NORTH Country Theatre actor Mark Cronfield visited Bedale signal box courtesy of Wensleydale Railway as part of his research for the company’s autumn production Nightmares in Norfolk.

Artistic Director Nobby Dimon has planned a supernatural double bill with two adaptors using two terrifying tales from two famous writers, featuring two actors, one told tongue-in-cheek, the other straight down the line.

Charles Dickens' The Signalman was the impetus for the visit to the signal box – which seem to have changed very little from Dickens' day – with a solitary signalman and his many line switching levers, a chair and table and too many hours spent alone with his imagination.

The second tale is based on M R James’s Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, where a professor makes an unusual find on a beach and his holiday is disrupted in a disturbing way.

Simon Corble will adapt the Dickens and that master of the ripping yarn Nobby Dimon will offer a typical North Country take to the M R James.

It was Corble and Dimon who adapted the award-winning The 39 Steps the company’s opening production in 1996. Following her directorial debut with The Wish House last year, Vivienne Garnett returns to direct Dimon and Cronfield in this entertaining double bill.

Both Nobby Dimon and Mark Cronfield can be seen in Greek costume through the summer, at the Dales Countryside Museum tomorrow (3pm and 7pm) for the Youth Theatre Summer School production of The Bull Dancers, then telling stories of Greek myths as they walk through Studley Royal Water Gardens at 2pm on the last four Thursdays in August.

Nightmares in Norfolk opens at the Georgian Theatre as part of Richmond’s Walking & Book Festival on September 27 & 28 before touring the region through to its last night at Reeth Memorial Hall on December 2.

For more information and to book tickets, contact North Country Theatre 01748 825288 or northcountrytheatre.com.