Skins Season 5 - Set diary by Boyd Hilton

Boyd Hilton gets to hang out with the cool kids on the set of the new, fifth series.

11:11am: Bristol
The studio where they film Skins in Bristol is like a giant shed. In one area, there are bits of sixth-form college you'll recognise from the previous series: the common room, corridors lined with lockers, stuff like that. The all-new, third gang of Skins cast members are filming a big scene together when Heat arrives, so we hang out in the cast's chill out-room. The first to pop in is Freya Mavor, who plays Mini. She's a pretty ruthless, powerful, glamorous figure, but Freya herself is lovely. She tells us that the first scene she filmed with her onscreen boyfriend Nick (Sean Teale) involved her vomiting on him. ''The sick was made out of rice cakes and apple puree and mushy peas, and it tasted disgusting. I had to keep it in my mouth while I was kissing him.'' Freya is also a big Skins fan - she's been watching the show from the start, even though she was only 13 at the time. ''I was a rebellious 13-year-old,'' she explains. This makes Heat feel older than we are. And we are old.

11:45am
Sean arrives. He's energetic, charming and, frankly, intimidating good-looking. Sean's character Nick is a bit of a departure for Skins - he's a proper jock who plays sport and wears preppy clothes. Sean is a hunk, although he wears his hunkiness very lightly: ''Nick loves to take his clothes off, but I don't, and in my first scene I was naked, so that was tough.'' Even though he knew he would have to do nude scenes (this is Skins, after all) Sean didn't realise how many there would be. ''I'm not comfortable in my own skin, so I hate doing them. Don't get me wrong, I love doing the show, but that bit is difficult.'' Sean's mum stumbled across a Skins sex scene when she was watching the last series and registered her concern. ''I had to tell her there's stuff I do in this series that's worse!''

12:05pm
Even though Sean is the official hunk of the series, it looks like the award for Most Nudity In Season Five will be going to young Will Merrick, who plays farmer boy Alo. As we speak he's wearing a minimal vest. He looks cold. ''I'm used to it,'' says Will. ''In the show, I'm naked as much as I am clothed. I don't have the best body in the world, but I'm not really bothered by it. If you go on Skins and you don't get naked, I think you've copped out. I go the whole way!'' That's the spirit. Heat tries to find out what his naughtiest scene has been. ''Oh, I do a lot worse things than go naked...'' But that's all he'll say, damn it.

12:40pm
Next, we meet Alex, who plays metalhead character Rich. He wears big leather boots, a lot of black and has long, lank hair which turns out to be a wig. A discussion ensues about whether we should reveal it's a wig or let fans of the show think it's all Alex's real hair. We decide Skins viewers are sophisticated enough to deal with the reality.

1:15pm
The most enigmatic character and most enigmatic cast member is smouldering Sebastian De Souza, who plays Matty. Seb is devilishly handsome and clearly loves being a mystery man. He says his character is ''a free spirit, a bit of a nymph...'' When the character was in development, he was explicitly bisexual, but this element is now left unsaid. ''I think he'd still happily sleep with boys as well as girls,'' Seb says. Sebastian De Souza, we warn you now, is going to be a big star. Like the rest of the Series Five cast of Skins, we predict...


Plus an episode 1 description...

The new cast of Skins arrives, and within ten minutes we have a deep emotional connection with half of them. This powerful opener introduces all the new characters, focusing particularly on Franky (Dakota Blue Richards), a troubled outsider with two gay dads (Gareth Farr and John Sessions) who mercilessly take the piss. It's Skins at it's best.

Labels: Brand New , Cast , Skins season 5 , spoilers