Skins Pure

Series seven, episode three
The ‘Tucker’s Luck’ for the mephedrone generation continues, this time catching up with Cassie as she struggles in London. As we rejoin her, she’s got a rubbish job in a café, endures house-share hell in a tumbledown block peopled by caners, lost souls and sleep-arounds and still lacks any semblance of direction or self-confidence. She also remains something of a closed book – the challenge for both the writers and the excellent Hannah Murray is to show that still waters run deep.

To that end, there’s a certain over-reliance on moody shots of Cassie staring out of windows across desolate city streets. But even so, that facilitates the main plot strand: is Cassie being stalked and what are the intentions of her pursuer? ‘Skins Pure’ isn’t faultless but, even so, it’ll be essential viewing for fans. As for the rest of us, it’s a evocative snapshot of being skint, confused and new in the Smoke.