As Tracy Beaker Returns, An Ode To The Brilliant British Teen TV Shows We Still Miss

I used to really resent the British school system. Not for any remotely well-thought-out reason to do with important things like class sizes, catchment areas or access to Russell Group universities. I didn't like our schools because they didn't look anything like the majority of the ones I saw on TV. I wanted to be at a super trendy High School, not a boring old secondary or sixth form. What does 'sixth form' even mean? I felt like I'd been mis-sold my adolescence and I blame it on Zack Morris.

Where were our pep rallies? Where were our homecoming dances? Where were our prom queens, pre-university graduation ceremonies and clumsy kisses behind the bleachers? From this side of the Atlantic, the teen experience as relayed to us by Saved By The Bell, The OC, Gossip Girl, Buffy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sister, Sister, The Gilmore Girls, Kenan and Kel (we all know the list goes a hell of a lot further than that) looked a hell of a lot glossier than our UK secondary school realities. But glossy was never our gig.

It's only now, as I scroll through the endless list of programmes in the black hole of never ending telly content, that I realise that there's a whole generation of teenagers missing out on what I was too busy pining over Nate Archibald to properly appreciate: The Great British Teen sitcom.

We used to have a humble but powerful arsenal of characters that defined the millennial coming of age in the UK way more than we probably realised. Who knows what would life have been if someone didn't decide to turn Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker into a CBBC masterpiece. Heaven forbid that our first vocational understanding of sex, drugs, booze and mental health came anywhere but from the lives of Effy Stonem and the gang. And nothing would have made us so grateful for our own shitty school lives if we hadn't watched Simon from the Inbetweeners do all the wrong things for us.

The wonderful Derry Girls and the very enjoyable Sex Education are leading the charge, but the former is more adult than teen, and the latter is a strange - though fun - US/UK hybrid. Being a kid in Blighty hasn't quite been immortalised in entertainment in the same way since the noughties. It was messy, dramatic and glorious and we miss it. So while we wait for the E4 producers to throw another homegrown series about what it's really like being a millennial right now, here's a well deserved look back on some of the greatest British shows of our teenage years.

Skins

Ah, I can hear the theme music now as the cast wonder through the streets of Bristol, soaking wet after sinking the car in the lake. Skins was the now iconic coming of age story that we all secretly wanted to be a part of but at the same time were low-key terrified of. I hate to use the word in an un-ironic way but hell, Skins was 'raw' and it spoke to so many of us in a way that talking to your older siblings about what it was like to have sex, smoke weed, get expelled, lose a loved one or develop an eating disorder could never match. We were never able to let Chris go.

The Inbetweeners

If we're honest, the Inbetweeners was a little closer to what it was really like being in secondary school. Much of it was fantastically average and outrageously stupid, much like our faux-rebellious realities. Top points here go for exceptional use of British insults - wanker, bumder, tosser, 'friend'. Classics.

Misfits

Here's an unsung hero of our adolescent telly rotation. Misfits was brilliant. Yes the storm and the supernatural powers thing was a little far-fetched in the beginning but don't even pretend that you didn't very quickly buy into the whole thing. It's teen drama that wasn't celebrated nearly enough. Orange jumpsuits and community service were just a side dish to some of our all time favourite casts of delinquents.

Fresh Meat

For starters, I blame this show for leading me to believe that my university house would be big and spacious with a nice open plan kitchen, but beyond that I think this was my first proper televised look at what #unay was. It did a good job for the most part and at the very least we got to be imaginary BFFs with Vod for a few seasons.

Tracy Beaker

God, Elaine really was a pain, but let's not pretend that Tracy Beaker was probably the most addicted you've ever been to a quintessentially 00s kids show. If the hype over the return of Tracy Beaker in a brand new Jacqueline Wilson book (and accompanying TV show) is anything to go by, we need more post-dumping ground madness in our lives. It was heartbreaking (remember when Tracy finally met her mum), hilarious (lol, stupid Elaine) and so, so brilliant (what happened to Justine Littlewood in the end again?).

My Mad Fat Diary

Erm, has anyone managed to get their heads around why this ended because I certainly haven't. Set in the 90s we got another incredibly well documented look at everything from mental health and family to sex and friendship through teenage eyes. 16 episodes was not enough but what did get to know of the brilliant Rae Earl really struck a chord.

MORE: Here Are All TV Show You'll Definitely Remember If You're A True 90s Kid