A traveller (Bernard Lloyd) on a walking holiday stumbles on a remote signal box situated low down between two steep hillsides and close to the mouth of a tunnel. Its a dark and shadowy place even in daylight, He decides to take a closer look, The Signalman (Denholm Elliot) is at first very wary of the Traveller, but then invites him in out of the cold. They chat for hours on the dull minutiae of daily life in such a tiresome yet stress filled job, The Traveller questions The Signalman about his initial curious attitude towards him, slowly he apologizes and reveals to him that he had mistaken him for a dark ghostly figure that had called out to him on a few occasions, his presence always heralding a terrible event. The traveller is a learned man and tries to assist his new companion by trying to look at his stories with a modern rational eye, giving him solace from his fears, The Signalman listens intently but his fear remains.
Another in the "Ghost Story for Christmas" series and the first not to have M R James as the inspiration, this is based on a Charles Dickens short story. Dickens himself was a regular traveller by train and was at one point involved in a train crash, his knowledge of the railway shines through in this work. Clark again helms this moody and claustrophobic adaptation and yet again it's a very spooky thought provoking film. Like other films in the series, its slow to get going, but this is a good point as we are treated to plenty of character development that creates a sense of impending doom, as does the eerily delightful location. Andrew Davies script is very faithful to the original story and succeeds in retaining much of its terrifying premises. Denholm Elliot is superb as the nervous and fidgety signalman, whose fear seems very real and we the viewer are left guessing as to his sanity until the very end. Lloyd is also excellent and is the viewers "in" to the story, he poses the questions we want to hear with a quizzical glee. The final reveal of the film may not be surprising but its delightfully done. This series stands as a benchmark in how to make great ghost stories in a visual medium and still retain the atmosphere fear and apprehension of a reader of these works.
