goole from 1997 until his defeat at the 2010 general election.

The unseen working class woman who Goole claims has committed suicide whilst pregnant with Eric Birling's baby, and who has been mistreated by each member of the Birling family and by Gerald Croft.

The children interact freely with Goole and Edna, but are only occasionally seen by the Birlings themselves, who inevitably become disturbed by their presence and look away or else ignore them.

There was a late burst of wide-waterway building ( e. g. the Caledonian Canal, and the Manchester Ship Canal ), and of invention and innovation by people such as Bartholomew of the Aire and Calder company, who conceived the trains of nineteen coal-filled " Tom Pudding " compartment boats that were pulled along the Aire and Calder Navigation from the Yorkshire coalfields, and lifted bodily to upturn their contents directly into seagoing colliers at Goole Docks ( their descendants, Hargreaves ' tugs pushing three coal-pans trains to be upended into hoppers at the Aire power stations lasted as late as 2004 ).

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway ( LMS ), who had absorbed the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, bought 13 steam railcars in 1926 and 1927, one of which was allocated to Goole shed for work on the Axholme Joint Railway.

Jamie Darren Noon ( born 9 May 1979 in Goole ) is a rugby union footballer who plays at centre for CA Brive.

As the leader of a women's charitable organisation, she assumes a social and moral superiority over Inspector Goole, whose questioning style she frequently refers to as " impertinent " and " offensive ".

Despite continual criticism from her father, she becomes more rebellious toward her parents, supporting her brother against them and assisting Goole in his interrogations.

By the end of the play, she represents the younger generation's protests against the morality of the older generation and seems the most responsive to Goole ’ s Socialist views about moral responsibility towards others.

Edna appears to share a sense of complicity with Goole, inviting him closer to the house and smiling occasionally when the secrets of the family are revealed, but she makes no comment on the action.

During the construction of the two railways, three contractors locomotives worked on the Goole and Marshland Railway, and four on the Isle of Axholme Light Railway.

The last two Barton Wright 0-6-0 locomotives left Goole shed in December 1950 for Wakefield and all of the seven Ivatt locomotives are thought to have worked on the line.

Prior to the bridge opening, commuters would go from one bank to the other either by using the ferry that ran between Hull and New Holland, Lincolnshire or driving via the M62, M18 and M180 motorways, crossing the River Ouse near Goole ( connected to the Humber ) in the process.

The Goole and Marshland Light Railway was one of the first to take advantage of the new Act.

Only one of the Ivatt 2-6-0 locomotives was left at Goole by mid-1962.

Sundays have an hourly service to Doncaster, a two-hourly service to Leeds and also Goole ( as an extension of alternate Doncaster trains ) and either one or two trains per hour to Sheffield.

Goole station is mentioned in the song " Slow Train " by Flanders and Swann about various closed lines on the British railway network. No one departs, no one arrives, From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives. The Selby to Goole Line which opened in 1910, ran via the villages of Rawcliffe, Drax & Barlow until its closure in 1964.

The lines to Leeds via Castleford and Wakefield Kirkgate separate immediately west of the station, which was opened by the Wakefield, Pontefract & Goole Railway ( one of the constituent companies of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ) in April 1848.

Only one train a day now runs through to Goole.

There is an hourly service from Knottingley to both the nearby cities of Leeds and Wakefield ( Kirkgate ) via Pontefract Monkhill with one train to / two trains from Goole each weekday.