It doesn’t
matter if that might be TOWIE, Big Brother, Shameless, even Coronation Street
or Deal or No Deal – we all have prime favourites.
One of mine
of recent years has been the E4 teen drama series Skins. On July 1, the seventh series of this
gripping phenomenon will begin. However,
it is the last series to be aired – which is a sad feeling, but also the right
decision.
But why has
Skins had a core audience, and is a final flourish the right way to go out on?
Core audience
When Skins
burst onto the television screens back in February 2007, the show was
completely different from your normal brand of drama. This wasn’t a predictable series of classic
actors playing stereotypical characters in a plotline that can often get quite
repetitive.
Admittedly, I
never really liked the first generation and only saw the odd clip of the
first two series, but that all changed with series three in 2009.
Skins started
off with an audience which has now grown up.
For example, those who first watched it six years ago probably weren’t
following it so much when the final full series ended around Easter last year,
but that is a good thing. It has a
specific core audience range of around 16-22, and I would be concerned if a
50-year-old individual listed it among their favourite programmes. After all, it is about teenagers and life at college, and
that’s as far as it goes.
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| The second generation of Skins characters were my favourites |
Audience
figures have generally been impressive, always just under the one million
mark. In fact, the series four opener
which began with the death of a mysterious stranger in a nightclub attracted
1.5m combined on E4 & E4+1. Even the
final major generation still were receiving decent figures, despite the decline in writing ability and storylines.
I was a
religious watcher of series three, four and five, and watched occasional
episodes from series six, mainly if a character’s episode had been impressive
in the fifth series (Mini and Franky) as examples.
Although my interest in the show waned
towards the end of series five and into series six, I will be tuning into
series seven and see how things have progressed for the cast of the past.
Giving youngsters a chance
I should know
this more than anyone, but in David Cameron’s Britain of today, the chances for
youngsters are predominately thin.
Things could be better in terms of job prospects, or choices of what we
can do.
One thing
that has impressed me with Skins is the determination to give young actors and
actresses a real chance. The talent that
has come through with Skins has been impressive, and often, the acting really
does shine through, especially if a storyline is weak (series four was a prime
example of this).
Dev Patel and
Nicholas Hoult had the best success out of the first generation. Patel went on to star in the award-winning
sensation Slumdog Millionaire, whilst Hoult has gone into major roles in film,
especially in the X-Men trilogy.
In
generation two, Jack O’Connell has come on leaps and bounds. He has had roles in film and two powerful TV
dramas, Dive and United. Fellow lead
cast member of this generation Kaya Scodelario has appeared in a host of music
videos for the artist Plan B, whilst Ollie Barbieri, Lily Loveless and Kathryn
Prescott have also had a host of different roles since Skins ended.
Dakota Blue Richards was one of the stars of
the third generation, and recently had a lead role in the ITV five-part drama
Lightfields and Freya Mavor is currently starring in the gripping BBC thriller
The White Queen.
For the
majority of these actors, these opportunities would never have come about had
it not been for the successful breakthrough of Skins and the producers must take
great credit for this.
Of course,
that doesn’t mean to say that famous faces never appeared in Skins – far from
it.
There were plenty of guest
characters playing minor roles, from comedians and impressionists, to presenters
and normal actors. Among fans favourites
were Harry Enfield, Sally Phillips, John Bishop, Ronni Ancona, Pauline Quirke,
the late Geoffrey Hughes, and Scott Mills.
And its
success has been recognised. Skins won
the Audience Award at the 2009 BAFTAs, and Best TV Show at the 2011 NME Awards,
as well as various other high-profile nominations and critical acclaim.
What happened to the movie?
In 2010, the
green light was given to Skins: The Movie, as indicated on my first blogging website.
However, this never happened.
Ultimately, it was probably a good thing.
Unlike shows
like The Inbetweeners, it would have been mighty difficult for Skins to have
had major success at the box office, just because of the way things get portrayed in the TV series.
Consequently,
work shifted more onto series five and six, and the doomed American remake,
which turned into a complete failure and was axed after one highly
controversial series.
Whilst there
was disappointment that the movie dream didn’t quite happen for Skins, a final
TV series is a better way to go out.
There has
been some powerful storylines, and that is ignoring the drugs, drink and sex
that is part of the teenagers’ lives in every series. Having watched three full series, my favourite
storylines were Katie Fitch (played by Megan Prescott) having to deal with the bombshell news that she
wasn’t able to have kids in series four, and at the same time, attempt
to keep the very popular Fitch family together as the recession starts to
destroy their happy lives.
Other
favourites were the storylines that came through in Mini McGuinness' (Freya Mavor) episodes when she
had to deal with an unexpected pregnancy and attempting to revive a
relationship with her father, who simply didn’t care about her, and the
successful pairing of Naomi (Lily Loveless) and Emily (Kathryn Prescott) as a lesbian couple in series three and
four. 'Naomily,' as avid fans titled them, broke down new barriers and also proved that despite a lot of
heartache, happy endings do exist in television drama.
The final fling
Last year, it
was decided that there would be no more full series’ of Skins. That might have disappointed budding actors
and actresses who would have seen the open auditions as a great opportunity to
get their name out there. However, it is
the right decision.
One of Effy
Stonem’s lines in series four sticks with me: “Nothing’s ever perfect.” That’s very true, and all good things at some
point need to come to an end. Last
year’s series started to see some slow decline with the show, and another two
years would have been a mistake, and left a mark on the legacy of Skins.
Some shows
drag on and on, don’t reach a natural conclusion and then become so
unbelievable, you just stop watching them.
American shows are particularly guilty of this, whilst the saucy
Footballers Wives and fictional Sky football drama Dream Team both attracted
huge followings, but probably went on at least one more year past their natural
sell-by-date.
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| Kaya Scodelario returns as Effy in Skins Fire, the first of the final mini-series |
The producers
of Skins and Channel 4 have done the right thing, and by coming back with a
mini-series over the summer is the perfect farewell. Three classic characters in Effy (Kaya
Scodelario), Cassie (Hannah Murray) and Cook (Jack O’Connell) will reprise
their roles for two separate episodes each which shows how their characters have developed as they’ve left the crazy teenage world and entered the new adult
planet, and how much they have changed.
Effy’s story
is first, titled Skins Fire. Effy gets a
job in the city, and when she learns too much about a dodgy financial deal and
has an affair with the boss of the company she works for, it puts friendships
and people in grave danger. Fans of
‘Naomily’ will be delighted to know that Naomi and Emily will return to their roles in a cameo backdrop, with Emily known to be studying a
photography internship in New York, and Naomi living with Effy in London. A trailer has been released by E4 for a sneak
peak at what’s to come in Skins Fire, and that can be seen below.
Cassie’s
story is next and is also set in London.
She is aged 23, two years older than the other returning main characters
as she was part of generation one. ‘Skins
Pure’ will be edgy watching involving following people and the forming of a
strange friendship.
In ‘Skins
Rise,’ Cook is doing what he does best.
Now in Manchester, he hasn’t grown up from his teenage days of drugs,
sex and violence on a regular basis, despite a brief stint in jail. Cook is a drugs dealer and when his employer
asks him to find a house for his attractive girlfriend, you can guess the
rest. Expect revenge to be served and a
reminder of his previous dodgy past.
And after
these six weeks, it will be all over.
Skins has left plenty of good and dramatic memories, given new actors
and actresses a real breakthrough and is going out at just the right time. Let’s hope that it ends on a high with this
final mini-series.
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