BBC war of the worlds vs the book

 I've been watching the BBC's version of the HG Wells classic war of the worlds. So far I'm not exactly blown away with it. More curiously theres a number of changes in the series from the book. Some seem odd.
 In the series the lead male is named George. In the book he's never named. This isn't a big issue as it's changed from a first person narrative for the production.
 The lead couple are adulterers in the series, yet in the book they are a married couple. This seems an odd change as it makes no difference to the story and complicates it with "georges" real wife. It seems more a dig at the old family values to me.
 The martians. In the book the martians are seen in the beginning of the story when they emerge from their craft but cant cope with our gravity and retreat to their machines. In the series we dont see them untill the last part. Now I can see the idea of keeping the suspense, but your making a series based on a book. At what point does it stop being war of the worlds by HG Wells?
 The brother. In the series "georges" brother is the sectary for war (or something similar) in the book he's a doctor and it's the leads younger brother, in the series he looks older. Again theres no need to have changed this other than to have a dig at the establishment.
 Frankly with the series jumping back and fro in time I found it confusing, and again not really part of Wells story. I also found it odd that the male lead seems so weak.