OLL LEWIS: TV Series review: Primeval

Surprise! After umming and ah-ing over the cost of the third series and ITV cancelling the show, Primeval is back on our screens. However, after international investment they have reconsidered and a reboot of sorts has taken place. For those not aware, Primeval started off a few years back as ITV's answer to the popularity of Doctor Who on the BBC. Of course, because it would be difficult to compete with the Doctor head on you need a new idea that will appeal instantly to a family audience and they went for dinosaurs. To ensure quality, the team behind the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs was used, including a certain consultant who happens to be a well known member of CFZ amongst other things. The gamble paid off, and then some, for the first two series producing consistently very good episodes each week, series three saw the departure of the man who up until then had been the main character and with him, but the show still retained its audience.

Series four is, after two episodes, looking fantastic and might well be the best series yet. So far the only returning characters from the first three series have been Abby (she out of S-Club7) Conner (the excitable student comic relief in the first series who has since grown into a much more rounded character) and James Lester (the civil servant head of the Arc played by the brilliant Ben Miller). This is a good thing as they were the best characters from the first three series and they are joined by an intriguing new mix of characters; one of them at least, it is hinted from a clandestine-looking meeting in episode two, is hiding a secret. The first episode is an entertaining but on the rails affair where Conner and Abby seek to open up a time anomaly to get back to the present from the Cretaceous period. It picks up considerably in the second episode where Conner, now sacked from the Arc, meets up with an old university chum that after an encounter with dodos in series one is now a fully paid up member of the tinfoil hat brigade and they are soon on the run from a dinosaur in a container yard. It's great stuff and certainly back to form. I highly recommend you watch.



EDITOR'S NOTE: This review has been kicking around my files for several weeks, so - not being a TV watcher - I suspect that the series will be far later in its run by now, if it hasn't finished. However, you can let Oll's enthusing tempt you towards buying the DVD box when it appears.