Skins is a British TV Drama that aired on E4 on the 25th January 2007 . The series was written by father and son duo television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures. The drama follows a group of college students in Bristol. Its complicated storylines have explored many different topics, such as:

• Dysfunctional families,•Mental illness (such as eating disorders and bipolar disorder),•Adolescent sexuality,•Substance abuse,•Death,•And bullying.

The show targeted an audience of the demographic of 16 and above, due to its controversial storylines and mature scenes. The characters were also portrayed as the ‘’atypical’’ teenagers who got mixed up in the wrong crowd. The character Tony, challenges this stereotype by being intelligent and mature yet still choosing the ‘’wrong’’ options. The TV drama ultimately gets its name from the nickname given to rolling papers – skins.

What is ‘’Skins’’?

Over it’s six year run, the show was made in 6 series, ranging from 9-10 episodes per series, where the primary cast was changed every two years. These became known as ‘’Generations’’ starting with that of Tony Stonem, then his younger sister Effy Stonem and finally Franky Fitzgerald – a newcomer to the college. Each episode focussed in on one character within the group, with the first focussing on ring leader Tony, and resulting in a total of 61 episodes throughout all the series. The pilot episode of Skins averaged 1.5 million viewers. Each episode lasted for roughly 44-48 minutes. The series went on to be a critical success as well as a ratings winner within its target demographic.

Plans for a film spin-off were first discussed in 2009, but ultimately did not come to fruition. To compromise, Company Pictures decided to make a one off final series in 2013 following the grown up, however not so mature, lives of Effy, Chris and Cassie from the 2007-2010 generation of Skins.

Characters: Series 1Main Characters

Tony Stonem(Nicholas Hoult)

Anwar Kharral(Dev Patel)

Chris Miles(Joe Dempsie)

Cassie Ainsworth(Hannah Murray)

Sid Jenkins(Mike Bailey)

Michelle Richardson(April Pearson)

Maxxie Oliver(Mitch Hewer)

Jal Fazer(Larissa Wilson)

Series 1...Series 1 (First Generation) of skins follows Tony who is attractive, popular and intelligent. However, it is Tony’s manipulative ways that act as a catalyst for many of the events in this series. Sid is Tony’s very best friend, however he is in no way as popular or as ‘’cool’’ as Tony, he is rather opposite. Sid is socially uneasy, lacks confidence and struggles with school work. Sid also has a crush on Tony’s girlfriend, Michelle who outwardly appears to be shallow, vein and conceited, a girl who has no limits. She is friends with Cassie Ainsworth, an eccentric girl who suffers from an eating disorder. Cassie attempts to hide her own struggles with mental health while her flamboyant parents ignore her in favour of their new baby. Others within the group include party animal Chris and his affair with college assistant Angie and lives alone due to his brothers early death and absent mother, Jal, the most sensible of the group, who has a passion for playing clarinet, Maxxie who is openly gay and is passionate about dance, and Anwar who has a pick-and-choose approach to Islam.

It is not secret that the group are into parties, alcohol and drugs, which often tend to get them into trouble. The series also follows the sexual activity of the group and particularly focuses in on Cassie’s mental illness and annorexia.

Series 1: Mise-En-Scene

The Mise-En-Scene of Skins is very much stereotypical of the period of time it was set in, for series 1 – 2007. For example, the fact that Sid is smoking indoors in this specific shot is contemporary and logical as the smoking ban did not come into force until July 2007.

The people within the background of the shot also fit into the mise-en-scene as they are wearing items of clothing typical to the time period, For example, the man seen in the background to the right of Sid is wearing whitewashed denim jeans, atypical for males of the time.

In the following scene, the use of the flamboyant colours of the clothing of the group hint at the type of mischief and antics the group get themselves into. Each member of the friendship group is also seen to be wearing modern clothes that teenagers would have worn at the time.

Skins is also rather iconic for its repetitive use of Shot/Reverse shot. Throughout many conversations the camera cuts to several views of Shot/Reverse shot and then bounces back to a mid shot of the whole situation.

Series 1: Shots

This specific example shows Sid in a conflicting situation between himself and a drug dealer, ‘’Mad Tw*tter’’. This scene focuses a lot on Sid’s reactions and the overall tone of the drug dealer by slowly zooming into a close up. The shot/reverse shots used here highlights the tension of the scene.

Series 1: SoundThe theme tune for Skins was written by Matthew Simpson, or better knwon as ‘’Fat Segal’’. The electronic musician As well as composing various theme tunes for Skins, Segal has also provided many other segments of music for the show, including "Clutch Edit" and "Tenthousand Needles". In 2013 he scored "Skins" finales "Skins Fire" and "Skins Rise" in their entirety.

Series 1: ConvergenceThe Skins production team quickly grasped the need for technological advances to meet the demands of convergence. Channel 4 created a section on their website dedicated to Skins which hosts extra content such as: playlists, trailers, twitter chats and much more. It is a lot less evident that there was this variety when the first series came out, despite its relatively young demographic.

The Channel 4 website first opens up to a page of the series 7 episodes: Skins Fire, Skins Pure and Skins Rise. Each episode also has a basic description of the plot and links to social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The website also homes the trailer used to tease all Skins fans before the release of series 7 in 2013. The caption/tag line to the trailer is ‘’Time Changes Everyone’’ which could also hint at the previous series fans/demographic and what should be expected in the following, mature series.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/skins/videos/all/skins-series-7-trailer

The idea of creating playlists for each character has also been popular and inline with convergence of the media today. Creating these playlists allows those following the series on the internet to, for one final time, feel close and connected to the characters and explore their personalities via music.

The website also reaches out to it’s audience by creating short films of cast interviews about the return to Skins and the production and design process that was needed to create the new series that would live up to the expectations of Skins followers.

By taking the audience behind the scenes, it enables them to feel part of the programme and as though they are exploring what the character explores. Allowing behind the scenes content also gives the audience the chance to understand the making of Skins for one last time.

A variety of videos have been released on the Skins website, including character profiles, and "Unseen Skins" mini-episodes that interweave with every aired

episode. In addition to character profiles on the official E4 website, accounts for the lead Skins characters are maintained on popular social networking website MySpace.

Each series is launched on MySpace, with previews of the first episodes a few days before they are aired on television. There is also an official Skins Internet

bot for Windows Live Messenger, which allows users to receive automated messages throughout the airing of each episode with music credits, trivia, and behind-the-

scenes gossip.

Series 1: RepresentationThroughout Skins the portrayal of both male and female has been very different from the offset. Maxxie’s sexuality and Anwar’s attempts to accept this have also been portrayed through the use of contrasting the two characters.

Maxxie And Anwar Maxxie is the only main character in the plot who is openly gay, and therefore the only representation of homosexuality. Maxxie’s character is written very stereotypically of a gay teenage boy. He is written to have a passion for dance of all kinds and who is relatively artistic. He is also described as very likable and seductive which could be the only controversial part to his character. It is hinted throughout the series that Maxxie has had many promiscuous relationships.

Despite being Maxxie’s best friend, Anwar occasionally finds it hard to accept Maxxie’s homosexuality. Although selective about his religion, Anwar sees homosexuality as against Islam and therefore against his religion. Anwar’s intolerance is occasionally seen to limit/strain the pairs friendship.

Tony And Michelle From the outside Tony and Michelle seem like the perfect couple. Both characters are portrayed as promiscuous and rather forward when it comes to sexual endeavours. However, Tony’s sexuality is never confirmed and is seen in the ‘’Maxxie and Anwar’’ episode to explore. Within this episode Tony attempts an oral tryst with Maxxie, and claims to want to ‘’try something new’’. Throughout the series, along with most of the other minor female characters, Michelle is seen as something for males to objectify and lust over.

Tony and Michelle also both seem quite confident and emotionless when it comes to the world around them. However, a cliff-hanger at the end of series 1 sees Tony as a victim of subdural hematoma when he is hit by a bus whilst attempting to save his younger sister Effy. In series 2, Michelle is seen to act rather badly by this by first trying to get the new, more vulnerable Tony to join in with sexual activity, despite his new found problems in that area. Secondly, Michelle is seen to throw herself into a relationship with Sid despite her despair and ultimate love for Tony. This attempt at jealousy shows Michelle as rather insecure and uncertain of herself.