The War of the Worlds (BBC miniseries)

A great adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells

Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli
5 min readJan 26, 2024

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This BBC miniseries from 2019 (directed by Craig Viveiros and produced by Mammoth Screen), set in the Edwardian period, is yet another adaptation of the novel by Herbert George Wells (published in 1898) and consists from three episodes of about an hour.

It is considered one of the most faithful transpositions of the book both because of the historical setting (despite being set a few years later, in 1905), which further highlights humanity’s impotence in the face of an alien invasion, and for the narration of events itself.

What is added to the original plot is the personal story of the two protagonists, Amy and George, who live together despite the fact that they are not married and that he is unable to obtain a divorce from his wife. These two only partially replace the narrator of the book and his wife, however shifting the attention to the female character, who was completely marginal in the original text. They are played by Eleanor Tomlinson (already seen in Poldark in the role of Demelza and in The Pemberley Mysteries) and Rafe Spall (son of Timothy Spall; seen in Prometheus, Jurassic World — Fallen Kingdom, and Men in Black International).

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Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli

Italian science fiction & thriller author, scientific & literary translator, biologist, educator, dreamer. 🇮🇹: www.anakina.net EN: www.anakina.eu I ❤️🎾