
Scripted series · ITV1
Primeval
Who's in it
Cast
The principal ensemble across the run of the series.
The Nutevio profile
TV DNA
How Primeval actually feels to watch, measured on the traits our editors track across every series.
Signature profile
Primeval reads strongest on Character Depth, Spectacle and World Building.
How fully written and psychologically layered the ensemble is.
Visual ambition — scale, craft and set-piece filmmaking.
The scale, internal logic and texture of the world.
How hard it is to stop after one episode.
How much the series is designed to affect you.
How much each hour depends on the one before it.
How often an episode ends on a hook you can't ignore.
The sustained pressure the series keeps you under.
How often the series is genuinely funny, by design.
The story
What it's about
When strange anomalies start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team must track down and capture all sorts of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth's distant past and near future.
The run
Seasons
5 seasons · 36 episodes.

Season 0 · Complete
Specials
201012 episodes
Special installments of the series.

Season 1 · Complete
Season 1
20076 episodes
8.2IMDbEight years after his wife Helen disappeared, evolutionary zoologist Professor Nick Cutter - along with his friend Stephen Hart, his geeky student Connor Temple, zookeeper Abby Maitland, Special Forces leader Captain Tom Ryan, and government officials James Lester and Claudia Brown - discovers that mysterious rifts in time and space called Anomalies are allowing creature from across Earth's history to run rampant in the present; and the group subsequently become a Home Office research team tasked with predicting the Anomalies and containing the ceatures which come through them, and learning more about the Anomalies and why they are happening. However, Cutter secretly has an agenda of his own about the Anomaly operation: as the team investigate the Anomalies, Cutter begins to find more clues that imply his long-missing wife Helen is alive and living in the past on the other sides of the Anomalies. The rest of the team eventually learn of this, and that Helen is indeed alive and in the past, but she has been greatly changed by her time there and her study into the Anomalies, and the team are uncertain which side she is on. Eventually, Helen seemingly allies with the team to find and contain an Anomaly in the past to the future and to combat a deadly predator from the future which is on a killing spree in the present; but while Nick and Helen are searching in the past for the future Anomaly, Nick discovers that Helen only wanted to find the Anomaly and see the future, and after Captain Ryan is killed, Nick returns to the present. However, there, Cutter finds that Claudia Brown has been erased from the timeline while he and Helen were in the past.
Best episode · S01E06 Future Foe

Season 2 · Complete
Season 2
20087 episodes
8.4IMDbAfter returning from the past to find that Claudia Brown has been erased from time, Nick Cutter is forced to cope with other changes, including that the team are now their own Anomaly-combatting organisation called the Anomaly Research Centre. Just when Cutter finally begins to come to terms with losing Claudia, a new PR guru joins the ARC; Jenny Lewis, who is physically identical to Claudia Brown but temperamentally is a completely different person. Meanwhile, though Cutter believes that Stephen has gotten over Helen's betrayal, Stephen has in fact begun seeing Helen again and is becoming torn between her and Cutter; while Connor begins dating the mysterious Caroline Steel. Abby doesn't trust Caroline, and her and Connor's opposing opinions on her begin to drive a wedge between them. Unbeknownst to anyone, Caroline is secretly spying on Connor for the mysterious Oliver Leek, who has a secret agenda of his own for the Anomalies alongside Helen. After the ARC team learn of Leek's and Helen's secret plans to use a creature army that they have captured to create chaos in the present, they are forced to try and stop the creatures from escaping onto the modern world. Helen, Nick and Stephen manage to trap and kill the creatures, but Stephen loses his life in the process. In the aftermath, Cutter finally accepts that Claudia Brown is gone forever and moves on with Jenny, while Helen promises that things will change with her clone army.
Best episode · S02E07 Concrete Menagerie

Season 3 · Complete
Season 3
200910 episodes
8.8IMDbAs the ARC team still reel from Stephen's death, they are joined by several new team members, including new security leader Captain Hilary Becker, and sparky egyptologist Sarah Page. Meanwhile, after discovering a future world where the Earth is overrun with Future Predators, Helen Cutter sets out on a mission in the present against the ARC, whom she blames for the future catastrophe, and launches an attack on the ARC in which Nick Cutter is killed by Helen. The ARC subsequently manage to obtain a mysterious artifact from the future from Helen, which in turn causes military liaison Christine Johnson to target the ARC and attempt to take control of it and get the Artifact for her own purposes. Following Cutter's death, the ARC team are ultimately joined by ex-cop and new team leader Danny Quinn, and Jenny Lewis learns of her alternate life as Claudia Brown and ultimately leaves the ARC. Meanwhile, Connor himself is forced to move out of Abby's flat and into Lester's (to the latter's chagrin and misery) when the troublesome Jack Maitland moves in with Abby. As Johnson's mission to get the Artifact from the ARC continues, Helen returns and kills Johnson. When the ARC team learn that Helen intends to wipe out humanity's ancestors to stop them evolving to cause the future disaster, Danny, Connor and Abby are sent on a race after her through the Anomalies. Helen is killed before she can kill off enough of humanity's ancestors to have a temporal impact, but Abby, Connor and Danny are themselves left marooned in the past.
Best episode · S03E04 A Gigantic Problem

Season 4 · Complete
Season 4
20107 episodes
7.8IMDbAfter a year marooned in the Cretaceous, Connor and Abby finally return to the present to find that the ARC has greatly changed in their absence, and is now funded by entrepreneur Philip Burton and led by the quiet and mysterious Matt Anderson. Connor and Abby are initially not allowed back on the main team due to a new military code, but soon manage to get back on, though they still have to try and earn their old positions on the team back. When two Anomaly travellers (the Victorian lady Emily Merchant and the murderous Ethan Dobrowski) come to the present, Matt takes Emily in, and begins to open up to her on his past and who he really is, while hunting Ethan and trying to protect Emily from him. Meanwhile, Connor becomes more and more allied with Philip and the latter's mysterious New Dawn project for the Anomalies, and Connor and Abby's relationship begins to become strained because of this. Eventually, Danny Quinn returns from the past as well, and Ethan is revealed to be Danny's long-lost brother Patrick. Both Danny and Ethan/Patrick return to the past, and Emily returns to her time as well; but not before Matt reveals to her that he is from the future and has been sent back to stop an apocalyptic disaster with the Anomalies in the present from destroying the planet. Meanwhile, Connor learns of a catastrophic upcoming event with the Anomalies, and ultimately allies with Philip and New Dawn against it.
Best episode · S04E07 Surprising Visit

Season 5 · Complete
Series 5
20116 episodes
8.5IMDbMatt's secret mission to find the ARC member that will destroy the future continues, as does Philip's New Dawn project for the Anomalies. After Abby learns of Matt's mission, the latter recruits her into it, while Connor instead joins Philip in the New Dawn project. Connor and Abby's opposing allegiances in turn strains their relationship more and more. Matt and Abby's fears that New Dawn is what will destroy the future are soon confirmed, and after Connor realises his error, he and the rest of the ARC team join Matt and Abby against Philip as the latter activates New Dawn. Although Philip successfully activates New Dawn, the team manage to stop New Dawn and save the future. However, Matt then sees a double of him at the ARC which gives him a warning.
Best episode · S05E06 The End of the Future (2)
Where the series peaks
Best Episodes
The hours that define the show, ranked by audience response and editorial signal.

S03E04
A Gigantic Problem
As the team emotionally struggle to recover from the aftermath of Helen's attack, Jenny leads the team to a new Anomaly at an airport; where a Giganotosaurus or "G-Rex" threatens the crew of a Boeing-747, a news crew are attempting to document the incursion for the media, and Danny Quinn gives the reluctant team his unwanted help.
- Directed by Mark Everest
- Written by Paul Mousley

S03E06
For the Birds
When Johnson takes Lester's control over the ARC, the team are forced to flee into hiding from Johnson's forces at an abandoned rural military outpost, where they come under attack by a pack of bloodthirsty Terror Birds.
- Directed by Cilla Ware
- Written by Paul Farrell

S05E06
The End of the Future (2)
Matt and Abby go through New Dawn's Anomaly on a rescue mission for Connor into the barren, Predator-ruled wastelands of the future, while back in the present, the future apocalypse looms closer as New Dawn spirals out of control. Meanwhile, Jess and Lester face problems of their own when the ARC is invaded by Mutated Future Predators.
- Directed by Cilla Ware
- Written by Adrian Hodges, Steve Bailie

S03E03
Medical Mayhem
Cutter and the team head to a hospital to deal with an Anomaly and a Diictodon colony wreaking havoc on the hospital's power supply, and also have to help deliver a baby and stop a greedy journalist from getting proof of the creatures. Meanwhile, Helen Cutter and her clone army launch their attack on the ARC, and Helen reveals a secret about the future to Nick.
- Directed by Tony Mitchell
- Written by Mike Cullen

S03E05
Future Epidemic
Jenny and the team, with unwanted help from Danny, attempt to stop London from becoming engulfed by a pandemic when they face an incursion of a deadly, fast-spreading fungus from the future that turns its hosts into primal monsters. Meanwhile, Sid the Diictodon has escaped Connor's custody into the ARC and is causing calamity, and Jenny learns the truth about Claudia Brown.
- Directed by Mark Everest
- Written by Catherine Lindstrum, Paul Mousley

S03E08
Oh, Brother!
Jack searches for answers about Abby's secret life, and gets chased through an Anomaly by a deadly Megopteran; forcing the team to go through on a rescue mission into the desolate, predator-filled ruins of the future.
- Directed by Richard Curson Smith
- Written by Cameron McAllister
Recently aired
Latest Episodes

S05E06
The End of the Future (2)
- Directed by Cilla Ware
- Written by Adrian Hodges, Steve Bailie

S05E05
The End of the Future (1)
- Directed by Cilla Ware
- Written by Michael A. Walker


S05E03
In the Good Old Days
- Directed by Robert Quinn
- Written by Paul Mousley, Gabbie Asher


Behind the series
Created by
Showrunners, creators, executive producers and the writers who set the voice of the series.

Tim Haines
Creator
- Photo unavailable
Adrian Hodges
Showrunner
- Photo unavailable
Mike Cullen
Writer
- Photo unavailable
James Moran
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Catherine Lindstrum
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Paul Farrell
Writer

Cameron McAllister
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Bev Doyle
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Paul Gerstenberger
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Paul Mousley
Writer

Michael A. Walker
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Gabbie Asher
Writer
- Photo unavailable
John Fay
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Debbie Oates
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Caroline Ip
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Steve Bailie
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Matthew Parkhill
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Ben Court
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Paul Cornell
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Andrew Rattenbury
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Helen Raynor
Writer

Chris Lang
Writer
- Photo unavailable
Richard Kurti
Writer
The craft
Key Crew
Directing, writing, production, camera, music and editing.
Created by
- Tim HainesCreator
- Adrian HodgesCreator
Executive production
- Cameron McAllisterProducer
- Tim HainesProducer
Writing
- Mike CullenWriter
- James MoranWriter
- Catherine LindstrumWriter
- Paul FarrellWriter
- Cameron McAllisterWriter
- Bev DoyleWriter
Direction
- Robert QuinnDirector
- Tony MitchellDirector
- Mark EverestDirector
- Nick MurphyDirector
- Richard Curson SmithDirector
- Matthew ThompsonDirector
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
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