Filming is underway on BBC One”s three-part adaptation of The War of the Worlds with shooting taking place in Liverpool and Cheshire.

Mammoth Screen is making the drama – the first time the classic HG Wells novel has been made for British television – with Craig Viveiros directing from Peter Harness” script.

Harness said of the commission when it was first announced: “I’m feeling phenomenally lucky to be writing The War of the Worlds and blowing up gigantic swathes of the Home Counties [the book is set in Surrey] at the dawn of the 20th century.

“Wells” book is ground zero for all modern science fiction and, like all the best sci-fi, manages to sneak in some pretty astonishing comments on what it is to be a human being too.”

The War of the Worlds is one of several projects to begin filming this week in the UK, including feature film Official Secrets, Channel 4”s period drama Jerusalem and ITV”s crime thriller Dark Heart.

Photo: FreeImages.com/Alasdair Ferguson.