These discussions are probably not what you might think. They are certainly less pretentious than half the chats between Joey Potter and Dawson Leary. Josie Long, mid-twenties, Eddie Award-winning comic (the new Perrier Awards), with her knitted iPod cover and charming humour, gently injects a modern wryness to proceedings, a humour which chimes well with the near double-act of Jack Thorne (27) and Ben Schiffer (24) who have a camaraderie which fills the room, momentarily, until their rumbling excitement is picked up by one of the others. They also had a fine line in gently jesting as Lucy Kirkwood’s (23) hair came closer and closer to that fan. It’s bursts of energy from these sorts of relationships that seem to drive everything on. The careful revelation from Jamie Brittain (23) that he has introduced an overarching scheme of the Orpheus myth into the episode he has been working on suddenly gets everyone’s attention. The exact intricacies of this are tested and proved until everyone is content that it works. It is persistently examined by Daniel Kaluuya (flush with post A-level success), one of the series writers and also – rather delightfully – the actor responsible for Posh Kenneth within the series, until he is finally sure of its merit and rests back into the sofa where he can comfortably consult with Daisy Swain-Wright. Daisy, in her final A-level year at school, interjects with a studiously casual cool which, in a sense, feels imparted to the entire show. It’s this authentic attitude which is everywhere in the Skins DNA.

There is a very matter-of-fact attitude in the room. Everyone is here to discuss their scripts and the characters; it’s not an issue, it’s just the way things are and if you are not comfortable with that then perhaps this isn’t the place to be. There is certainly a feeling of group understanding and badinage about the place. Someone can crack a gag and it flies round the room being polished until it is transformed into a new species of observation. Then someone mentions they like the idea of a harmonium in one of the character’s rooms. A chatter breaks out, questions fly:

‘What’s a harmonium?’ – ‘You know one of those instruments.’

‘How big is one?’ (a worried producer)

‘What, exactly, do they look like?’

‘They’re quite big.’

‘They used to travel with them.’

‘You know in the 1850s, there are, like, travelling ones.’

‘So can we fit it in the bedroom?’ (the producer again)

‘Well they come in all sizes, don’t they?’

The definitive answer, that settles it then: harmonium in, worries out.