This I first heard about when the initial trailers apeared on Channel 4 at time of first broadcast. Yet at the time I didn’t get to see it. More recently I think it was repeated and with the power of my PVR I got to see what I later found out was episode 3… About 3 weeks ago I was having a lovely walk around Crystal Palace Park with a friend who was telling me, among other things, how great she thought the series was and how it reminded of her time at Uni. in Bristol, where the series is set. So, what it’s about is a group of teenage friends going to college ( the 6th form type) in Bristol and what they get up to. I would say its the most realistic portrayl of modern family life I”ve seen, with the acting, presence and general underlying helplessness of modern society giving me at least the impression of a drama that should win awards… It may be a drama about teenagers, yet it is certainly no ‘teen drama’ in the slick american sense. Sex, drugs and Drum&Bass are what populate this world. What quite surprised me, having seen previously only one episode, was that while the younger cast are all (?) unknowns, those playing the parents are all pretty well known – Harry Enfield, Josie Lawrence, Neil Morrisey – with them playing obviously not strictly comedic roles, but bringing that quality to the screen of all the reasons why, as teenagers, we often find our parents embarassing… Which in this case adds to the quality of the production (as in comedians can do really well in serious roles). So what have we learnt from the series? Well… Teenagers arent stupid – not just for the acting, but the pretty believable characters too – we all have our problems and we cant always deal with them on our own.. Never trust the tall good-looking ones, they’ll always fuck you about, whereas the small, funny looking ones may surprise you… :o) There is alleggedly a second series coming (soon), which I shall definitely set my PVR on repeat series for.
So thanks for the tip, J. :o) x