Teenage comedy drama Skins has returned to our screens for its fourth series. The latest cast of the hit E4 show talk about why the show has been such a success, what's in store for their last series and how they feel about leaving.

WORDS: LISA WILLIAMS 

You can hear the Skins fans from around the block.

Teenagers from across the UK have gathered outside the British Film Theatre in London for the programme's Series Four premiere.

Some have even travelled from as far as Spain, France or Canada and they wait – patiently but excitedly – to drape their arms around the stars for a photo or to get their Skins books and posters signed.

Channel 4’s Skins has amassed millions of fans – many of whom are long past their teenage years! – who regularly contribute to its online forums, giving their opinions on the risqué but topical plotlines.

The series began in 2007, after scriptwriter Bryan Elsley’s 21-year-old son told him that TV shows at the time had no grasp of what it’s like to be a teenager.

Together they came up with a stylish comedy drama, set in a Bristol sixth form college, using an unknown cast of nubile young people – peppered with established stars such as Harry Enfield and Peter Capaldi.

The programme’s cast is deliberately changed every two years to account for the realistic progression of young people through college. Instead of typical soap opera clichés, Skins tells vivid stories about drug taking, mental illness and sex!

The fourth series was no exception, opening with the death of a young girl in a nightclub and exploring the repercussions of the death as the episodes continue.

Lilly Loveless, who plays politically-minded Naomi Campbell – one of the programme's ‘second generation’ of Sixth Formers – says that the new series could get away with such a shocking start.

She says: “Last year we had to spend a lot of time introducing the characters and getting to know them, whereas this year the audience knows them so we can get straight into it – and also, as you get older, life does get more intense.”

She is full of praise for the way the team of writers – some of whom are teenagers themselves – depict the lives of young people in an non-judgemental way.

“You have to remember that it is a TV show,” she says. “It has to be heightened for the sake of entertainment – if you made a show that was completely realistic it would be boring and no one would watch it – but there’s no other programme showing people our age. You watch shows like 90210 and they say, ‘Oh my God, they took cocaine and now they’re dead!’ Skins doesn’t shove morals down people’s throats, and not all the characters take drugs, just as not all people do in real life.”

Kat Prescott,who plays Lilly's girlfriend Emily, agrees. “All the things that happen to the teenagers in Skins do happen in real life,” she says, “but not to that extent and not as concentrated in a small group of people but obviously with so many people watching it a lot of stuff has to be happening otherwise no one's going to relate to it. Even if you can't relate to one thing on Skins, you can relate to another.”

The Naomi/Emily relationship was a talking point last year and, though they have been flooded with letters from people saying the storyline helped them accept their own sexuality, the actresses say the story has moved on this series.

Lilly explains: “The issues they face are not to do with the fact that they’re two girls getting together anymore. They are a couple now and the problems they’re dealing with are the ones that any couple has to deal with.”

Much of series three centred on the beautiful, impulsive Effy and her classmates Freddie and Cook, who were both hopelessly devoted to her. Luke Pasqualino, who plays skater boy Freddie, says this situation has ebbed down a bit now.

“The relationship triangle is still about but it’s not as blatant this year,” he admits. “I think series four, it really delves deeper, you really get to indulge in the characters more this year. It just digs really deep into the characters, everyone knows the characters now and you can really get the storylines out and just make the most of them for the last series they're gonna be doing.”

Kaya Scodelario plays Effy, the only character to have featured in the programme since the start – as she played the younger sister of one of the show’s ‘first generation’. However, Effy was in for a change in series four.

“I’ve been in Skins now for four years, so it’s a big part of my life,” she says. “I’ve basically grown up on the show, gone through my teenage years on Skins, which is really cool. I think Effy will change a lot this series, but she still has all the cool clothes! And make up! She's such a powerful person, I think she'll change for the good.”

As an old-timer, Kaya will feel the brunt of the show coming to an end for the current cast this series, but they are all smarting at the idea of not working together again.

Ollie Barbieri, who plays nice guy JJ, says, “Coming back on to the set for the last series was great. It was the opposite of how you feel when you have to go back to work or school, I really wanted to see everyone and get back on set and be part of that atmosphere again. Towards the end it was sort of melancholy, it was the last time we were going to work together on Skins, you do miss it.”

They don’t have words of advice, as such, for the next lot who’ll be registering at Roundview College for the planned fifth series, but Merv Lukeba, who plays Thomas, is already feeling jealous.

“I was speaking to one of the producers and saying, ‘The new lot are lucky’,” he admits. “I’m going to say to them, ‘Be prepared for being on the best show of your life.’ To be part of the premier show for teenagers, when you are a teenager – you just can’t beat it.”

EXTRA TIME: SKINS

:: Skins gave Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel his big break – he played Anwar.

:: Celebrities appearing in the fourth series include Chris Addison (The Thick Of It) and singer Will Young.

:: Peep Show’s Isy Suttie is one of the show’s comedy advisors.

:: Queer As Folk/Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies is a big fan of the show, praising the quality of its scripts and also the show’s approach to its gay characters.

:: An American version of Skins is in the pipeline for MTV. A film, featuring some of the existing stars, is also being planned.