A perennial subject for adaptation, HG Wells' The World Of The Worlds has been brought to screens (and, infamously by Orson Welles, the radio) many times. That isn't deflecting the Beeb from its stab at the title, with writer Peter Harness and director Craig Viveiros conjuring up the latest incarnation. The chances of you watching the trailer are probably a little better than a million to one, so here it is...
Eschewing the usual contemporary adaptation and setting the story in Edwardian times, this war stills channels the basics: Mars sends mysterious meteorites to Earth that contain terrifying alien creatures who construct massive war machines to overcome our armed forces and start to capture humans. The UK – and the world in general – seem doomed until... Well, that would be a spoiler for a story that was first published in 1897.
Eleanor Tomlinson, Rafe Spall, Rupert Graves, Robert Carlyle and Jacob R Molloy star in the story of a young couple struggling to survive in the wake of the invasion. The Beeb has offered no specific air date for the show yet, but we can expect it this autumn.