Mars Attacks!

Eleanor Tomlinson and Rafe Spall battle invading aliens in a new take on HG Wells’ classic sci-fi story

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It has inspired Hollywood movies, radio plays and even a rock opera – yet the classic 1898 novel The War of the Worlds about a Martian invasion of Earth is only now coming to our screens in British TV production.

HG Wells’ seminal sci-fi tale has been turned into a three-part series on BBC1 that brings the famous story to life like never before.

‘It’s a quintessentially British tale,’ says director Craig Viveiros. ‘We’ve seen a modern-day American version, but for some reason, it’s never been told in the way it was originally intended. So this is an amazing opportunity to mix period drama with sci-fi and really do justice to the work.’

Set in the early years of the 20th Century, this week’s first episode introduces us to lovers George (Rafe Spall) and Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson), who has left London in order to start a new life in the sleepy Surrey town of Woking.