When my Emmy-winning young-adult Channel 4 show, Sugar Rush, ended after two seasons in 2006, I’ll admit that I was prepared to loathe the series – Skins – that succeeded it. And I did. Not because of professional jealousy, but because it was so unrelentingly bleak. With seven seasons running from 2007 to 2013, it dealt with a group of sixth-formers experiencing – deep breath – dysfunctional families, depression, eating disorders, PTSD, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, bullying and – I love this one – ‘death’. According to Wikipedia, ‘it has since been considered revolutionary, and continues to draw [praise] for its depiction of problems that British youth experience, which were generally not showcased on public TV at the time’.

I’ll say. A decade later, you can’t get away from primetime anguish, much of it experienced by youngsters. The viewing figures for Coronation Street have plummeted as the battleaxes and vamps of the cobbles become interchangeable ‘issue-havers’, dealing with the eating disorders and bullying so beloved by Skins, bringing us right up to date with cyber-stalking, early menopause, diabetes, coercive control and sex-tape shaming. Watching Corrie now is like being stuck in a GP’s waiting room with no book, gradually losing the will to live as you thumb through the public-health pamphlets.