A theatrical group is well on track to bring a comic thriller with a paranormal edge to an East Hampshire theatre.

The Alton Operatic and Dramatic Society will transport theatregoers to the 1930s next week with their production of The Ghost Train.

Alton Assembly Rooms will provide the perfect platform for their take on the Arnold Ridley classic with the curtain rising on a three-night run next Thursday (November 14).

Ridley – best known as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army –wrote the script in just a week after being left stranded overnight at a lonely station near Bristol in 1923.

The eerie atmosphere at the deserted station, coupled with the sounds of the Bath to Gloucester express on an adjacent line, created the illusion of an unseen train approaching, passing through and departing.

The tale will bring audiences to a similar scenario at Fal Vale station in 1930. All is quiet until a passenger yanks the emergency brake of an approaching train, causing it to stop unexpectantly in the Cornish backwater.

Its passengers spend the night in a cold and disagreeable waiting room after rejecting a call to leave and ignoring warnings from the stationmaster of the “supernatural dangers of a spectral train”.

The passengers find the tale of the fatal crash and the train that “brings death to all who set eyes upon it” rather incredulous, but their opinions change as the sound of the shrieking phantom train approaches.

Merry mayhem ensues in this comic caper adapted by Jocelyn and Nicolas Ridley.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.aods.org or by calling the box office 0333 666 3366 Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm or Saturday 9am to 5pm.