The Ghost Train (Part 2 of 7) - Claude Hulbert & Arnold Ridley (1951)

Description

The Ghost Train (Part 2 of 7) - Claude Hulbert & Arnold Ridley (1951) "It b'aint no pretty story"! Written by Arnold Ridley (best known today as Godfrey in Dad's Army) in 1923. In 1925, Arnold Ridley's theatre company went bust, and in a way to clear his debts, he sold his rights to the play, for reportedly £300 and never made a penny from it afterwards. The play was first performed at the Eltinge Theatre. Ridley was inspired to write it after becoming stranded overnight at Mangotsfield railway station in Bristol, a now disused station on the Midland Railway main line. It took him only a week to complete, but it played to packed houses at St Martin's Theatre for two years and became a staple of the British theatre for many years to come. The plot revolves around a party of passengers who find themselves stranded in the waiting room of an isolated station. The station master tries to get them to leave citing the local legend of a ghost train that dooms all who see it to death. It is revealed later in the plot that the train is in fact smuggling arms and the story has been concocted to frighten away strangers. The play was very unusual for its time in using elaborate special-effects to simulate a train running through the station, such as garden-rollers running over wooden laths, thunder sheets, etc. Ridley later wrote a sequel called The Wrecker, which ends in a rail crash using similarly spectacular special effects, but it was not a great success. First staged in 1924 <b>...</b>

Keywords

arnold, ridley, ghost, train, claude, hulbert, hector, ross, jessie, evans, vintage, radio, comedy, drama

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