BBC AMERICA's hit sci-fi series, Primeval, ROARS BACK FOR An all-new u.s. premiere SEASON

-More monsters, more stunning effects, more team members, and more than a few surprises-

From the creators of Walking with Dinosaurs comes a new U.S. premiere season of monster hit Primeval. Fans can look forward to new cast members, horrifying monsters, stunning special effects and a rare location shoot in London's British Museum as well as a U.S. feature film in the works for 2010. New cast members include Jason Flemying, recently returned from playing Brad Pitt's father in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Laila Rouass, best known as Amber Gates in Footballers Wive$. The new season also brings an unusual new monster designed entirely by a Primeval fan. Primeval premieres Saturday, May 16, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

At the start of the new season, Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall, French Film, Dorian Gray) is still reeling from Stephen's death and the extent of his wife Helen's (Juliet Aubrey, (Still Crazy, The Constant Gardener) betrayal. As he fights to re-focus his embattled team, the anomalies continue to present an unrelenting series of threats. If the team thought the Mammoth was a tough nemesis, then the Giganotosaurus is truly epic. Bigger and badder than a T-Rex, the dino-hunters are faced with the one predator they fear the most.

In addition, creatures steeped in ancient folklore begin to appear as it becomes clear that the origins of myths and legends are linked with the mysterious anomalies. From a Pristichampus, a creature which bares a striking resemblance to the ancient Egyptian crocodile demon, Ammut, to a Dracorex being hunted by a deranged Knight who's convinced it's a dragon he must slay, it seems everyone wants a bite of the action.

As deadlier creatures from the past and future continue to rampage through the anomalies, the cloak of secrecy behind which the team has been working is in jeopardy. Questions are being asked and the conspiracy spreads its net wide. If something is not done quickly, the team's future is threatened�not to mention the future of humankind itself.

The cinematic appeal of the series was always apparent to co-creator and executive producer, Adrian Hodges: "It's always been our ambition on Primeval to deliver an exciting, character driven action-adventure show that feels in every way like a mini-feature film each week. We truly believe this third season matches that ambition as never before.

This is the biggest and most thrilling series we've done and Tim and I are convinced that there are many more stories to tell yet. Primeval is still growing and our goal each time is to surprise ourselves by what we can come up with. If we can do that, the audience will be surprised and gripped as well."

BBC AMERICA brings audiences a new generation of award-winning television featuring news with a uniquely global perspective, provocative dramas, razor-sharp comedies and life-changing makeovers. BBC AMERICA pushes the boundaries to deliver high quality, highly addictive and eminently watchable programming to viewers who demand more. BBC AMERICA is distributed by Discovery Networks. It is available on digital cable and satellite TV in more than 64 million homes.

WHAT THE BRITISH PRESS SAID

"Excellent science fiction romp. [Primeval] has always struck the fine balance (pulled off so well by the rejuvenated Doctor Who) between human backstory and hideous beasties as the handsome team track and try to contain creatures who have made their way into the present." The Observer

"A bunch of engaging actors chasing an assortment of monsters, ranging from slathering Gorgonospids to endearing lizards." The Times

"Pacy, full of action and special effects." The Sunday Telegraph

"Primeval scores is with its baddies, big jaw-crunchy, tail-swishy beasts." Metro

CAST AND PRODUCTION CREDITS

Prof. Nick Cutter Douglas Henshall (French Film, Dorian Gray)

Danny Vernon Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Snatch)

Jenny Lewis Lucy Brown (Sharpe's Challenge, Canterbury Tales)

Abby Maitland Hannah Spearritt (Agent Cody Banks, Blessed, S Club7)

Connor Temple Andrew Lee Potts (Ideal, Strange, Popcorn)

Sir James Lester Ben Miller (The Worst Week of My Life)

Sarah Page Laila Rouass (Footballers Wive$)

Helen Cutter Juliet Aubrey (Still Crazy, The Constant Gardener, Iris)

Captain Becker Ben Mansfield

Co-Creators and Executive Producers Tim Haines, Adrian Hodges

Series Producer Tim Bradley

Director Cilla Ware

Primeval is an Impossible Pictures production for ITV1.

EPISODE SYNOPSES

**Warning** Contains Spoilers

Episode one�Season three premiere

When an exhibition of ancient Egyptian relics comes to London's British Museum, an anomaly opens in a mysterious monument called the Sun Cage. A creature emerges from it�a Pristichampsus, a kind of monstrous crocodile that can run on two legs. This creature, which comes from a past much more distant than the Egypt of the Pharaohs, somehow became worshipped as a God in that civilization, and is now portrayed in the hieroglyphics on the Sun Cage. The murderous creature wreaks havoc in the museum before escaping into the city. Helped by Sarah Page (Laila Rouass), the smart and surprisingly sexy archaeologist at the museum, Cutter and the team attempt to track it down�but not before Connor begins to believe he's the victim of the legendary curse attached to the monument. Meantime Cutter is impressed by the museum's archaeologist and Page is invited to join his team.

New season premieres Saturday, May 16, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode two

Several years back, three teenage boys broke into a supposedly haunted house that came alive when a terrifying creature attacked them. In the aftermath, the only survivor was arrested for murder. Years later, the hapless young man is free, but is still too tormented to confront what really happened. Cutter's research leads him to predict the next anomaly will open in this same so-called haunted house but soon into the investigation they discover the house is actually home to a terrifying camouflage creature from the future, a beast that can change shape and form to disguise itself until it is practically invisible. The team also find themselves in trouble with the law when suspicious police detective Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) takes an instant dislike to them and their interest in the house, culminating in Connor's arrest.

Episode two premieres Saturday, May 23, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode three

In this episode, creatures from both the past and the future threaten the team. Some cute but surprisingly dangerous burrowing creatures called Diictodons almost cause a disaster at a hospital when an anomaly opens from the Permian era. Calamity is averted by Cutter, Connor, Abby and Becker who, in the course of the story, are obliged to get the creatures back to their own time whilst simultaneously delivering a (human) baby. A dogged journalist, determined to catch one of the creatures and expose the ARC and its secrets to the world, doesn't help the situation. Meanwhile Lester, Jenny and Sarah are confronted with an attack on the ARC, led by Helen and a small army of "Cleaner Replicas".

Episode three premieres Saturday, May 30, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode four

The largest anomaly the team has yet encountered registers on the detector. As they race to intercept it, a journalist is also on their trail as he's stolen one of their handheld detectors. He and his media mogul boss are already on their way. Setting up camp in a huge aircraft hangar where the anomaly has appeared, they have cameras ready to record whatever comes through. Unfortunately for the journalists, it is the gigantic Giganotosaurus, affectionately (or not) known as a G-Rex. A truly terrifying predator, bigger even than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, it smashes the journalists aside before rampaging onto a nearby airport. As the G-Rex plays cat and mouse with a 747 aircraft parked on the runway, its terrified crew are trapped inside. The team also receives assistance from Danny Quinn, who turns up unexpectedly and refuses to leave the scene.

Episode four premieres Saturday, June 6, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode five

A transient anomaly opens and, through it, comes a deadly flesh-eating fungus. It's the team's most unusual and dangerous threat yet. The incredibly aggressive, fast-growing fungus first invades and kills its human host before reanimating their bodies to seek out new hosts. Once it "eats" its victims it retains a vaguely human shape, making it both sinister and frighteningly dangerous. When all attempts to destroy the creature fail, the team faces the possibility that it will spread across Britain, absorbing everyone it encounters�becoming bigger and more dangerous as it moves across the country.

Episode five premieres Saturday, June 13, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode six

When the military invades the ARC in search of a mysterious artifact, the team escapes to a mysterious old hut in the woods. They think they're safe, until an anomaly opens nearby and 10-foot killer birds from the Pliocene era attack them. Phorusrhacids may look like armored ostriches, but they are infinitely more dangerous. The team has to use all its ingenuity to keep the rapacious birds at bay�especially since, for once, they have no technology at their disposal. They have to rely on nothing more than their bare hands and whatever they can find in the hut in the woods, which has not been used since the 1930s.

Episode six premieres Saturday, June 20, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode seven

An anomaly opens in the middle of a huge junkyard and a dinosaur from the Cretaceous era comes through. The Dracorex is wounded, which only makes it more aggressive. The team is trying to force it back when, suddenly, a medieval knight on horseback gallops through the anomaly, chasing what he thinks is a dragon. The knight decides the modern world must be hell and his only chance to make it to heaven is by slaying the creature�this is his quest. The team finds itself in the unusual position of dealing with, not only a dinosaur on the loose, but a deranged medieval knight who is convinced he is a latter-day St. George.

Episode seven premieres June 27, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode eight

When an anomaly opens at a racecar test-track, the team must draw on all its skills to capture a lethal Megopteran, a giant carnivorous insect from the future. As they attempt to send it back home and lock the anomaly, they are unaware that there are two creatures on the loose, and one is still at the track when they leave. Meanwhile, at Abby's apartment, her brother Jack steals her hand-held detector and sets out to uncover the truth about Abby's job�with the result he comes under attack at the test track from the remaining Megopteran. In trying to escape from the creature Jack enters the anomaly and the team have to go after him in the slim chance they can rescue him. Note: The Megopteran is the fan-generated creature.

Episode eight premieres Saturday, July 11, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode nine

The team tries to tame a herd of Embolotherium when it comes through an anomaly, but these seven-tonne rhinoceros-type beasts from the Eocene era don't budge easily. To make matters worse, Abby realizes someone is trapped in a tent and for some reason one of the Embolotherium seems intent on trampling it. Abby and Sarah try to rescue the trapped civilian, while Connor tries to lure the lumbering creatures back into the anomaly without causing a stampede or being crushed in the process. Danny finally arrives, late. With him is Eve, a mysterious woman from the future. Things get out of control when the anomaly suddenly snaps shut and the herd starts to stampede.

Episode nine premieres Saturday, July 18, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Episode ten **Spoilers**

Helen Cutter decides the only way to stop the destruction of life on Earth is to stop humans ever evolving. So she goes back in time to the Pliocene period, intent on poisoning the very first humans that evolved in the Rift Valley in Africa. The team is determined to go back to the future and stop her before she can hurt anyone else. Moments before they are about to head through the anomaly, however, their hand-held detectors go off. The team splits�half will battle three vicious Megopterans, which have come through another anomaly, and the rest will head to the future to take on their human nemesis, Helen. One of the team will also come face to face with the earliest humans, Hominids, in an encounter that will change their life forever. The deranged Helen succeeds in killing one Hominid family, but soon receives a very unpleasant surprise.

Episode ten premieres Saturday, July 25, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT (PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE)

SPECIAL FEATURE: THE CREATURES OF PRIMEVAL

Season three brings a menagerie of new creatures, some of them friendly and some most definitely not. These creatures bear all the hallmarks of Tim Haines' renowned expertise in the world of prehistoric creatures (first illustrated in his famous Walking with Dinosaurs) but there are also creatures from the future based purely on speculation�though always with a background in real science.