Having exhausted all possible means of having grimy teenage fun in the UK, the Skins crew have jumped on a plane for the quintessential holiday of a lifetime.

The sun bleached backdrop of Morocco forms a whole new playground for our young tearaways to explore. Leaving aside slightly overlooked details, such as how the gang could afford to travel to North Africa for two weeks, kudos to the writers for getting out of their comfort zone; the Moroccan jaunt certainly provides for some explosive new material.

Despite some immensely unlikely coincidences – neighbouring young ‘uns with a super swanky pad, sprawling beach parties appearing miraculously over the horizon and so on – giving the gang a brief respite from their lacklustre college lives is key to refreshing story lines. In the immortal words of Selena Gomez, the time has come to ‘Sh-sh-sh-shake it up!’

Of course, said shaking up leads to inevitable mayhem; the first hiccup emerging upon their arrival. The crew are crashing the incredibly irritating Ryder’s family villa which turns out to be mid-construction. Nothing for it but to kip rough in the building site. The discovery of some illicit substances amongst the scaffolding goes some way to ease the blow, but proves a cause for concern as the plot unfolds.

Although generally an ensemble opener, Franky emerges as the main focus and, as the most compelling character, this is a wise move. A prior trip with Matty has not proved as romantic as intended and Franky’s itchy feet may just lead her into trouble. Mini makes an unexpected match and Liv gets friendly with a local, but all minor plot points are blown out of the water by a dramatic stunt which cuts short the holiday fun.

A bugbear is that the dialogue is distinctly ropey at times – ‘Let’s just dance our fucking dicks off’ from new character Luke is a personal favourite. Nevertheless, as an opening, this episode certainly packs a punch.

Previous series have led us to expect intense extremes from Skins, which is no doubt a struggle to continually top. However, this series icebreaker suggests solid entertainment to come.

Airs at 10pm on Monday 23rd January 2012 on E4.

> Buy the Series 5 DVD on Amazon.

What did you think of the episode? Let us know below…