STACK #191 Sep 2020

FEATURE FILM & TV

ON THE STEREO JEFF WAYNE’S MUSICAL VERSION OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1978)

ON TV WAR OF THE WORLDS (1988–1990)

“The chances of anything coming from Mars/Are a million to one, but still, they come…” Those who know and love this concept album are no doubt already whistling the Eve of the War theme. The War of the Worlds reimagined as

Conceived as a sequel to the 1953 film and running for two seasons, this largely forgotten US television series sees the invaders – who have been

residing in suspended animation in toxic waste barrels – freed by a terrorist group, whose bodies are subsequently possessed by the aliens. Strengthening the connection to the original film is the presence of star Ann Robinson, reprising the role of Sylvia. THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (2019) The first British adaptation of Wells’s a lot closer to Wells’s novel than the films. “The version of The War of the Worlds that I wanted to make is one that’s faithful to the tone and the spirit of the book, but which also feels contemporary, surprising and full of shocks; a collision of sci-fi, period drama and horror,” noted Harness. Set during the Edwardian era (nobody does period detail quite like the BBC), a journalist (Rafe Spall), his wife (Eleanor Tomlinson) and a scientist (Robert Carlyle) must fight for their lives against the invaders. WAR OF THE WORLDS (2019) The most recent adaptation – and a very loose one at that – from StudioCanal and Fox is an atypical take on The War of the Worlds that takes its cues from The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later rather than H.G. Wells, focusing on the survivors (including Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern) of the alien attack as they search for loved ones and attempt to make sense of the catastrophe. Switching between London and France, there’s a Eurocentric flavour to this version, with the characters confronting some heavy personal issues along the way. Eschewing the spectacle of alien invasion, this character- driven, slow burn series rewards as it progresses, and also puts a sinister spin on the Nick Cave tune Into My Arms . novel, adapted by sometime Doctor Who writer Peter Harness, this BBC mini-series sticks

a musical might sound like a daft idea, but it works brilliantly. Conceived by British composer Jeff Wayne and featuring the vocals of David Essex, Phil Lynott, Justin Hayward and Julie Covington, with narration by the inimitable Richard Burton, the album is remarkably faithful to the novel and divided as per the book’s two parts: The Coming of the Martians and The Earth Under the Martians . Following its release in June 1978, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds stayed in the album charts for an incredible six years and has sold 15 million copies worldwide to date. A live stage experience was toured in 2006–2008 and Wayne revisited the album in 2012 – as Jeff Wayne’s The Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The New Generation – to further explore the character dynamics.

ON THE RADIO One of the most effective – and famous – adaptations of The War of the Worlds was the 1938 radio drama directed and narrated by Orson Welles as a special episode of the anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air . Broadcast for Halloween on Sunday, October 30, 1938 at 8.00pm, the episode was presented as fake news bulletins that reported a cylindrical object falling from the sky in rural New Jersey and more alarmingly, Martian war machines attacking Manhattan. “I had conceived the idea of doing a radio broadcast in such a manner that a crisis would actually seem to be happening,” explained Welles, “and would be broadcast in such a dramatised form as to appear to be a real event taking place at that time, rather than a mere radio play.” And it sure

worked! The broadcast has since become legendary for convincing listeners that an alien invasion was actually underway, creating nationwide panic and a resulting media frenzy that proved instrumental in launching Welles’s Hollywood career.

• War of the Worlds: Season 1 (2019) is out on Sept 23

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