Skins: Series 3 Episode 1

Two years after Tony, Sid, Cassie and co burst onto our screens to the sound of The Gossip’s 2007-defining ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, Skins returns with an almost entirely new cast.

It’s a brave move and one hell of a gamble, but teen dramas have always struggled with post-college years. As later seasons of Dawson’s Creek and The OC proved, keeping a group of 19-year-old friends stuck in the same town can end up horribly contrived and strangely tragic for characters that you’ve watched grow up.

So, with Dev Patel wowing Hollywood with Slumdog Millionaire, Joe Dempsie popping up in Doctor Who and Mitch Hewer over on ITV1 in, er, Britannia High, Series 3 introduces us to the class of 2009. As hinted in the final shot of Series 2, Tony’s enigmatic little sis Effy (Kaya Scodelario) is our new lead, but it’s still very much an ensemble cast affair.

In keeping with previous years, the show rolls along at a uniquely leisurely pace (unusually so for any modern TV drama, especially one aimed at teenagers). By the first ad break we’ve only met three new characters - skater Freddie, the socially inept JJ and the laddish Cook - all of whom fall for Effy following a hilarious altercation between Harry Enfield’s Mr Stonem, an old lady and a bollard.

Part 2 introduces us to blond lesbian Naomi and chalk-and-cheese twins Katie (bitch) and Emily (shy). Also welcomed back is Effy’s naïve sidekick Pandora from Series 2, with a brilliantly observed scene in Pandora’s Beauty Therapy class, surrounded by pink-obsessed perma-tanned identikit blonds.

Anyone expecting a like-for-like recast of the original characters will be pleasantly surprised - there’s no “new Michelle” and, thank fuck, there’s no “new Sketch”. If anything, the new cast are probably better rounded characters than the original gang - if we’re honest, most of them were pretty unlikeable by the end of Series 2.

Sadly, lazy stereotyping is still very much in place when it comes to the adult characters. The teachers in particular (with the exception of Ardal O'Hanlon brilliant turn as a disillusioned form teacher) are woefully 2D, with the episode’s only disappointing segment featuring a misjudged gag involving a megaphone and a farting headmaster. It’s just a bit CBBC, and some great lines for Pandora and JJ prove that Skins' humour is above that.

While Episode 1 is far from the hedonistic party vibe of the current pub-trashing trailers (almost the entire episode is set in the college), an extended preview at the end of the episode lets us know there’s plenty of that to come, and with a love triangle between Effy, Cook and Freddy looking inevitable and some hints at history between Naomi and Emily, Skins’ third series might just be the best yet.



Airs at 10pm on Thursday 22nd January 2009 on E4.

Written by Will Martin.