Stewart Lee talks about television for teenagers

Comedian Stewart Lee reminisces about 70s kids' shows The Changes and Children of the Stones, and wonders why shows for teenagers these days are so alienating.

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Entertainment

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• changes
• children
• of
• the
• stones
• Stewart
• Lee

[jackbox1971]

I don't think these shows are really FOR kids, they are idealized notions of adolescence made by adults. Skins suggests to me that adults want to indulge their pedophile fantasies and/or express their resentment about their own dull, repressed teen years.

[ThatLovelyEnglishBob]

Words from my mouth, Stewart. Words from my mouth.

[ThatNoodleLizard]

@greyreview The kids in Skins are actually more or less the ages of the characters they're playing. And some of the writers are also teenagers.

Which probably accounts for the stilted dialogue and bad acting by people who were cast just because they "looked the part".

[1RothMan]

wasnt he in an episode of skins?

[MisterAlexGabriel]

...except, I'm not sure that's actually true of Skins. Almost all the characters it's ever shown have been dysfunctional in some way.

[meotaku2]

The Changes was a scary show. I still remember now how scary it was.

[clumpyify]

and people wonder why britain is so fucked up ,people whomake tv have a lot to answer for always trying to push the bounderies for our kids when they are so impressionable

[BarnacleGooseInvalid]

@ThatLovelyEnglishBob or you know. his.

[Marillionboy]

Brilliant little piece, though I think he is lumping teenagers all together here. Skins isn't depicting the same age group as Children of the Stones or Changes was, and isn't aimed at the same ages either I would imagine, though I dare say it is inevitably watched by the whole range of ages within the teenage spectrum.

[randykawasaki]

'youth' tv is written by middle aged writers, just as radio one is peopled by middle aged producers. Viewed in this light, Skins become a hilarious projection of middle aged fantasies peopled by young adults playing kids. The unintentional hilarity of this set up should not disguise the utter banality of the whole enterprise. Its funny and tragic at the same time.

[greyreview]

I sound like a middle aged women, but skins genuinely does give teenagers a feeling of worthlessness. For a start the actors are genuinely very attractive 21 year olds portraying 16 year olds, I don't look like the people in skins at the age of 19 and I doubt I will any time soon, also the over the top story lines which just throw out problems like "bi polar" to try and deal with things in a selfish glossy way which is totally untrue and like stew said makes teenagers feel much more alone.

[yesterdaysdreamer]

How is it pedophile tendencies having a bunch of 17/18 year olds indulging in over-exagerrated sexual and hedonistic behaviour? One of the writers has based it merely on a hyped up version of his youth experiences in Bristol from a few years back, as far as I've gathered (as he's still a young man). I don't know how much porttrayed actually happened as I only met the guy a few times over the years but I know the show repulses me, either way. Always fun to moan about the youth of today, though eh