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Ghostly goings-on at Grantham's Guildhall with St Peter's Hill Players




A near-full house enjoyed the opening night of St Peter's Hill Players' latest production 'The Ghost Train' at the Guildhall Arts Centre theatre last Thursday night.

The 1920s Arnold Ridley comedy-thriller is considered something of a 'modern' classic, most famously adapted for the big screen in 1941 as an anti-Nazi propaganda film starring Arthur Askey.

The plot revolves around a disparate collection of train passengers who find themselves stranded at a remote railway station after they miss their connection, with only station master Saul Hodgkin (Gary Cadwallader) for company.

The Ghost Train cast are, from left - Haydn Raado, Verity Connor, Hugh Butterworth, Heather Butterworth, Paul Keenan, Deborah Hart, Gary Cadwallader, Rachel Armitage, Sharon Antony, Andy Antony and Amy Horn. (60149544)
The Ghost Train cast are, from left - Haydn Raado, Verity Connor, Hugh Butterworth, Heather Butterworth, Paul Keenan, Deborah Hart, Gary Cadwallader, Rachel Armitage, Sharon Antony, Andy Antony and Amy Horn. (60149544)

Gathered in the station's spartan waiting room are honeymooning newly-weds Charles and Peggy Murdoch (Haydn Raado and Verity Connor), bickering couple Richard and Elsie Winthrop (Andy Antony and Deborah Hart), spinster Miss Bourne (Sharon Antony), and the exuberant, moustachioed Teddy Deakin (Heather Butterworth) who had caused the train to be late by pulling the emergency cord.

Station master Hodgkin is unable to persuade the passengers to seek alternative accommodation for the night. He tells them the station is haunted by a ghost train and how it came to be so, before leaving the doubting travellers to their fate.

Shortly after, a face seen at the window and movement in the ticket office heightens the tension before Hodgkin's lifeless body slumps through the waiting room door.

The passengers soon have some unexpected company in the shape of ghostly looking Julia Price (Rachel Armitage), accompanied by her brother Herbert Price (Paul Keenan) and her physician Dr Jane Stirling (Amy Horn).

This trio collectively up the fear factor for the travellers, putting more meat on the bone of the station's hauntings with further revelations.

Hodgkin's corpse disappears from the ticket office and Julia sees a spectre, before the ghost train, as foretold, comes speeding through the station.

The assembled party find themselves briefly locked in the waiting room. Once able to escape, they all agree it would be best to do so – all except Teddy who wishes to stay.

A figure appears at the waiting room door and Teddy is swiftly out on the platform and firing his gun.

Hugh Butterworth's character Jackson appears, having collared Herbert and Hodgkin, before revealing that Teddy is a fellow detective who has been on the case of tracking down the pair, along with Julia and the doctor.

It turns out the foursome have been using the ghost train story to put potential witnesses to their Bolshevik arms smuggling operation off the scent – and it had worked, until Teddy caught up with them.

The play was directed by Jim Snee and Lucy Kelley, and it was produced by Tony Hine.



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