Sheridan Smith was born in Epworth, in Lincolnshire, to parents Colin and Marilyn, a country and western duo who performed as the Daltons. It was watching and occasionally appearing on stage with them that sparked her passion for performing, and she successfully auditioned for the National Youth Music Theatre. She was cast as Tallulah in Bugsy Malone, which had a run in London when she was 16. Instead of going back home, she was signed up by an agent and moved into a flat with her fellow cast member Hannah Spearritt, who went on to be in S Club 7.

Who doesn't like a show about freakish time-teleporting dinosaurs that terrorize contemporary humanity? If you haven't experienced that kind of bizarro fun, then you haven't caught up with BBC America's sci-fi series Primeval (also shown on Syfy). The premise revolves around a group of scientists, cops and soldiers investigating temporal rifts around England that have allowed prehistoric creatures such as mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dodos and flesh-eating fungus to wreak havoc in the present.

Despite being a three-season hit in the U.K., Primeval was actually canceled last June due to the massive budget needed to produce the ambitious CG dinos and futuristic creatures for the small screen. But the series was saved from extinction by a complicated funding partnership involving five production entities (including BBC World), which ensures it will be back for a fourth and fifth season featuring a cumulative 13 episodes in 2011.

"It's the show you can't kill," co-creator and writer Adrian Hodges said with a laugh in an exclusive phone interview on Wednesday.

Hodges revealed that he and his team are already deep into the development of season four. "We are actually just casting two or three new major roles right now. We'll have them cast in the next week or two. We also have scripts for the first six episodes and storylines and treatments for the remaining seven. We start shooting in the middle of March."

The third-season finale of Primeval left heroic team leader Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) trapped in Pliocene Africa, leaving fans to wonder whether he will ever return.

Hodges revealed that season four "will be starting a year later [from the end of season three]. All the cast you know will reappear, but they won't all necessarily reappear straightaway or for the whole season. However, we will be giving satisfying answers to all those cliffhangers."

You can catch up with a Primeval marathon on Syfy on March 2.

2000 - 97
2001 - 63
2002 - 17
2003 - 26
2004 - 57
2008 - 87

Credit: AndrewLeePotts.com and Tamie

Credit: Jenny

Primeval star Andrew-Lee Potts has claimed that producers have “shocking” plots planned for the new series. The 30-year-old actor will soon reprise his role as Connor Temple on the ITV1 sci-fi show, which was recently given a surprise recommission for 13 more episodes. In an interview with IESB, Potts commented: “It’s great coming back to play him. And then, also, I get to work with my fiancée Hannah Spearritt. When it was cancelled, it was such a shame because we enjoyed working with each other so much and we thought, ‘We might never do that again’. That made us sad.

“But, we’re going to be able to do that again. And we actually went out for dinner with all the producers the other day, and the storylines they’ve got and the stuff that’s going to happen this time is going to be really good. It’s very shocking as well.” Potts also said that he always had a “gut feeling” the show would come back and is “really pleased” that he turned out to be correct. Filming for Primeval will begin in March ahead of a 2011 return.

IESB: How did it feel, when you found out that Primeval would be returning for another season, after you had already been told that it was canceled? Were you surprised at all?

Andrew: I was surprised. I just had a feeling that it wasn't gone because it only disappeared due to money problems at ITV. It was just a matter of timing. It wasn't ever the fact that they didn't want to make the show, and I knew that when it got canceled. And, I knew the guys at Impossible Pictures, who actually make the show, just wouldn't let it die. They had so much passion for it and they were so proud of it. And, America bought the rights to the film.

The flag was flying quite high, so it was just a shame for it to go out that way, especially with unfinished storylines because we thought we were going again. So, I had a bit of a gut feeling that I suppose was a gut hope, really. I didn't feel like I'd finished playing Connor Temple and, thankfully, I haven't. So, I'm really, really pleased. We'll be shooting that in Dublin and we'll be starting it in March of next year. That's all very exciting. We'll be doing 13 episode about prehistoric dinosaurs.

IESB: What do you enjoy about playing Connor? Is it fun for you to return to the same character, over a number of seasons?

Andrew: I love the character I play because it's mine. The description was so well-written, when we first went in, but the character of Connor was definitely written like an out-and-out nerd with the glasses, who was a real intellectual type, and the character has progressed. I'm not saying he's not nerdish at all, because he has his moments all the time, but I wanted to do something different with it. When I went into the audition, it went really well. I made them laugh a lot, and my energy was what they grabbed onto. They said, "Let's just make him this eccentric, energized bunny rabbit."

It's great coming back to play him. And then, also, I get to work with my fiancee, Hannah Spearritt. When it was canceled, it was such a shame because we enjoyed working with each other so much and we thought, "We might never do that again." That made us sad. But, we're going to be able to do that again. And, we actually went out for dinner with all the producers the other day, and the storylines they've got and the stuff that's going to happen this time is going to be really good. It's very shocking as well.

Credit: Jenny

"My [real-life] fiancee is Hannah Spearritt, and I always enjoyed doing scenes with her," he says. “The thing is, Abby and Connor were never supposed to get together. When we started the series, it was going to be Abby and Stephen, and Connor was always meant to be in the background. Something happened, though, when they put Abby and Connor together in episode two of season one. Hannah and I didn’t even read together during the audition process, but the onscreen banter between us was just so natural. They [the writers] then began having fun with Abby and Connor, and Hannah and I did, too. Each season they gave us an Abby/Connor episode, including the one in year two where Abby is dragged into the future by these big seal creatures [Mar], and Connor goes through the anomaly to save her. That was a cool one to do.