''Prime Target'' is a thriller television series created by Steve Thompson and starring

Leo Woodall Leo Vincent Woodall (born 14 September 1996) is an English actor. He gained recognition with his roles in the second season of the HBO satirical anthology series '' The White Lotus'' (2022) and in the Netflix romantic drama miniseries '' One Day ...

as a mathematician. It premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

on 22 January 2025, consisting of 8 episodes.

Synopsis

Edward Brooks is analyzing

prime numbers A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He is being monitored by

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

agents like Taylah Sanders. Brooks' professor warns him off the project before being killed. When Sanders' colleagues are executed, she finds Brooks and helps keep him alive. They travel to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

to continue his research. Sanders finds that her supervisor has approved Brooks' assassination. Brooks is able to develop a prime finder that will aid codebreaking. Brooks realizes that Professor James Alderman has been the one ruthlessly pursuing the prime finder and will keep ordering killings in order to find it. Brooks kills him and goes on the run while Sanders faces the police.

Cast

Main

as Edward Brooks, a mathematics student at Cambridge University * Quintessa Swindell as Taylah Sanders, an NSA agent remotely spying on various academics *

Sidse Babett Knudsen Sidse Babett Knudsen (; born 22 November 1968) is a Danish actress who works in theatre, television, and film. Knudsen made her screen debut in the 1997 improvisational comedy '' Let's Get Lost'', for which she received both the Robert and Bodil ...

as Professor Andrea Lavin, Robert Mallinder's wife, an archaeologist and professor at Cambridge *

David Morrissey David Mark Joseph Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and filmmaker. He had numerous small roles in films and television series throughout the 1990s before achieving wider recognition for playing Gordon Brown in '' The Deal'' (2003 ...

as Professor Robert Mallinder, a mathematics professor who died under suspicious circumstances *

Stephen Rea Stephen Rea ( ; born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin's Focus Theatre, and played many roles on the stage and on Irish television. He came to the attention of inte ...

as Professor James Alderman *

Fra Fee Fra Fee (born 20 May 1987) is a Northern Irish actor and singer. He is best known for playing Courfeyrac in Tom Hooper's 2012 film adaptation of ''Les Misérables'', and for his role as Kazi in the Disney+ series ''Hawkeye'', which is set in ...

as Adam Mellor * Joseph Mydell as Professor Raymond Osborne *

Jason Flemyng Jason Iain Flemyng''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 25 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for his work with British filmmakers Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn appearing in ...

as Stephen Patrick Nield *

Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress and member of the Carradine family. She started her career as a teen actress in film before transitioning to adult roles on stage and screen. She has received several awards includ ...

as Jane Torres *

Harry Lloyd Harry Charles Salusbury Lloyd (born 17 November 1983) is an English actor. His performance in the Channel 4 miniseries '' The Fear'' (2012) earned him a British Academy Television Award nomination. He gained prominence through his roles as W ...

as Andrew Carter *

Ali Suliman Ali Suliman (, ; born 1977) is an Israeli actor of Palestinian origin. He is known for his work on the series '' Jack Ryan'' and the film ''Paradise Now''. Early life Ali was born in Nazareth, Israel into a Palestinian-Muslim family. He gradu ...

as Dr. Akram Nizar

Recurring

* Maanuv Thiara as Dr. Charan Nathoo * Sergej Onopko as Bogdan Vlahovic

Guest

Daisy Waterstone Daisy Waterstone (born 13 June 1994) is a British actress, best known for playing Margo Durrell in the ITV family drama ''The Durrells''. Early life Waterstone was born on 13 June 1994 in Hammersmith, London, one of eight children of Sir Tim ...

as Fiona Carey * Tim Faraday as Keith Wyatt * Rod Hallett as Brian Brooks *

Tom Stourton Thomas Edward Alexander Stourton (born September 1987) is an English actor, comedian and writer. Career Stourton started his career as a comedian at university, performing in the web-series "High Renaissance Man" that he co-wrote with Tom Palme ...

as Ricky Olson *

Sofia Barclay Sofia Beatrice Barclay (born 31 August 1988) is an English actress. Early life Barclay was born in central London with her twin brother. She is the daughter of Ferzana and Aidan Barclay, and the granddaughter of Sir David Barclay. Barclay atten ...

as Safiya Zamil * Tom Byrne as Tom Grayson

Episodes

Production

It was announced in February 2024 that

had greenlit the series, created by Steve Thompson. Principal photography took place in Windsor in May 2023, with other filming locations reported to include

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Filming took place in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in August 2023. Photography took place in Morocco, Paris, and

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Release

''Prime Target'' was released on Apple TV+ on 22 January 2025, with the first two episodes available immediately and followed by one episode on a weekly basis until the eighth and final episode on 5 March.

Reception

The review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 46% approval rating with an average rating of 5.2/10, based on 41 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "(Goofy concept + likable ensemble) ÷ sludgy pacing = an attractive but mediocre globetrotting series."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

References

External links

* {{Apple TV+ Apple TV+ original programming American English-language television shows British English-language television shows 2025 American television series debuts 2025 British television series debuts 2025 American television series endings 2025 British television series endings American thriller television series British thriller television series Television series by Scott Free Productions Television shows set in Cambridge Television shows set in Iraq Television shows set in Paris Television shows set in France