Series 2

« "My name is Professor Nick Cutter. Eight years ago, my wife Helen disappeared; I discovered she had stepped into the past through ruptures in time called Anomalies. Now creatures from the past threaten the future of the human race. There's only a small group of people who know the truth: my research team - Stephen Hart, Connor Temple, and Abby Maitland - and government officials James Lester and Claudia Brown. I returned from the past to find something has gone terribly wrong, and Claudia Brown has vanished, as though she was never even born. I've come back to a different world. And Helen and I are the only two people who know it!" »

— Nick Cutter's recap of the events leading up to Series 2.^[src]

Series 2 of Primeval is the second series of the original British Primeval television programme. Series 2 focuses on the effects on the relationships of, and emotional challenges on the team, primarily Nick Cutter's struggle to cope with losing Claudia Brown, and on Helen Cutter's and Oliver Leek's mysterious plans.

Plot[]

After returning from the past to find that Claudia Brown has been erased from time, Nick Cutter is forced to cope with other changes, including that the team are now their own Anomaly-combating organisation called the Anomaly Research Centre. Just when Cutter finally begins to come to terms with losing Claudia, a new PR guru joins the ARC; Jenny Lewis, who is physically identical to Claudia Brown but temperamentally is a completely different person.

Meanwhile, though Cutter believes that Stephen has gotten over Helen's betrayal, Stephen has in fact begun seeing Helen again and is becoming torn between her and Cutter; while Connor begins dating the mysterious Caroline Steel. Abby doesn't trust Caroline, and her and Connor's opposing opinions on her begin to drive a wedge between them. Unbeknownst to anyone, Caroline is secretly spying on Connor for the mysterious Oliver Leek, who has a secret agenda of his own for the Anomalies alongside Helen.

After the ARC team learn of Leek's and Helen's secret plans to use a creature army that they have captured to create chaos in the present, they are forced to try and stop the creatures from escaping onto the modern world. Helen, Nick and Stephen manage to trap and kill the creatures, but Stephen loses his life in the process. In the aftermath, Cutter finally accepts that Claudia Brown is gone forever and moves on with Jenny, while Helen promises that things will change with her clone army.

Episodes[]

Serial Number	Writer/s	Director	Air date	Overall Episode
2.1	Adrian Hodges	Jamie Payne	12 January 2008	7
2.1	As Nick Cutter grapples with Claudia Brown's sudden disappearance, a deadly Raptor runs loose in a Shopping Mall. The ARC team must get it back to the past before it kills again.

2.2	Adrian Hodges	Andrew Gunn	19 January 2008	8
2.2	As the ARC team deals with an eerie fog and giant carnivorous worms, Cutter becomes preoccupied with the team's new PR executive, Jenny Lewis, whom he is convinced is actually Claudia Brown.

2.3	Richard Kurti, Bev Doyle	Jamie Payne	26 January 2008	9
2.3	Connor Temple unveils his new Anomaly Detector, but the ARC team begin to doubt its reliability when a Sabre-toothed Cat starts attacking people at a theme park.

2.4	Cameron McAllister	Jamie Payne	2 February 2008	10
2.4	After a teenager mysteriously disappears, the ARC team investigate, and narrowly save Jenny from death at the jaws of a highly evolved shark. After another marine creature snatches Abby, the team frantically searches for her before she's taken to the Future.

2.5	Ben Court, Caroline Ip	Andrew Gunn	9 February 2008	11
2.5	An eleven year old girl goes missing after she stumbles through an Anomaly. Cutter and Stephen go through to find her, but when the Anomaly closes they must brave the heat and giant sand-dwelling scorpions to discover another way back.

2.6	Paul Cornell	Nick Murphy	16 February 2008	12
2.6	The team plans to catch the traitor in the ARC but a rampaging Mammoth appears on the M25. While everyone is out, Lester has to deal with a Future Predator incursion in the ARC.

2.7	Adrian Hodges	Nick Murphy	23 February 2008	13
2.7	The team gets kidnapped by Oliver Leek, who is using an army of creatures he has captured from the Anomalies. His ally, Helen has her own plans. The creatures get released in the concrete menagerie and the team has stop them

Cast and characters[]

Main cast and characters[]

Douglas Henshall as Nick Cutter
James Murray as Stephen Hart
Andrew-Lee Potts as Connor Temple
Hannah Spearritt as Abby Maitland
Lucy Brown as Jenny Lewis
Juliet Aubrey as Helen Cutter
Ben Miller as James Lester
Karl Theobald as Oliver Leek
Naomi Bentley as Caroline Steel
Tim Faraday as The Cleaner and the Cleaner Clones

Guest cast and characters[]

Simon Naylor as Security Guard 1
Anthony Adjekum as Security Guard 2
Martin Miller as Duty Manager
Scott Hazell as Youth 1
James Bellamy as Youth 2
Sidney Cole as Fire Chief
Jason Thorpe as Terry
Ruth Millar as Shelley Mitchell
Shelley Minto as Firewoman Cooper
Ged Simmons as Fireman Armstrong
Rupert Young as Mike
Togo Igawa as Mr. Nagata
Gillian Kearney as Valerie Irwin
Rick Warden as Peter Campbell
Thomas Aldridge as Warren
Eloise Joseph as Female Paintballer 1
Ashley Mulheron as Female Paintballer 2
Ian Ralph as West
Heather McHale as Mother
Rory MacGregor as Kenny Johnson
John Henry Keating as Mechanic
Jacob Anderson as Lucien Hope
Loick Essien as a Basketball Player
Chris Nayak as Mr. Carr
Drew Edwards as Mini-Sub Operator
Mabel Rogers as Taylor Craig
Errol Clarke as Oliver Leek's Mercenary 1
Jay Simpson as Steve
Ramon Tikaram as Mick Harper
Elliot James Langridge as Youth on Beach
Robin Pirongs as Father on Beach

Reception[]

Series 2 of Primeval was well-received, with fans praising the high-stakes plot and character development, and the emotional and heartbreaking finale.

Trivia[]

British paleontologist and science writer Darren Naish was consulted for Series 2, notably "[having] a hand in some of the stuff" that was featured in that series.^[1]