List of Primeval characters

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.

Having earlier learned that she would end up in an asylum because of her husband Henry, he attempted to convince her to come back to the present as he regretted telling her to go, and was thankful to Abby when she handed over a copy of Connor's hard drive.

Neither Lester, Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) or Matt Anderson (Ciarán McMenamin) trust him, but Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) admits he is like a groupie to Philip.

In episode 4.7, Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) confronts Philip about knowing Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) and doing research with her after finding his name on a document on her body, and despite denying this all he is clearly agitated.

He was prepared to sacrifice the lives of the team to keep "New Dawn" from being compromised by blowing up the ARC during a future beetle incursion, though this fails, and it was shown he had built a larger version of Connor's device.

These clones would be revealed as the result of technology that Helen acquired from the future, though lack any real independent thought like the original and are programmed to obey her every command even if it meant killing themselves.

At the very least, by the end of the series it had been made abundantly clear that she possessed a keen understanding of the mechanics of the space-time phenomena, which exceeded that of any other character in the series, which gave her the know how to manipulate the anomalies for her own various reasons, and purposes, such as traveling through the anomalies with Cutter, which would be basic time travel, to recreating the temporal accident that replaced Claudia Brown with Jenny Lewis, and created Oliver Leek, scientific research that had the implied chance of destroying the universe, then using it to actively seek to change the timeline to prevent the bad future of Future Bats and Future Ants created by the Home Office after a successful takeover of the Anomaly Research Center in Series 3, an event in the normal timeline that failed, and between seasons obtaining cloning technology to create clones.

During episode 2.5, Helen visits Stephen again and imparts some information about the group spying on the ARC members, but states it in a way to make it sound like Cutter is involved and Lester is in charge.

In episode 2.6 Helen starts showing her feelings about Stephen and they share a passionate kiss and is revealed to be working with Oliver Leek (Karl Theobald) in attempting to experiment on the anomalies to see how they affect the future.

Despite being shown as the brains of the operation, Leek begins to challenge Helen and when their creatures are released, she calls Stephen and lies to him saying that she was kidnapped by James Lester (Ben Miller) and that Cutter was killed.

Donning the alias of Eve (Kate Magowan), she uses Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) to get into the new ARC headquarters to regain the artefact, now believing that the only means to ensure the Future Predators' timeline never occurs is by negating humanity itself.

Her presence is still felt strongly in the fourth series, as the ARC team speculate her fate; when Danny returns in the finale, he confirms that Helen is dead "as a dodo" to Lester, who responds happily: "Excellent".

[2] Cutter started out as a somewhat aloof individual; for example he initially rather briskly brushes off Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) who comes to him with suspicions of a prehistoric creature being loose in modern times, telling him to go and get a girlfriend instead.

Despite this he does not believe Connor when he tries to tell him and Tom what he has been involved in without breaking the Official Secrets Act,[1] and he and Duncan devise their own conspiracy theories around the dodo (which he names Dodie) that they capture.

He seemed desperate that they achieve their goal, warning Matt to keep an eye on the other members of the ARC and be wary of everyone, particularly Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) and Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) when they returned after a year in the Cretaceous.

In episode 3.3, Mick convinced his boss, Katherine Kavanagh (Ruth Gemmell), to give him a chance to prove prehistoric creatures were alive in the present, and attempted to have Jenny tell him after tracking down her home, but she refused to comment.

[1] Whether or not she is the former girlfriend who broke his heart is unclear but it is shown in episode 1.6 that it was a short lived affair which he has regretted ever since, mainly because of his guilt over betraying his friend and partly because Helen is, as he calls her, "a real bitch".

[7] This sinister side is first shown in episodes 2.3 and 2.4, where he appears to be employing at least two individuals – a mysterious cleaner (Tim Faraday) and Caroline Steel (Naomi Bentley) – to follow the team and find out as much as they can.

In addition, although Cutter realises early in series two that there is a traitor within the ARC, Leek manages to avoid suspicion until he chooses to reveal himself in episode 2.6, having set an elaborate trap for the team based on his knowledge of Connor Temple's (Andrew-Lee Potts) working methods.

He seems to have a great disregard to other people's feelings and human lives – he finds the fight between Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) and Caroline entertaining, and does not seem to care when Cutter tells him that if a predator was to escape it could wipe out mankind.

Lester works for the British government, and is leader and ultimately responsible for the team of scientists, led by Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall), charged with investigating the appearance of time anomalies.

When he returns in episode 5.5, he learns Matt is from the future and Philip is responsible for the end of the world, and when several anomalies begin opening he encourages Jess Parker (Ruth Kearney) to continue working, using polite words.

However, when the pair are trapped in the Cretaceous while chasing Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) with new team leader Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng), she helps him to relax, and agrees to let him move back into her flat once they return home.

However, after finding an anomaly device they do manage to get back to the present, and both are told by the ARC that they are fired, due to new regulations stating that employees must be from a military/police background; although James Lester (Ben Miller) later reinstates them in episode 4.2.

When the ARC is attacked by Helen Cutter's (Juliet Aubrey) Cleaner Clones (Tim Faraday) in episode 3.3, she is captured along with Jenny Lewis (Lucy Brown) and James Lester (Ben Miller).

Jess accidentally released the Dracorex from the ARC's manergerie in the beginning of Series 4, and later coordinated the team as they dealt with a Spinosaurus that had followed Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) through the Anomaly.

While Connor finds the idea of the time anomalies exciting, he questions his own usefulness after he leads Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) on a wild goose chase in episode 1.2, especially after being reprimanded for it.

In episode 3.6, he and Sarah Page (Laila Rouass) get the artefact to open for a short while, revealing that it predicted anomalies and that Cutter had been right about its importance, and did his best to keep it safe when the team was hiding from Christine Johnson (Belinda Stewart-Wilson) and a flock of terror birds.

He returns in the finale The Sound of Thunder, Part 2, chasing an Albertosaurus through the streets of London, using the new "Type V" EMD, and follows new ARC member Kieran through an anomaly into a Spaghetti Junction.

He takes an active role in several episodes and is Christine's choice to succeed Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) as leader of the anomaly response team, as part of her plot to seize control of the ARC from James Lester (Ben Miller).