War Of The Worlds
Season 1 M-Net (*101) 22:00 Sci-fi
Take cover! The aliens are coming in three-part 2018 miniseries War Of The Worlds. It’s a re-imagining of HG Wells’ book of the same name from 1897 – the one that was broadcast as a radio play in 1938 and was so realistic that it had listeners convinced that the world was actually being invaded. Show boss Peter Harness explains that while the 2005 movie was set in the modern day, he chose 1900 Britain because “I wanted to make it faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but also surprising and full of shocks: a collision of sci-fi, period drama and horror”.
At the centre of this story are new couple George (Rafe Spall, Eli in sci-fi movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018) and Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson, Demelza in period drama Poldark, 2015- current). They’re on the run from more than just aliens: their family and friends have condemned their union because George abandoned his family for her. “They are defying society by trying to start a new life,” explains Rafe. “Divorce was frowned upon at the time and now worse is here, monsters from another world that want to destroy all of mankind to colonise the planet.”
Rounding off the cast are Robert Carlyle (Rumpelstiltskin in fantasy series Once Upon A Time, 20112018) as astronomer Ogilvy who has tracked the aliens’ approach; Rupert Graves (Lestrade in drama show Sherlock, 2010-2017) as George’s older brother Frederick; and Greg Kinnear (Bill in season 6 of drama series House Of Cards (2013-2018) in an unannounced role.