One night in Watford with the cast of Skins…

When I give Ewen Spencer a call, he’s in-between shuttle runs to the post office to send out copies of One Night in Watford, his book featuring images from one of the quintessential moments of British culture: the 2006 campaign for the first season of Skins.

​“Not to brag, but we’ve had so many pre-orders,” the Newcastle-born photographer says. ​“Everything that’s been delivered has just flown right back out the door.” You’re likely familiar with the infamous E4 promo clip for the show. It was the dream party – cake-throwing, the awkward snogging, people throwing up in the corner and sharpies to the forehead, all set to the explosive sound of The Gossip’s Standing in the Way of Control (Soulwax Nite Version).

Ewen was commissioned by Channel 4 to photograph the whole thing, now the stuff of legend. There was an unpolished innocence to his photographs of Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel and Daniel Kaluuya sweatily sending it in some poor person’s living room in Watford. And as that 20-year trend cycle rears its ugly head, there’s no better time to revisit these images than now – not least given the aforementioned actors are now some of the biggest names in film.

And there was no one better to take these pictures than Ewen, who’d spent years capturing the glory days of grime and UK garage, hanging out at parties and in people’s stairwells, busy immortalising British subculture. If you want to see more (unpublished!) pictures than what’s in this article, you can buy One Night in Watford here. If you want to know more about the making-of the book, keep scrolling.

Why did now feel like the right time to look back on that one night in Watford?

It’s been brewing for a little while, maybe two years. I’ve got so many projects that just sit in my archive because I shot so much in the ​’90s and the 2000s. I think those pictures have always been popular but they’ve become more and more relevant. My son put some of them up on Instagram and we had a huge response. So many people were saying, ​“How can we own these pictures?” It just kind of made me realise just how kind of desirable they are, I guess. They’re part of the landscape and vernacular of what I do. It wasn’t a huge departure to make these for what was essentially a commercial commission.

So many amazing actors have come out of Skins, not least Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Jack O’Connell and Daniel Kaluuya. At the time, did you get that sense of them as people who would go far?

Nicholas was, I have to say, very charming. You could sense he was something of an alpha in the room. Not in an intimidating way but in a benevolent kind of way. But people like Dev – that was his first role. His mum had put him forward for it, he was 16. Bananas how good he is and what he’s become. Daniel Kaluuya, man. The guy’s a legend. He went on to write on the series, to direct. They weren’t careerist and cloying, they were just having a fucking good time.

What was your favourite memory from the day?

We had a food fight in the kitchen, that was cracking. The extras were all from Central Saint Martins and they had this DJ called Dimitri From Paris, and the whole place erupted when he played his tunes. They were 24 hour party people, these kids. One of them came to the opening, he’s just left Versace. I asked him what he remembered about the day and he was like, ​“Not much!” He said they were gutted because he felt they couldn’t get properly loaded. But all this time I thought they were.

What do you reckon makes a great party?

It’s all about having the right people in the right place at the right time. I think British kids are probably the best at having a good time. That’s usually born out of frustration.

What makes you excited now?

The same thing as ever: waiting for the film to get developed. That feeling never wanes.