Adrian Hodges ITV fantasy Primeval cancelled
Posted by Rich Cross on June 21, 2009
Primeval, the ITV dinosaur fantasy adventure series created by Survivors’ showrunner Adrian Hodges, has been cancelled in a decision that appears to have come as an unwelcome surprise to the show’s producers.
Three series of the Saturday tea-time family-friendly genre show had been broadcast, and pre-production work was already underway on series four when ITV made its announcement.
ITV made clear that the decision to drop Primeval was part of a general reallocation of the drama spend that would see the channel focus most of its funding on post-9pm (and therefore post-watershed) programming.
Clearly stung by the shock move, a spokesperson for the show indicated that the producers would not have gone ahead with the series three cliff-hanger ending had they been made aware that the third series would be the show’s last.
JHarmer said
I used to like Primeval, but gave up on the third series when dinosaurs became mythical creatures and it started to get REALLY silly.
I would question it being a “family friendly” show though when the first episode of the second series clearly showed a dead body.
Rich Cross said
Primeval certainly contained some sequences of what film classifiers now like to call (something like) ‘mild peril and danger’, but there’s no doubt that in its early Saturday tea-time slot the show is targetted specifically at a family audience (which doesn’t mean that no-one dies or gets hurt on screen – just as in Doctor Who, Robin Hood (BBC) or Demons (ITV)).
L Taylor said
I live in Australia and ordered Series 3 from the UK as we weren’t getting it here until September this year and we couldn’t wait. Having just finished watching it with my children, we couldn’t wait for Series 4. WHAT HAPPENED? Whoever needs to get this back into production, PLEASE DO SO NOW! Even if only to finish up from the finale!