George and Amy are reunited for now, with their baby due in the New Year, but will they survive the forever autumn as the Martians continue to seek out human survivors?

The BBC’s version of the Wells classic could never be accused of being a cosy teatime serial, and indeed the very bleakness of its conclusion might be too cold a dish for some to digest. There’s no big ‘Hurrah, the Martians have died from the common cold and we can live happily ever after’ moment, and while their demise does still come from disease, it’s from a different source. As we have seen from the flash forwards, Amy is without George and surviving with her infant in the Red Weed infested world.

The Martians are dead, but this is not the end of the problem. Ogilvy believes that this was merely a visitation, and the Earth is struggling to grow crops as a consequence of the invasion. Jonathan Aris is excellent as a fire and brimstone preacher, unwilling to accept Ogilvy’s wishes to look for a cure, still living under the delusion that the Martians were killed by British guns.

The episode flicks between two timeframes – holed up in a refuge in the aftermath of the beach attack, and the future post-apocalyptic landscape with Amy and Ogilvy. She recalls the final fateful days of her friends as we finally get to see the aliens in all their glory – nasty three-legged giant wood spiders with bulbous sacs hanging in their centre. They aren’t bug-eyes aliens but proboscis-wielding predators that feast on human blood and flesh.

George’s final moments are a combination of heroics and fever, sacrificing himself so that his fiancé and child can live. He is the hero we knew he could be, and while Amy is ultimately the lead character in the serial, it’s George that gives her the opportunity to break away, and she will play a role in the establishment of the green roots of recovery.

Verdict: Earnest and sobering sci-fi that falls heavily on the belief that Earth and its inhabitants are but small fry in the wider universe. Mankind is taught a sobering lesson, and kudos to this production in making its own stamp on the classic novel. It never makes easy choices and is by far the most horrific version to date. Is it the definitive version? Time will tell. But in the meantime, it certainly ranks as one of the most worthy. 9/10

Nick Joy