Primeval is a British science fiction television series produced for ITV by Impossible Pictures. Primeval follows a team of scientists tasked with investigating the appearance of temporal anomalies across the United Kingdom through which prehistoric and futuristic creatures enter the present, while simultaneously trying to stop a terrorist plot to bring about the end of the world. Primeval was created by Tim Haines, who previously created the Walking with... documentary series, and Adrian Hodges. It ran for five series, originally broadcast from 2007 to 2011.
The idea for Primeval had originally been devised by Haines in the early 2000s, in the aftermath of the production of Walking with Dinosaurs. Originally intended as a production for the BBC, Primeval was ultimately turned down in 2005 after several years of concepting due to being deemed too similar to the revived Doctor Who by executives. Haines and Hodges then approached ITV, who were enthusiastic about the project. Before its initial broadcast, many early commentators dismissed Primeval as a Doctor Who ripoff. Despite this, the first series of Primeval met with an enthusiastic response, becoming both a critical and an audience hit. Also successful with international audiences, Primeval overcame its early dismissals and became recognised by critics as something unique in its own right.
Though the second series met with a relatively lukewarm reception, Primeval's third series received high praise from critics as its strongest outing yet. Despite maintaining good ratings, Primeval was cancelled by ITV following the third series due to financial issues. After a few months in hiatus, the programme was brought back through a co-production deal with UKTV, allowing for the production of a fourth and fifth series. Reception to the fourth series was mixed, but the fifth series again garnered praise from critics. Though the fifth series was a success during its initial broadcast on the channel Watch in 2011, its disappointing ratings when it was broadcast on ITV the following year led to Primeval being cancelled again.
The success of Primeval spawned an accompanying franchise of merchandise, including novels, games and toy lines. An American film adaptation was announced to be in production in 2009 but languished in development and was ultimately never made. A Canadian spinoff series, Primeval: New World, aired in 2013 but was cancelled after a single 13-episode season.
Production Conception Tim Haines, who studied zoology and had a background in science journalism, made his first television breakthrough in the late 1990s when, as a television producer at the BBC, he envisioned and created the nature documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999). Walking with Dinosaurs was the first ever natural history series on dinosaurs to make use of extensive special effects to depict them as animals in their natural environments and was a massive success, becoming the most watched science programme in British television history. While working on Walking with Dinosaurs, Haines came up with the idea of using the technology of the series to produce a science fiction drama. Although the BBC were receptive to the idea, they wanted a recognisable property rather than a new idea, leading Haines to produce The Lost World (2001), an adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle novel of the same name. According to Haines, the success of The Lost World showed that it was possible to take the technology of Walking with Dinosaurs and create "very entertaining Hollywood-esque stories".
The successes of his programmes allowed Haines to co-found his own high-end television production company in 2002, Impossible Pictures. After the production of The Lost World, Haines came up with the idea of Primeval, though he at this point called it Cutter's Bestiary. Among the inspirations for the idea were the old science fiction films of Ray Harryhausen, which Haines felt had a "certain charm". Another inspiration were fossil ghost lineages, which Haines imagined could be explained by animals "swapping times".The Making of Primeval (behind-the-scenes featurette from the DVD of Primeval series 1) Other influences included Jurassic Park and King Kong. Commentators unassociated with the production team have also suggested that Primeval was partly inspired by series such as Doctor Who, Lost, Stargate and Quatermass.
Haines wrote a script together with another writer though it ultimately led to nothing. Adrian Hodges, a television writer who at this point had recently won a BAFTA for Charles II: The Power and the Passion (2003), met with Laura Mackie, the BBC Head of Drama to discuss possibilities of future work. Hodges turned down working on Bleak House (2005) due to wanting to do "something that's fun" in the vein of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mackie then suggested Cutter's Bestiary; although Hodges thought the title was "terrible" he thought the concept of dinosaurs in the modern day was brilliant. Hodges came up with the title Primeval and he wrote several scripts for the BBC with the concept going through several different iterations, at first envisioned only as a 90-minute television film.
When Haines and Hodges began working on the concept they had strived to create something that was also akin to Doctor Who, which at the time had not yet been revived. Once Doctor Who was revived by Russell T Davies in 2005, Primeval was deemed to be too similar by the BBC and was turned down, four or five years after Haines had first pitched Cutter's Bestiary. After being turned down by the BBC, Haines and Hodges pitched Primeval to ITV commissioner Nick Elliott. Elliott greenlit the series on account of liking the scripts produced by Hodges and out of a wish to replicate the success of the revived Doctor Who. Additional funding for Primeval was also secured from the German ProSieben and the French M6.
Development history With the production of the series secured and several scripts already written, the producers in January 2006 moved on to casting the lead actors. Hodges and Haines personally approached Douglas Henshall, who played lead character Nick Cutter, for the role but the other actors were cast through regular auditions. Henshall was joined in the main cast by James Murray, Andrew-Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt, Lucy Brown, Juliet Aubrey, Ben Miller and Mark Wakeling.
Primeval was envisioned as a family series that did not take itself too seriously and appealed to both adults and kids. The producers sought to ensure that it would not just be a children's programme by also making the drama work on its own, working towards a "PG-13 feel". The production team also made the deliberate choice to set many of the episodes in familiar environments for the audience and give the series a "modern feel" with the intent that viewers would feel as if they could find "dinosaurs in their kitchen". In addition to following a "monster-of-the-week" format, Primeval also sought to touch on deeper themes such as environmental preservation and ecological disaster.
When choosing directors for Primeval, Haines and Hodges wished to hire people with good track records. The directors approached for the first series were Cilla Ware and Jamie Payne. Neither director had much background with action scenes but both were experienced with directing drama. The visual style of the series got some inspiration from Errol Flynn films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). During production of the first series, the title was initially spelt Primaeval. The production of the first series was announced by ITV on 27 December 2005, touted as a "six-part epic about scientists who travel into prehistoric times through black holes".
Following the success of the first series, Primeval was recommissioned for a second series in March 2007, announced on 8 June. The entire first series main cast returned for the second series, with the exception of Wakeling. The second series also introduced the further main cast members Karl Theobald and Naomi Bentley. The third series of Primeval was announced on 30 January 2008. Henshall had felt during the second series that Primeval had become "simplified in its ambitions" and left the series during the third series, which necessitated extensive rewrites to the intended plot of the third series, also impacting the storylines of Jenny Lewis (Lucy Brown) and Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey); Henshall was replaced as the main lead of the series by Jason Flemyng as Danny Quinn. Further new characters were introduced in the third series, played by Laila Rouass, Ben Mansfield and Belinda Stewart-Wilson.
Cancellation and a revival Despite the third series' being successful, Primeval was cancelled after its run on 15 June 2009 for financial reasons; ITV almost filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession. ITV declined to recommission Primeval for a fourth series despite Impossible Pictures', the production company behind the series, proposing numerous different options, such as producing the series cheaper (for £600,000 per episode) or offering first-run rights to a rival channel. The cancellation was likely primarily motivated by the effects budget; Primeval cost several million pounds per series and ITV could not claim all of the money earned by the series because it was produced independently by Impossible Pictures. During the production of the third series, the producers had at no point expected that Primeval would not return for a fourth series, stating in subsequent interviews that they would not have left as many of character's fates up in the air had they known of the threat of cancellation.
Primeval was recommissioned three months after being cancelled. The "resurrection" of the series was made possible through a new deal made by Impossible Pictures, in which the series would be co-produced by both ITV and UKTV (with the costs shared), with additional funding also being provided by BBC Worldwide and ProSieben. The deal secured the making of 13 new episodes, split into a fourth and fifth series. The fourth series would air on ITV and then on the UKTV-owned channel Watch whereas the fifth series would air first on Watch. The production team were thrilled to be able to produce two additional series, as it would allow them to resolve the plotlines of the previous series and move Primeval further. The fourth and fifth series had a combined budget of £15 million.
Although most of the cast of the third season were announced as returning for the fourth and fifth series, the production needed to cast several new characters, because of the departures of several actors and the third series' leaving several characters stranded in the past. New main cast members Laila Rouass and Jason Flemyng were also unable to commit to an entire further series. As a result, the fourth and fifth series brought in several new main characters, played by Ciarán McMenamin, Ruth Kearney, Ruth Bradley and Alexander Siddig. Ultimately, poor ratings for the fifth series when it aired on ITV in 2012 caused Primeval not to be renewed for a sixth series, despite the production team's and the cast's interest in continuing the series.
Production schedule SeriesAnnouncedFilmingFilming timeFirst airedLast airedSeries 127 December 2005March–August 2006 4.5 months10 February 200717 March 2007Series 28 June 2007June–September 2007c. 3 months12 January 200823 February 2008Series 330 January 2008Middle–late 2008c. 6 months28 March 20096 June 2009Series 429 September 200922 March–26 June 20103 months1 January 20115 February 2011Series 5July–November 2010c. 4 months24 May 201128 June 2011
Special effects