This BBC miniseries is the first British television adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1898 novel 'The War of the Worlds', first announced in December 2015 with production confirmed in May 2017.

Writer Peter Harness deliberately expanded the role of the narrator's wife from the novel, wanting to give the male lead a partner with her own strength of character and make the female character three-dimensional.

The adaptation uses time-shifting forwards and backwards in its narrative timeline in order to upend audience expectations.

Filming began in April 2018 in Liverpool, with locations including St George's Plateau, Eldon Grove, Vauxhall (where an abandoned building doubled as a London location), Sir Thomas Street, Dale Street, Ainsdale Woods, Delamere Forest, the village of Great Budworth in Cheshire, the Palm House at Sefton Park, and Croxteth Hall; filming and post-production wrapped by May 2019.

Although originally set to premiere in the UK at Christmas 2018, the series actually premiered first in Canada on T+E in October 2019, and was broadcast in only two parts (instead of three) on New Zealand's TVNZ 1, before its UK premiere on 17 November 2019.

The series received mixed reviews, holding a 68% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 critic reviews, with critics praising the performances but criticizing the pacing.

The Telegraph's Anita Singh criticized the show's visual effects as poor quality and lacking terror compared to the original novel, giving the first two episodes two stars and one star respectively and singling out Rafe Spall's performance.