Primeval: Volume 2

The Primeval team are back and Nick Cutter is fighting to re-focus his embattled team who are still reeling from Stephen's death and the scale of Helen's betrayal.

Cutter's crew are joined by some new recruits in the form of maverick policeman Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng), sparky Egyptologist Sarah Page (Laila Rouass), and the new leader of the ARC's security forces Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield). But as the anomalies continue to present an unrelenting series of threats, the task in hand seems almost impossible.

With events getting even wilder, creatures steeped in ancient folklore begin to make an appearance and it becomes clear that the origins of myths and legends are linked with the mysterious anomalies. But it's not just deadly creatures the team has to contend with; the cloak of secrecy behind which they have been working is beginning to slip, and questions are being asked as the conspiracy spreads its net wide.

And as deadlier creatures continue to rampage through the anomalies - the team faces a threat to the future of not just the ARC but of mankind itself..

Episode 1 - When an exhibition of ancient Egyptian relics comes to the British Museum, an anomaly opens in a mysterious monument called the Sun Cage. A creature emerges from it - a kind of monstrous crocodile that can run on two legs. The team is joined by the ARC's new Head of Security, Captain Becker, and an archaeologist from the Museum, Sarah Page. The race is on to track the creature down before it hits the streets of London.

Episode 2 - Cutter's research leads to a prediction about where the next anomaly will appear. But when Jenny,
Connor and Abby check out the location, all they find is an abandoned house. They wait to see if an anomaly will appear, but get more than they bargained for when they discover a camouflage beast from the future is living in the house. They also have to deal with a cop, Danny Quinn, who takes an instant dislike to them. The team faces one of their hardest missions yet - how do you catch a creature you cannot even see?

Episode 3 - Some cute but surprisingly dangerous burrowing creatures called Diictodons nearly cause a disaster at a hospital when an anomaly opens from the Permian era. Calamity is averted by the team, which manages to get the creatures back to their own time whilst simultaneously delivering a (human) baby. Meanwhile, Helen and her army of ‘Cleaner Replicas' attack the ARC.

Episode 4 - The largest anomaly the team has yet encountered opens at an airport and a Giganotosaurus comes through. Affectionately (or not) known as a G-Rex, it's like a T-Rex but bigger, meaner and more dangerous. The team has their work cut out as they try to rescue a crew trapped in a 747 and get this mighty predator back through the anomaly. They are helped by Danny Quinn, who turns up unexpectedly and refuses to leave the scene.

Episode 5 - The team faces one of its most unusual and dangerous of threats - a deadly flesh-eating fungus. The fungus literally takes over any human who comes into contact with it, turning the unfortunate victim into a hideous shell of their former self, intent only on spreading the fungus further. Can the team find a way to stop it before it's too late?

Episode 6 - The team is investigating a mysterious artefact when the ARC is invaded by a Government official backed by the military, in search of it. Taking refuge in a mysterious old hut in some woods, the team finds itself besieged by birds from the Pliocene era when an anomaly opens nearby. Phorusrhacids may look like armoured ostriches in shape, but they are infinitely more dangerous.

Episode 7 - When a medieval knight comes through an anomaly chasing what he believes to be a dragon, the team don't just have another dinosaur on the loose, but also a knight intent on slaying it!

Episode 8 - When an anomaly opens at a race-car test-track, the team must draw on all its skills to capture and return a lethal, giant carnivorous insect from the future. Things become even more complicated when Abby's brother Jack inadvertently goes through an anomaly to escape the Megopteran. The team sets out on a rescue mission and find themselves in a future world filled with terrifying predators. Can they save Jack and get back alive?

Episode 9 - A herd of Embolotherium comes through an anomaly at an off-road motor course. The team arrives, but these seven-tonne rhinoceros-type beasts from the Eocene era do not budge easily. The pressure is on to lure the lumbering creatures back through the anomaly without causing a stampede or being crushed in the process. Danny finally arrives, with Eve, a mysterious woman from the future. To be continued...

Episode 10 - When the anomaly at Johnson's headquarters reopens, Sarah and Becker head off to check it out. Helen decides the only way to stop the destruction of life on Earth is to stop humans ever evolving and goes back in time to kill Hominids, the very first humans. The rest of the team must stop Helen at all costs. They endure a harrowing journey back through time via several anomalies, battling future predators, raptors and pterasaurs along the way. One of the team also has a life-changing encounter with the earliest humans, Hominids.

Regular Cast

Guest Stars

Created by Tim Haines, Adrian Hodges
Written by Steve Bailey, Mike Cullen, James Moran, Paul Mousley, Paul Farrell, Catherine Linstrum, Andrew Rattenbury, Cameron McAllister
Directed by Cilla Ware, Tony Mitchell, Richard Curson Smith, Mark Everest, Mathew Thompson
CGI by Framestore
Produced by Tim Bradley
Executive Produced by Tim Haines, Adrian Hodges

An Impossible Pictures Production for ITV/Prosieben

Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall)
Age: 36
Height: 6'
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland

For maverick ARC team leader Nick Cutter, this is not just a professional mission. After his presumed-dead wife Helen was discovered alive and well, she joined forces with creepy Oliver Leek, a collaboration that lead to the death of Cutter's trusted sidekick, Stephen Hart. Reeling from Stephen's death, Nick must pull himself together, rally the team and save the human race.

Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng)
Age: 40
Height: 6'1"
Birthplace: London

Strong, brave and street smart, Danny is quick to pick things up, but clever enough to know when he doesn't know something. He will always be the first to hurl himself into the breech when things get rough, and earns the respect of the team through his smart decision-making, courage and instinctive ability to assess danger quickly and then act on it. He may not know the creatures, but he certainly knows people.

Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt)
Age: 24
Height: 5'2"
Birthplace: Brighton, Sussex

Gutsy zoologist and reptile expert Abby dropped out of college when she was offered her dream job in the lizard house. With the exception of spiders, she prefers the company of animals to humans. Her first encounter with Cutter and his team was when she was asked to identify a new species of lizard found by a boy in a forest. She rescued "Rex" and now keeps him at her flat , a secret she's only shared with Connor.

Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts)
Age: 26
Height: 5'9"
Birthplace: Blackburn, Lancashire

One of Cutter's paleontology students at the Central Metropolitan University, Connor is geeky by nature. After watching Scooby Doo as a kid, he decided he wanted to join a crime-busting gang. Years later, his dream came true - sort of. He loves conspiracy theories and secretly hopes to be abducted by aliens. He is hopelessly smitten with Abby.

Jenny Lewis (Lucy Brown)
Age: 28
Height: 5'7"
Birthplace: Oxford, Oxfordshire

The spitting image of Claudia Brown, Cutter's love interest from Season 1, Jenny is a ruthless PR professional. She and Cutter get off to a shaky start, with an adversarial and often sparky relationship. Her job is damage control, covering up creature sightings. But anomalies and exploding worms weren't in her job description, and she takes a little while to settle. If things weren't complicated enough, she is also starting to fall for Cutter.

Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield)
Age: 25
Height: 6'
Birthplace: Romsey, Hampshire

Lester forces Captain Becker onto Cutter's ARC team, informing him that Becker has been appointed to keep the team safe. They can't afford to lose another high-profile member like Stephen. Becker has a distinguished military record. His M.O. is "shoot first, ask questions later" - so it takes a little adjustment for him to accept the team's strategy of saving the creatures and moving them back through the anomalies.

James Lester (Ben Miller)
Age: 40
Height: 5'10"
Birthplace: Aldershot, Surrey

The Home Office official responsible for the ARC team, James Lester is arrogant, sarcastic, ruthless - and makes no bones about his dislike of Cutter (or anyone else, for that matter). As far as he's concerned, the government knows best, and the public has no right to know anything. But beneath that unemotional, sarcastic and scathing exterior is a warrior who is willing to do anything to protect them, not that he would ever admit it.

Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey)
Age: 37
Height: 5'8"
Birthplace: Ipswich, Suffolk

Helen Cutter believes human reliance on machines and technology has weakened our animal instincts. Missing for eight years and presumed dead, she had actually been alive and kicking, and traversing anomalies. Fiercely competitive and resolutely independent, Helen is no victim. She knows more about the anomalies than she's prepared to reveal, and what's more: She appears to have prior knowledge of the threats facing her ex-husband and his team.

Sarah Page (Laila Rouass)
Age: 28
Height: 5'5"
Birthplace: Brighton, Sussex

With a PhD in Egyptology and Archeology, Sarah Page has worked on digs throughout the Middle East. She shares her knowledge with children at the British Museum. Sarah plunges into the world of anomalies when she comes face to face with what she believes is Ammut, an Egyptian god of the underworld. Moved by her courage, intelligence and sense of humor throughout the ordeal, Cutter makes her an offer she can't refuse.

Christine Johnson (Belinda Stewart-Wilson)
Age: 35
Height: 5'7"
Birthplace: Grantham, Lincolnshire

After Oxford University, Christine enlisted in MI-6. Her ambition and competitiveness ensured her friends were few and far between, and she became the perfect "spook." Now Christine is back in London and is somehow linked to the anomalies. Lester, in particular, is in for a shock: "Christine Johnson is like a velociraptor," he observes, "only better dressed."

"It's the only show that's come along post Who that gets anywhere touching the BBC show. That might sound like damning with faint praise - not at all. This first episode is fun and fast, with everything we've come to love about Primeval, along with a couple of new characters and a fresh spin on the concept of the time portals that bring big nasties into the present ... This is a great first episode that re-establishes the format and cast for those coming new to the party. There's an ease and sense of fun about the cast - they're all comfortable with each other and the spikiness of the earlier seasons has gone. Cutter is still a miserable old goat, but that's what he's there for. With the confidence of two seasons behind it, this could be the best season of Primeval yet if this opener is anything to go by. Big dinosaurs, some great action pieces, good use of Central London as backdrop and a lightness of touch that wasn't there before add up to a promising start." Mark Wright, Stage/TV Today

"...I relished every moment." David Stephenson, Sunday Express

"It's family-friendly stuff: pacy, full of action and special effects, and with an endearingly daft premise (a team of terribly young and good-looking British scientists have to keep saving the public, week after week, from dinosaurs and other monsters that materialise in the present via ‘time anomalies')." Michael Deacon, Daily Telegraph

"Because Primeval doesn't take itself seriously, there is never any danger that it will buckle under the weight of its own self-importance. It is what it is - good-humoured, funny, exciting nonsense with lots of prehistoric creatures being cute or scary. The wacky young dinosaur hunters are back ... joined by a beautiful Egyptologist (Laila Rouass), who has somehow managed to escape from Footballers' Wives through an anomaly ... If you have a soft spot for cuddly lizards from the Permian period, this series is for you." David Chater, The Times

"ITV1's excellent science fiction romp ... [Primeval] has always struck the fine balance (pulled off so well by the rejuvenated Doctor Who) between human backstory and hideous beasties as the handsome team track and try to contain creatures who have made their way into the present through anomalies." Observer

"As a competing bidder for the attention spans of between-series Doctor Who fans, Primeval shares a lot of elements with Robin Hood (including an inspirational but troubled leader who doesn't play by the rules, and who is haunted by the death of someone from the previous series). But it has the distinct advantage of not having to make any sense at all. A triumph." Tim Dowling, Guardian

"The monsters, exciting as they are, don't carry the day ... It's the merry men (and women) in Primeval who set it apart, simply by dint of being likeable and funny..." The Times

"...Ben Miller (Moving Wallpaper) is deliciously brittle as team boss Sir James Lester." Guardian

"...where Primeval scores is with its baddies, big jaw-crunchy, tail-swishy beasts which offer the mouthwatering prospect that they might just do some serious damage to the squeaky stars." Keith Watson, London Metro

"Like The A-Team with pterodactyls." Daily Express

"[Primeval] doesn't aspire to being anything other than what it is - a bunch of engaging actors chasing an assortment of monsters, ranging from slathering Gorgonospids to endearing lizards. The monsters, exciting as they are, don't carry the day-they are merely the prehistoric equivalent of [Robin Hood bad guy] Keith Allen. It's the merry men (and women) in Primeval who set it apart, simply by dint of being likeable and funny - and laughter always trumps relevance, worthiness and good intentions." The Times

"One of the fastest moving episodes [Ep 6] of any British TV show this year, let alone this season of Primeval, kicks off with Danny testing the ARC security and doesn't let up - save for a few scenes setting up next week's episode. The action sequences include a car chase, a cottage coming under siege from a group of maddened out-of-time super-ostriches, and a pursuit across a minefield, all of which are cut together breathlessly ... there's not likely to be a more entertaining hour this week." Paul Simpson, Total SciFi

"Well cast and well produced ... the hit fantasy drama returns to devour a chunk out of Saturday nights." Sunday Times (Culture section)

"Welcome back Primeval." Best magazine

"It's enjoyable chaos with neat special effects and plenty of sharp one liners for Ben Miller - four stars." TV Times (listings magazine)

"...a rollicking good watch." Radio Times (listings magazine)

"The CGI monster effects are once again state-of-the-art: you really believe this ancient fiend is thrashing about the place and going for a dip in the Thames ... Four stars." Heat magazine

"...superior fantasy adventure ... this is terrific stuff, with CGI to rival any Hollywood film and a rollicking plot that will keep children (and adults) on the edge of their seats." Daily Mail (Weekend)

"It's hide-behind-the-sofa-stuff." Closer magazine

"The team return with a suitably high octane opener ... We're so glad this series is back." Look Magazine