The BBC is about to go 'back to the future' with shooting starting in March on a modern adaptation of the best selling post-apocalyptic novel The Day Of The Triffids.

The two-part 90-minute drama, produced by Power, will be broadcast later this year and will star Belfast actress, Jenn Murray, pictured here in her earlier debut role as a disturbed teenager in the movie, Dorothy.

Now, she has landed a role in the prime-time BBC remake and is to star alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Eddie Izzard.

"I was floored by it because she's an actress I've looked up to for a long time," enthused Murray about her forthcoming role.

Originally written in 1951 by the English science fiction author John Wyndham, The Day Of The Triffids will be adapted by Patrick Harbinson (ER, Law & Order), in an electrifying take on Wyndham's most penetrating novel.

The year is 2011 and man has finally depleted the world's fossil fuel supply.

In the hunt for alternative sources they uncover the ominous Triffid, a crop now cultivated for its fuel that seems to have a life of its own.

When spectators gather globally for a much-anticipated solar storm - billions of awestruck victims are left blinded in its wake.

As the few sighted survivors watch as society falls to lawlessness, the Triffids find their way out of captivity.

Roaming the planet with a fatal sting and a retributive taste for human flesh, the Triffids begin to breed rapidly.

Murray plays the role of Susan, a 16-year-old English girl who sees her parents killed by the giant plants.

There's an epic battle against the Triffids' reign of terror, while avoiding the maniacal opportunism of other sighted survivors, to prevent these being the last days of mankind.

More prosaically, Belfast-born Murray, who is relocating to London from Dublin after finishing university, has also been nominated in the Best Actress category at this week's Irish Film and Television Award (Iftas) for her debut role in the movie, Dorothy.

"It's exciting to be nominated because it was my first job," she said. "Whatever else happens is a bonus."

In the film, Murray plays a disturbed 15-year-old girl accused of attempting to murder a baby on an Irish island.

She portrays the seven different characters of someone with a multiple personality disorder, including a three-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy and a man in his late twenties.

The 6th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards takes place on Saturday 14 February and will broadcast on RTÉ One at 9.30pm

(BMcC/JM)