List of Primeval characters

This is a list of characters in the ITV science fiction television series Primeval, including supporting characters.

The series originally features a cast of five main characters plus supporting cast who investigate time anomalies for the British government. The series 1 cast is made up of Douglas Henshall as Professor Nick Cutter, James Murray as Stephen Hart, Andrew-Lee Potts as Connor Temple, Lucy Brown as Claudia Brown and Hannah Spearritt as Abby Maitland, with Juliet Aubrey as Helen Cutter, Ben Miller as James Lester and Mark Wakeling as Captain Tom Ryan.

In the final episode of Series 1, Captain Tom Ryan is killed off, and Claudia Brown disappears. The rest of the cast carries over into Series 2. Lucy Brown plays a new character, Jenny Lewis, a savvy PR person and a doppelgänger of Claudia, but unlike her, she has no romantic attachment to Cutter and resents him referring to her as "Claudia". Karl Theobald as Oliver Leek, Naomi Bentley as Caroline Steel and Tim Faraday as "The Cleaner" support.

Stephen Hart and Oliver Leek are killed off in the final episode of Series 2, and Caroline Steel leaves. Series 3 sees the introduction of Laila Rouass as Sarah Page, Ben Mansfield as Captain Becker and Jason Flemyng as Danny Quinn. In the third episode Nick Cutter is killed, with Danny Quinn replacing him as team leader. Jenny Lewis leaves two episodes later (returning for the penultimate episode of Series 4); and in the finale of Series 3, Helen Cutter is knocked off a cliff by a Raptor.

Sarah Page was killed offscreen prior to Series 4, and Danny Quinn returned only in the finale of Series 4. Joining the cast was Ciarán McMenamin as Matt Anderson, the new team leader, Ruth Kearney as Jess Parker, team coordinator, Alexander Siddig as Philip Burton, an industrialist who is put in charge of the ARC, Anton Lesser as Gideon, Ruth Bradley as Emily Merchant and Jonathyn Byrne as Ethan Dobrowski.

The Series 4 line-up returned for Series 5 with the exception of Gideon and Ethan Dobrowski. They were joined by Janice Byrne as April Leonard, Philip Burton's assistant. At the end of Series 5, the only original cast members remaining were Andrew-Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt and Ben Miller.

Matthew "Matt" Anderson is portrayed by Ciarán McMenamin. He is a private man who guards the secrets of his past and the reason he has joined the ARC team. He is an ex-soldier and a zoologist, and can understand animal behaviour, demonstrating this ability in his first appearance by securing the escaped Dracorex inside of James Lester's (Ben Miller) office by luring it with a water dispenser, as the dinosaur was thirsty.

He and Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield) get along well enough, but neither misses the opportunity to make remarks of the other. In episode 4.2, Matt is unsure of Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) and Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) when they first return, and follows Abby out of suspicion, but this brings him to save both of their lives from a Kaprosuchus before he comes to accept them. In episode 4.3, a mysterious woman goes through an Anomaly, Matt went after her because he assumed she was from the present, but upon returning her learnt that Emily Merchant (Ruth Bradley) was from the Victorian era and had been living with other people throughout time. He was sympathetic towards her and kept her in his flat because he believed the ARC would treat her like a criminal and agrees to help her find her companion Ethan Dobrowski (Jonathan Byrne). But while he is dealing with another Anomaly she is kidnapped by Ethan so he goes to Lester, who helps him track her down and saves her life when she was trapped inside a coffin. In episode 4.6 he takes Emily to the anomaly site and admits to her that a disaster is going to happen because of the anomalies. He later saw Gideon (Anton Lesser), who was on the verge of death, and promised to use Emily as bait to catch Ethan since they suspected he was involved. As he died Matt wept and told Emily that Gideon was his father. In episode 4.7, he realises Ethan, in fact Danny Quinn's (Jason Flemyng) brother Patrick, is not involved as he and Gideon suspected. In the end he tells Emily that he is from the future, explaining that in his time everyone lives underground because the Earth is sterile and cannot support life. He and his father, Gideon, were sent back in time to help prevent that future from happening. At some point between the present time and Matt's time, an "event" happened which changed the way Anomalies appear and their effect on the Earth, making it a barren wasteland. At the end of the episode, he convinces Emily to return to 1867 so that he can focus on stopping "the event".