Rumours of Primeval’s death were greatly exaggerated. For a while it seemed extinct after ITV1 axed the show, but a groundbreaking co-production deal between BBC Worldwide, ITV, Watch and various after parties meant that the popular time-travelling dinosuars series will return in 2011.
The new deal means a seven-part season four will air on ITV1 before being repeated on UKTV’s Watch channel, while the six-part season five gets its debut on Watch before showing on ITV1. “As far as we’re concerned it’s one series,” says co-creator and lead writer Hodges. “We’re going straight through in terms of production and story arcs. We’ll probably have more mini two- and three- episode arcs than we’ve had in previous series, as well as the main serial arc, just to try and keep things fresh.”
As for where the show will be heading plotwise, Hodges reveals: “It was always the case that we would have ended the Cutter story at the end of series three, so series four was always going to be a fresh start. We’re very conscious of our own mythology and the nice thing is that after three series we can really exploit that more. There are certainly things that we will pick up from the past in the fourth series, but I don’t mind saying that they won’t include the future predators and they won’t include that Cutter storyline.”
Hodges reveals more about the future of Primeval – and how the rescue plan came together – in an exclusive Red Alert interview in the new issue of SFX, #190, on sale Wednesday 18 November. Join our Twitter feed so you get a reminder when the new issue comes out.
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