Beyond Midnight: The Signalman (Episode Information and MP3 of the Show)

This episode of Beyond Midnight is based on Charles Dickens’ short story about a signalman who works on a lonely stretch of track and is haunted by a strange and sinister spectre.

“The Signalman” is a very spooky story, the Beyond Midnight team did a great job of bringing it to life, and I love the sound effects: howling wind, birdsong and the puffing of steam trains.

In Dickens’ original story the man who becomes the signalman’s friend and confidant is never identified, but in the Beyond Midnight dramatization, the man introduces himself as Charles Dickens, which may perhaps give the listener the impression that the work is based on a true story. It is not, but Dickens did write the story after he survived The Staplehurst Railcrash (1865), so it seems probable that the experience may have provided a certain amount of inspiration for the story.

Beyond Midnight Radio Show: The Signalman

(Listen to the Full Episode)