WHAT better time is there - other than Halloween - to settle down with a good ghost story than on Friday 13th?

As a big fan of M.R James, and having enjoyed Charles Dickens' The Signalman when I read it in school, I had high expectations of Classic Ghosts at Hereford's Courtyard Theatre.

Classic Ghosts is a performance by Middle Ground Theatre Company Ltd, who did very well to capture the horror of these tales as well as injecting certain bits of well-placed humour throughout.

The first tale, Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad', tells the story of an academic who finds a strange whistle while exploring a Knights Templar cemetery on the East Anglian coast.

The whole segment was very well acted with a minimal cast who did well to build tension.

For me there was a bit too much talking at times during which I found myself losing the suspense which had been built up, but others may disagree and find this actually adds to the suspense.

The set was expertly crafted and when it came down to creating an atmosphere they couldn't have done it better.

The darkness, the eerie sounds, and the horror revealed when the lights came up was an excellent moment which sent a ripple of fear through the audience.

But it was the scenery in the second half of the production which really blew me away. They recreated an isolated Signalman's station beside a spooky tunnel fantastically. It looked as though the actors were really outside, and not on a stage, allowing you to become engrossed in the story.

The story was very well-told, and I felt it had better pace than the first half, and rounded off a delightfully eerie evening.

I'd definitely try to catch this group again in the future.

Classic Ghosts is on at the Courtyard today at 2pm and again at 7.30pm.

Visit www.courtyard.org.uk/events/classic-ghosts for more information.