Skins - a jewel in British television's crown
Skins - a jewel in British television's crown
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 27, Jan 2010 12:50
Its characters are impossibly cool and its storylines designed to outrage Middle England but the return of Bafta-winning Skins only improves the TV schedules.
Not content with providing at least an hour of must-watch TV in the shape of Glee, E4 can now bear a smug grin as the superb Skins returns, proving that culling almost an entire cast and outraging the reactionary press doesn't mean a death knell for a TV show. Father and son creators Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain have seen their show go from strength to strength since its 2007 debut, with Daily Mail horror stories about nice middle class families having their house trashed during 'Skins parties' not only increasing the illicit allure of the show for its target market but also underlining the success of the brand. Production house Company Pictures signed a deal with Crystal Entertainment in September last year - the firm behind 'Brand Beckham' - and there are plans for a Skins film as well as a fashion line. Skins also has a mutually beneficial relationship with the music industry, with the likes of the Gossip, Florence and the Machine and Asobi Seksu gaining notoriety by soundtracking trailer campaigns and crucial sequences, and MGMT's Time to Pretend used to devastating effect for the finale of the second series, as viewers waved goodbye to Tony (Nicolas Hoult), Sid (Mike Bailey) and Anwar (future Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel).
Whether any of the current cast will follow Hoult and Patel to Hollywood remains to be seen, but it's not hard to see Jack O'Connell (the terrifying lost boy Cook) aping the big screen success of his This Is England colleague Thomas Turgoose. Ollie Barbieri (JJ) and Lisa Backwell (Pandora) are fine comic talents, the beautiful Kaya Scodelario (Effy) won't fail to find post-Skins work while the dark and surprising first episode of series four confirms that even supposedly minor characters are now afforded significant arcs. Merv Lukeba, a likeable bit-part player as Congolese immigrant Thomas in the third series comes to the fore in the series four premiere, which thrusts a glorious middle finger to its detractors in the opening minute, as an unnamed girl snorts MDMA and Cook has a knee trembler before a raucous club night is hit by teenage tragedy.
It's easy to compare E4's other hit teen series The Inbetweeners to Skins and argue that the former - with its nervous, sex-obsessed males and thwarted to find booze - is a far more realistic portrayal of teenage Britain than the sexually precocious attractive cast of Skins, seemingly able to guzzle down grams of Class As without blinking. For many viewers - this writer included - that argument is almost certainly correct. But where Skins must be credited for its authenticity is in wholly convincing club scenes and the teens' interaction with the frequently idiotic and bewildering adult world. Pauline Quirke adds to the show's long line of esteemed guest stars in the series four opener while a deliciously evil Chris Addison cameos as the passive-aggressive new head of sixth form, reminiscent of David Haig's immensely creepy spin doctor in The Thick Of It. Older viewers might never have been anywhere near as cool as Freddie (Luke Pasqualino), Effy and co but can share a moment with their teenage counterparts among the audience as they recall the confused response of adults to what Grahame Greene called "the pain of puberty".
With script that includes solid-gold lines like "Obi-Wan is like God, but with better weapons", a cast and production values that mean you need not be under 18 to tune in and a fourth series that promises to put the self-destructive love triangle between Cook, Freddie and Effy on the backburner to focus on the tender relationship between Emily (Kathryn Prescott) and Naomi (Lily Loveless), as well as Thomas' cultural dislocation, Skins' fourth series could be its best yet.
Lewis Bazley
Skins starts on January 28th at 22:00 on E4.