Bryan Elsley - writer of episode 8 and Skins co-creator
Writing the last episode of Skins is so difficult. And this one has been really hard because it is the last episode of Skins UK that I will ever write. I think the time has come to hand over to the fantastically talented group of young writers, we've spent all this time putting together. They're young and creative and totally fearless which is just as well, because I don't know if you realise it; you, our Skins Fans can be quite scary at times. It can be like showing a group of trusted, really cool friends something you have done, and when they don't like it, it's devastating. There have been a couple of moments I know, when you weren't sure of what we were doing and I'm here to tell you that sometimes we don't know exactly what we're attempting ourselves, and how it will come out. That's because Skins never wants to settle down into something predictable or just do the routine. Television writing is really really hard. So hard that sometimes I think my brain is going to explode. So I've wrestled the characters for the last time, trying to pull them out of the sky where they've been flying, and this is my last go. I hope you think its ok.
Next year, we will have new characters. Give them a chance to develop. I hope you will feel that however they turn out, that Skins is a show made with love and respect for you and your lives by people who try to be close to that. Is it supposed to be realistic? No. Can it be funny all the time? No. Should it be depressing? No. But it should say something important; that being young can be so fantastic, and such a disaster at the same time. And that you are not alone. Somewhere, there is a person experiencing the same things as you; whether they are stupidly hilarious or just terrible. Finally: That the way adults see you is not all you are. That is Skins.
What I'd like to say is that, without some people you've probably never heard of, there would be no Skins. Charlie Pattinson, Chris Clough, Francis Hopkinson, Danny Cohen, Lyndsay Nuttall, Sarah Martin, Sophie Gardner, Camilla Campbell, John Griffin, Ian Johnson, Donna Emerson, Chloe Moss, Neil Duncan and Kevin Lygo are the people who made this happen. Don't worry, they don't need you to know who they are. But they are true friends of the show. My personal touchstones since series one; editors James “The Slasher” Hughs and Dan “The Butcher” Gethic kept me up till 6 in the morning again and again, making me eat shit food and breaking the no smoking rules. But most of all, I am in debt to Jamie Brittain, the true creator of Skins who showed his boring old man how to have fun with writing again.
I will be around. But I hope that in the next couple of years, the young writers will find even more ways of making this your show about you. I hope you'll give them a chance to show you what they can really do.
Love. Bryan.
