Ben Miller is back as James Lester in the fifth series of time-travelling dinosaur drama Primeval, airing at 8pm on Tuesdays, exclusive to Watch.

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A veteran go-between in charge of the ARC, Lester is coming to terms with the new leadership, until he realises the team is in danger.

What happens to Lester in Series 5 of Primeval?

“Lester’s brooding animosity with Philip grows in this series. There was a sense of Lester hanging back a bit in Series 4, but this time it’s definitely more out in the open. He genuinely can’t stand the man. The difficulties of operating as number two are really getting to him. The plot also thickens regarding the mystery surrounding Ciarán’s character – Matt. That’s a big story in Series 5 – where exactly has Matt come from and what does that mean for the anomalies?”

How does Lester react when he finds out Matt’s secret?

“He’s typically blasé about the whole thing. Lester, as ever, is interested for about 15 seconds before he moves onto something else. He has limited interest in Matt’s problems. He’s mostly worried about what this means in terms of filling out forms. I love the way Lester is always quite uninterested in everything. He’s more interested in the consequences for him.”

It seems that Lester always has to lock horns with someone. Does he ever pine for a quiet life?

“Yes, it does seem that way! I think away from it all, Lester does have a quiet life. I imagine in his home life, his wife completely runs the show. I often ask myself how a man like that takes time off, and I come to the conclusion he gets bossed around at home. Either that or he’s got some very spoilt children that make his life an absolute misery.”

Lester comes to blows with the Navy in this series. What can you tell us about that episode?

“It’s one of my favourite ever episodes actually. It’s set on a submarine and we discover that Lester has a deep-seated hatred of the military. Among other things. I think there’s some unfinished business there – I wonder if he failed to get into Naval college or something. Certainly he’s harbouring a pretty large grudge. A submarine gets into trouble with an anomaly and several creatures, and he has a head-to-head moment with the Navy.”

Does Lester have any Rambo moments in this series?

“Oh there are, yes! There’s a very big climax to  Series 5, which Lester is a very big part of. And that’s great, because I love it when Lester rolls his sleeves up and gets hold of some sort of semiautomatic weapon. Those are always the high points of Primeval for me. Where he suddenly goes from playing Tetris on his iPad to mowing down dinosaurs. It’s a proper save the planet/world/mankind finale.”

Did you always want to get into family drama and adventure?

“It’s not really genres that get me going, it’s the characters. It’s so much fun playing a character like Lester; someone who just sneers at everything that takes place. Someone who thinks that dinosaurs are an administrative inconvenience and the people who run the ARC are mental, have-a-go-heroes. He’s so brilliantly flawed, it just makes him so fun to play. He’s a man with extraordinary self-belief, but the thing is he’s actually quite sweet underneath it all.

“He does care about the team, but he just can’t bring himself to show it. There’s a sort of contradiction at the centre of him, and those sorts of characters are always interesting. The other thing that’s fun about Primeval is that it’s such a huge show. It’s a really huge thing. The effects they do… it’s just like doing a movie. It’s a very creative environment, with a large group of actors that I have got to know.”

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