Another festive chiller that stood hand in hand beside some of those creaky M.R. James television adaptations. 'The Signalman' is taken from the 19th century Charles Dickens short story and concerns a troubled signalman who looks after a remote segment of railway. The signalman is befriended by a rambler, and in him confides that he has been seeing a terrible figure by the tunnel entrance that shadows the railway. Initially the rambler scoffs at such spooks and ghouls, but senses that the signalman is clearly disturbed by the alleged apparition. Several terrible tragedies occur on the line near to where the wraith is seen, and its last appearance signals the end for the signalman too, as he is draw to the tunnel by the gaunt, waving figure only to be hit by a passing train.
When this was shown on television as part of the 'Ghost Story for Christmas' it marked a new event in the BBC calendar, such was its festive atmosphere amid those foggy moors and hills. Denholm Elliot is superb as the troubled signalman and this adaptation is wrought with tension and as darkness falls, and the rambler leaves, the signalman is left to his own devices and also the powers of the mind.
Like so many of these adaptations the horrors are subtle, but have all the antiquarian charm of the original tale, and will certainly make the viewer wary of those hidden places of the British countryside. 'The Signalman' was filmed at the Severn Valley Railway, that runs through Worcestershire and Shropshire, and is the perfect setting for this classic ghostly tale.
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