The Nightmare Worlds of H. G. Wells

The 2016 horror-fantasy miniseries *The Nightmare Worlds of H. G. Wells* adapts four short stories by the author. Sky Arts commissioned and broadcast the series, which consists of four 23-minute episodes. Each episode begins and ends with Wells himself, who introduces a theme and narrates the tale.

In the first episode, "The Late Mr. Elvesham," a poor medical student named Edward Eden is tricked by the wealthy, elderly Egbert Elvesham into drinking a potion that swaps their bodies. Eden, trapped in Elvesham’s old form, seeks revenge. The second episode, "The Devotee of Art," follows mediocre painter Alec Harringay, whose painting of St. Catherine comes to life. He makes a pact to trade his soul for a masterpiece, which leads him to murder his wife, Isabel. In "The Moth," entomologists Prof. Pawkins and Dr. Hapley delight in discrediting each other. After Pawkins dies, Hapley is haunted by a moth bearing his enemy’s face, driving him to obsession and madness. The final episode, "The Purple Pileus," features shopkeeper James Coombes, who, after constant arguments with his wife Eveline, eats what he believes are poisonous mushrooms. They are actually hallucinogenic, and he begins using them to improve his mood until Eveline accidentally eats them and experiences hallucinations without overdosing or dying.

Ray Winstone portrays H. G. Wells. The cast includes Michael Gambon as Elvesham, Luke Treadaway as Eden, Johnny Flynn as Harringay, Antonia Thomas as Isabel, Rupert Graves as Hapley, James Wilby as Pawkins, Shaun Parkes as Coombes, and Leanne Best as Eveline. Writer and executive producer Graham Duff also appears in the first episode. Filming took place at West London Film Studios. Wells himself wrote an original story about body-swapping titled *The New Faust* for Alexander Korda in the 1930s, which was not a direct adaptation of 'Mr. Elvesham'.