Skins: Series One

With E4’s controversial drama finishing it's Channel 4 run and a new series in production (and, no doubt, soon in the headlines of the Daily Mail), the first series is released with a wealth of extras in this 3-disc edition that is compulsory for anyone living, or trying to relive, their teenage years. Starring Nicholas 'About A Boy' Hoult and featuring cameos from (amongst others) Harry Enfield and Neil Morrissey, Skins follows the trials and tribulations of a half dozen Bristol teenagers (focusing mostly on a different teenager each episode) as they hang out together, trying to grapple with the various pressures and pleasures thrown their way by school, exams, parties, drugs, drink, hormones, families, and, not least, each other.

One of the more innovative things about Skins is the way it shows how easy (but how terrible) it is being best friends with (or going out with) the worst person you can be best friends or go out with. Like Sugar Rush, Skins is not always totally successful, but is certainly engaging, and a refreshing antidote to the various anodyne American teen dramas otherwise clogging up Channel 4. There's no doubt, Skins would definitely have One Tree Hill in a scrap.

Extras: Video diaries.

Released 24th September 2007 by Channel 4 DVD.

Written by Michael Lawrence.