50 Fun Facts About Skins (TV Series)

Which English city is the setting of the teen drama Skins, with many scenes shot around its College Green?

Bristol is where almost every scene was shot, and open auditions there for the second cast drew 1,500 teenagers.

At the end of series one of Skins, what hits Tony Stonem while he is on the phone declaring his love?

A bus leaves Tony with brain damage, so the cocky schemer of series one spends the next series slowly regaining his memory and abilities.

Which Skins actor went on from the teen drama to the lead role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire?

Dev Patel only auditioned for Skins because his mother spotted a casting advert in the Metro newspaper and took him along, the day before a science exam.

Which actor played Posh Kenneth in Skins, helped write the drama and later won an Oscar?

Daniel Kaluuya was head writer on two Skins episodes, and his Oscar came for playing Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

Which actress, who played Effy Stonem, stayed on when Skins replaced nearly all its cast for series three?

Kaya Scodelario was 14 with no acting experience when she was cast, and Effy went on to appear in more episodes than any other character.

Which British channel premiered the teen drama Skins and went on to broadcast all seven of its series?

E4 launched Skins in January 2007 and stayed its home to the end, through three casts and a farewell series in 2013.

Hannah Murray, later Gilly in Game of Thrones, played which Skins character treated for an eating disorder?

Cassie returned for the final series in Skins Pure, where she has recovered and is waiting tables in a London café.

Which country do the sixth-formers of Skins visit on a school trip in the drama's first series?

Russia was faked for the cameras: the trip episode was actually shot in Lithuania, near Vilnius, with local actors.

Which Skins character, played by Joe Dempsie, dies of a sudden haemorrhage near the end of series two?

Chris's friends are barred from the funeral by his dad, so two of them steal the coffin to hold a send-off of their own.

In Skins, what is the profession of John Foster, who murders Freddie McClair with a baseball bat?

Psychiatrist John Foster had been treating Effy Stonem with unorthodox hypnosis, and turned on Freddie for insisting the treatment stop.

What is the family relationship between Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, the two creators of Skins?

Father and son hatched Skins after Jamie Brittain picked apart his dad's other ideas for a show, and the writing team they built averaged just 21 years old.

Which instrument does Jal Fazer play in Skins, taking it to the Young Musician of the Year contest?

Clarinet practice ends abruptly when a drug dealer smashes the instrument to punish Sid Jenkins for an unpaid debt.

Which Doctor Who star played Mark Jenkins, the dad of Sid, in the first two series of Skins?

Peter Capaldi's character dies suddenly in series two, a scene that Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies singled out as superb.

Which hangout of Freddie McClair's does his dad convert into a studio for his sister Karen in Skins?

His shed is where Freddie smokes with Cook and JJ, and where friends later hold a birthday party for him without knowing he is dead.

Which naive best friend of Effy Stonem first appears in series two of Skins before joining the main cast?

Pandora and Effy were the only two characters carried over when the original gang was written out after series two.

In series three of Skins, what does an intoxicated Effy Stonem use to hit her tormentor Katie Fitch?

A rock leaves Katie recovering for the next episode, yet by series four the two have put the bitterness behind them and become close friends.

To which city does Sid Jenkins travel at the end of series two of Skins, hoping to find the girl he loves?

New York is where the story leaves him searching, and viewers are never told whether the pair are reunited.

Which actor played James Cook in Skins before leading Angelina Jolie's war drama Unbroken?

Jack O'Connell returned to the role in Skins Rise, the two-part finale that finds an older Cook on the run and dealing drugs.

Which American channel aired a short-lived remake of Skins that was cancelled after advertisers pulled out?

MTV's version copied the first British episode almost shot for shot, but swapped Maxxie for a lesbian cheerleader named Tea.

Which member of the third Skins gang dies after a road crash on holiday at the start of series six?

Grace never recovers from her coma, yet she keeps appearing to her grieving friends in visions for the rest of the series.

Which former child film star played the manipulative Tony Stonem in the first two series of Skins?

Nicholas Hoult, the boy from About a Boy, was a sixth-form student himself when cast, and left his studies after the first series to act full time.

Which Cat Stevens song do the characters of Skins sing together as the first series comes to an end?

Wild World is missing from the American DVD of the series, because the music in the original broadcasts cost too much to license.

Which actress, later Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, played Gina, the mother of Naomi Campbell, in Skins?

Olivia Colman's character runs the family home as a commune, so her daughter wakes up among strangers at the start of the episode.

Which Skins character, played by Kathryn Prescott, falls in love with her classmate Naomi Campbell?

Emily was played opposite a real twin: Megan Prescott, six minutes the younger, took the part of her domineering sister.

Which American university accepts Thomas Tomone on an athletic scholarship at the end of Skins series four?

Harvard also takes his on-off girlfriend on a history scholarship, so chance throws the estranged pair back together.

Which hobby does JJ Jones of Skins, who has Asperger's syndrome, use to help him make friends?

Magic tricks win JJ company, but it is a romance with a single mother called Lara that makes him doubt he needs to be so heavily medicated.

In which country are the Skins gang on holiday at the start of series six when a car chase turns deadly?

Morocco is where Matty's truck overturns during the chase, and he runs away rather than be arrested for the drugs a dealer had put in it.

Which sketch comedian played Jim Stonem, the dad of Tony and Effy, and also directed two episodes of Skins?

Harry Enfield directed the episode in which a recovering Tony visits a university open day and rediscovers his old self.

What is the name of the fictional sixth-form college attended by all three generations of Skins characters?

Roundview was played by several real schools over the years, including John Cabot Academy and, for series four, Henbury School.

Which star of The Office played the gangster Johnny White in the third series of Skins?

Mackenzie Crook's gangster torments the gang until Thomas, freshly arrived from the Congo, beats him in a pepper-eating contest.

Which Skins character, a farm boy with a dog called Rags, has a baby with Mini McGuinness in series six?

Alo only learns that Mini is pregnant when he walks in on her ultrasound, yet by the finale he is at her side for their daughter's birth.

Which music genre is the obsession of Skins outsider Rich Hardbeck, who looks down on mainstream tastes?

Heavy metal is such a creed for Rich that a ballet-loving classmate has to study it and pose as a fan before he will take her seriously.

Dakota Blue Richards, Franky Fitzgerald in Skins, first found fame as the child lead of which film?

The Golden Compass picked her as Lyra from ten thousand applicants, and the author of the books said her screen test ended the search.

Which sport does Nick Levan play for the college team at the start of the fifth series of Skins?

Rugby and his domineering dad's approval are all Nick seems to want, until he quits the team and shuns his arrogant friends.

In Skins series two, which friend of Maxxie Oliver does his stalker Sketch start dating to get closer to him?

Anwar is slowly restyled by Sketch into a copy of the boy she really wants, and he dumps her as soon as he works it out.

Angie, who has an affair with one of her Skins students, takes the gang for which subject?

Psychology aside, she finds the abandoned student a room in college lodgings, and the affair ends violently when her fiancé returns.

In which city is James Cook living on the run, working for a crime boss, at the start of Skins Rise?

Manchester is where he is asked to mind the crime boss's girlfriend for a few days, and becomes mesmerised by her.

In Skins Fire, which kind of London firm employs Effy Stonem before an insider trading scandal?

A hedge fund gives her a shot at trading, but she ends up confessing everything to the financial regulator to spare a lovelorn friend from jail.

Which pastime marks out Freddie McClair, the easy-going friend of Cook and JJ in Skins?

Skateboarding opens his very first scene, as Freddie glides through the city to meet his two best mates before college.

Mike Bailey, who played Sid Jenkins in Skins, later gave up acting to work in which profession?

Teaching brought him back to drama: after a degree in the subject he trained to take it in a secondary school in the city where Skins was filmed.

On which app did a 2020 revival of Skins among Gen Z begin, with users copying the style of Effy Stonem?

TikTok revived a character who had already been a fixture of Tumblr, where whole blogs were devoted to her.

On which social network was a destructive 2007 house party billed as an unofficial Skins party?

Myspace drew two hundred people to the house, where they did more than £20,000 of damage, and the host said her account had been hacked.

In which Canadian city was the short-lived American remake of Skins filmed?

Toronto hosted the shoot after an early plan to make it in Baltimore, and most of the original gang returned under new names: Sid became Stanley and Jal became Daisy.

Which member of the Skins writing team went on to script the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?

Jack Thorne also wrote for Shameless, and later adapted His Dark Materials for television and scripted the Enola Holmes films.

Which Shakespeare comedy do the third generation of Skins stage for a drama assessment in series five?

Twelfth Night is nearly sabotaged from the top: the headmaster schemes to drag down his own daughter's mark so he can pull her out of the college.

Which comedian, the real-life partner of Morwenna Banks, played the man her Skins character has an affair with?

David Baddiel's cameo breaks up the Stonem marriage, when Effy's dad finds out his wife has been seeing his own line manager.

How does Alex Henley, who joins the Skins gang in series six, decide what to do next?

Rolling dice runs his whole life: each number stands for an action, and whatever he rolls, he carries out.

Which word followed Skins in the title given to the drama's seventh and final series?

Redux swapped the usual gang for three two-part stories, each catching up with one former character in their twenties.

Which Skins spin-off was discussed from 2009, and said to be in pre-production, but never came to fruition?

A movie gave way to a specially commissioned seventh series, which brought back some of the cast from the 2007–2010 run.

Which later landlord of EastEnders' Queen Vic played Malcolm, stepfather of Michelle Richardson, in Skins?

Danny Dyer, the soap's Mick Carter, was one of many famous faces cast as the gang's parents, though most of the others came from British comedy.