By Georgia Wright

Skins - a BAFTA winning TV series shown on E4 following the lives of a group of troubled teenagers growing up in Bristol: but is it all fiction? Halfway through the third series, it has already touched on lesbianism, violence, gangs, immigration, drugs, alcohol abuse, love, sex and many more including even teacher-pupil relationships. Most viewers will agree that the storylines are a bit extreme, however most watching teenagers find themselves consumed with jealousy of the excitement of the underground parties, the dark glamour of a rock’n’roll lifestyle and finally the allure of the striking main character Effy.

Effy Stonem – short for Elizabeth, played by model/actress Kaya Scoldelario is what first catches the viewers’ eye. With her long dark straight hair, piercing blue eyes and high cheekbones, she is a natural beauty with an air of mystery that constantly surrounds her, no matter how much screen time she is given. She’s unpredictable, wild, independent – all teen girls want to be her and all teen boys want to have her – she leaves a trail of destruction behind her, mostly in the form of heart broken boys.

Next is her loyal sidekick, Pandora, who when asked why they were friends aptly explained “Well that's super easy. You're my friend because you're the coolest ever. And I'm yours because I'd totally do anything you say, and none of your boyfriends ever wanna **** me because I'm useless.”

Pandora provides comedy to the program with her swinging pigtails and weird activities – for example not knowing what to do with a bag of class A drugs, she swallows it. We follow her on her journey to meet her aims of losing her virginity and testing out drugs – which incidentally go horribly wrong.

Then there are the other characters – political and strong-minded Naomi whose clear life becomes muddled by the arrival of lesbian Emily Fitch, Tomas the immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo and also Emily’s identical twin sister Katie. And no Skins series would be complete without “the lads” – skater Freddie, carefree Cook and the genius JJ (he tells us he is in the top 0.2% of the population concerning mathematical aptitude), who all happen to like Effy.

Although the plots are getting considerably more unrealistic since the end of the first series, many of the issues fore mentioned are growing problems in the teenage society – drugs, alcohol and violence. Skins is only one of few teen dramas about real life situations - most tend to drag on about American elites whose biggest problems tend to be whether Daddy has run out of money or not - cue Gossip Girl, 90210, The Hills ect. The series actually educate watchers about these issues as well as supplying comedy and drama - could this TV program actually be helping to keep teenagers safe around the UK?