The Ghost Train

Author: Arnold Ridley
Director: Richard Bond

The Ghost Train

This famous play set in the 1920’s with its haunted station, stranded passengers, odd station master & strange visitors provides an evening of humour, mystery & suspense. You may have seen the old B&W film, but now here’s an opportunity to see the original play.

Less than 2 miles away is the old Mangotsfield Railway Station, where Arnold Ridley originally conceived the idea, during a four hour wait!

The ghost train and the chocolate factory at Mangotsfield:
A little known story about Mangotsfield concerns Arnold Ridley, the actor who played Private Godfrey in the TV show Dad's Army. Ridley had wanted to be an actor but the injuries he'd suffered in WWI had seemed to put an end to his hopes. Instead he thought he might be a dramatist - all he needed was inspiration.  
One evening, when stranded at Mangotsfield Junction, he heard a train approaching. The sound became louder but no train appeared although his ears told him that it was passing directly in front of him. It was an illusion. Freak acoustics made the sound of trains passing invisibly on another line behind the chocolate factory nearby sound as if they were passing through the station. Ridley turned his experience into a play 'The Ghost Train'. It was a massive West End hit in the 1920s and was made into two films.