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". 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.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
