CHRISTMAS LEFTOVERS - CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES # 7 - THE SIGNALMAN (1976)

 

DIRECTED by Lawrence Gordon Clark 

SCREENPLAY by Andrew Davies based on the short story "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens

STARRING  - Denholm Elliott as The Signalman,  Bernard Lloyd as The Traveller,  Reginald Jessup as The Engine Driver,  Carina Wyeth as The Bride.

PLOT - A travelling gentleman encounters a lonely Signalman working in a railway cutting. The Signalman seems to be a very troubled individual. The Traveller asks him what is wrong and the Signalman relates to him the stories of a series of tragedies that have occurred at the tunnels mouth. Disturbingly each accident has been prefigured by the appearance of a ghostly spectre yelling the words "helloooo below there". The Signalman now lives in fear of the spectre's next appearance...

DIALOUGE  - The Spectre - "Helloooo....Below there !!!!!!"

PERFORMANCES  - The Signalman is more or less a two-handed piece. Denholm Elliott plays the titular Signalman - a man haunted by a sense of duty and obligation as well as something more sinister and unearthly. Elliott gives a great performance full of sweaty agitated nervous tension. Here is a man who can't relax for a single moment, a man who lives in fear of the sight of the ominous spectre that he knows will herald a forthcoming disaster.

The stoic signalman has seen disaster twice before - first time round it was a horrific train crash that took place in the tunnel (an incident inspired by a real life train crash that Charles Dickens was involved in). The second incident was a young bride falling from a train on her wedding day. These grim events have totally shattered the signalman and Elliott gives a compelling and convincing performance of a man living on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. This is aided in part by the fact that Elliott hadn't had time to fully learn the script, so many of his lines and prompts where stuck to various parts of the set on post-it notes. The scenes where Elliott is glancing nervously around as he relates his tale - you can bet your last pound that he's frantically scanning for his next hastily written down line of dialogue. It's certainly not a conventional way of delivering a performance but it definitely works in this instance.

Bernard Lloyd plays the Traveller who is the audience's viewpoint character - it is through his eyes that we witness the tale that unfolds. We learn very little about the man. We never learn his name or his profession (although he comes across as being an academic of some kind), only that he appears to be taking some kind of break from his everyday life - whether this is just a normal holiday or something a bit more profound we never find out either. Lloyd works well with Elliott and the two form a convincing nascent friendship. As the predestined tragedy unfolds the Traveller seems to become almost as disturbed by events as the Signalman. Lloyd paints a perfect picture of middle-class "stiff upper lip" English resolve becoming - if not shattered - then certainly rattled by an encounter with the supernatural.

SFX - The face of the spectre when its finally revealed is both chilling and memorable...

It's such a striking and iconic image that it was eventually used on the cover of the Ghost Story For Christmas DVD boxset.

We also get a fatal train crash done on  a miniscule BBC budget. This could have been absolutely pathetic in less capable hands than Lawrence Gordon Clark but it works really well. We never actually see the crash - just it's aftermath - the inside of the railway tunnel illuminated by blood red flames accompanied by the screams of the injured and dying. It's a truly nightmarish piece of set design and cinematography.

VIOLENCE  - Aside from the train crash we also get to see the mysterious death of the bride. It's not immediately obvious what she's doing - she seems to be trying to get out of the train carriage whilst it's still moving at top speed. Has she had an argument with her new husband and begun to act hysterically or is she on her way to an arranged marriage of some sort and she's trying to escape ? Needless to say she falls from the train and is killed instantly. Her broken body is carried away to the railway hut to await the arrival of the coroner in yet another memorable image...

Finally we get the death of the Signalman himself (the subject of the phantom's third and final warning) - in a fear filled daze after seeing the ghost again the hapless Signalman runs into the path of an oncoming train and is mowed down. In a scene that echoes the earlier death of the bride the Signalman's corpse is carried back to the railway hut...

The Signalman's death is probably the weakest part to be honest - obviously you weren't going to get full blooded gore on the BBC at Christmas but I do think the Signalman's corpse would be a bit more battered than that after being hit by a speeding train - it just looks like Denholm Elliott's taking a nap.

RATING - Once again Lawrence Gordon Clark delivers an atmospheric and faithful adaptation of a classic literary ghost story. If anything The Signalman is probably the most faithful of the adaptations  - it's literally word for word to the original short story, very few changes have been made. In fact the only major departure from the original I can see is that in the prose version the Signalman is described as having a beard whereas Denholm Elliott's version is clean shaven - THATS how little this version diverges.

I'm giving this adaptation 5 psychic ghosts out of 5. A definite return to form for the series.

ART -