Characterisation
Sid is initially portrayed as a virgin who has a crush on his best friend Tony Stonem's girlfriend, Michelle Richardson, although he later realises that his true feelings are for Cassie Ainsworth. Manipulated by Tony, he is frequently unlucky: losing an expensive amount of cannabis, getting beaten up by Jal Fazer's (Larissa Wilson) brothers, and getting urinated on by a dog and a homeless person. He is also at first oblivious to the machinations of his best friend who, aware of Sid's undying adoration of Michelle, exploits it for his amusement. Despite this, he seems, at least in earlier episodes, to idolise Tony, replying to the question 'Is that all you do Sid, hang around with Tony?' with 'pretty much'.
Sid is generally portrayed as a character with good intentions, juxtaposed with Tony's self-serving egotism. He is extremely loyal towards his friends, including Tony and Anwar Kharral (Dev Patel), who frequently abuse his loyalty and cause him a great deal of difficulty. Sid is quick to win the affections of Cassie, but he is oblivious, which leads to him hurting her feelings on numerous occasions. His characterisation is often completed by his choice of clothes, including a bright yellow 'Mega Dog' T-shirt, which includes a button which when pressed produces a 'Mega Dog' catchphrase from a sewn on speaker. [1]
In an interview with Sky, Mike says:
It's definitely made my life a bit different; you know walking down the street is kind of a different thing nowadays. But it's been nice to have people come up to you and say "I really like the show" and everything. You get the occasional twat coming up to you. [2]
Sid's father Mark (Peter Capaldi) is shown to be disappointed with his son's poor academic performance and is depicted as very hostile towards him, wondering why Sid is not more like Tony. After Sid's mother Liz (Josie Lawrence) leaves Mark, his relationship with his father improves, and it is later shown that Mark has a poor relationship with his father Alex, who sees his other son Sandy as his golden child; this is exemplified in the fact Sandy and his sons Lex and Ally all have names derivative of Alexander.
In the series 2 finale, it is shown that Sid attains a B and two Cs on his A-levels, though he did not apply to university.
Character history
Series 1
In "Tony" he is promised by Tony that Sid will lose his virginity to Cassie before he turns seventeen. The group attend Abigail Stock's (Georgina Moffat) house party, where Sid is assigned with obtaining cannabis, but eventually loses it in the harbour. He strikes up a connection with Cassie, but she passes out as a result of taking pills, leading to the gang fleeing from the party. In "Cassie", Cassie comes to think Sid loves her and is sending her messages saying to eat, but later realises it is all in her head. Madison Twatter becomes a substitute teacher at Sid's school. In "Jal", Madison corners Sid and Jal, smashes the latter's clarinet and steals Sid's credit cards. Jal's brothers, thinking he is the problem, beat up Sid before chasing after Madison and his associate, to which they are hospitalised.
In "Sid", he is grounded by his father Mark and has to cancel the date arranged with Cassie in the previous episode. When later he is offered by Tony a chance to see Michelle, he takes it. After being beaten up by chav girls, he finds Cassie waiting at his house, upset he had stood her up. She tries to be positive, but is hurt and jealous that Sid likes Michelle. After Tony makes Sid believe he can have Michelle, he takes her back before his eyes, affirming his power over them both. Cassie, distraught by Sid's ignorance attempts suicide by taking an overdose of pills combined with vodka, and ends up in hospital, accompanied by Jal, who places the blame squarely on Sid. Later on, it is revealed Sid's mother Liz has moved out due to her husband's behaviour, to which Sid stands up to his father, grounds him and spends the night finishing his History coursework.
In "Maxxie and Anwar", he helps Anwar liberate a girl from what they believe to be her abusive father, although he turns out to be her husband. He also sees a picture of Cassie drawn by Maxxie Oliver (Mitch Hewer), remarking on how beautiful he has made her look. "Michelle" is the episode where Sid realises he really wants Cassie. After a rebounding Michelle attempts to have sex with him, he realises that his love for her is at a level where she can only be his friend. They then both go to find Cassie at her rehab clinic, to tell her. After Sid confesses he likes her, she reveals her new boyfriend, also at the clinic.
In "Effy", Sid is dragged by Tony to help him find his missing sister, Effy Stonem (Kaya Scodelario). Eventually, Sid and Tony come to blows, deriding each other's perceived character flaws: Tony sees Sid as wishing to emulate him, whereas Sid sees Tony as something he would never want to become. Later, Sid sees Cassie, agrees to meet with her, and the two finally kiss. Their reunion is cut short by a call from Michelle, which prompts him to try to find Tony and Effy who may be in danger. After he takes Tony and Effy to the hospital, he is the one to defend Tony, who he refers to as his best friend, against his parents' accusations.
Sid spends the beginning of the first series finale wondering about Cassie and attempts to write a letter explaining how much he loves her. Sid hurriedly dresses in mismatching clothes and rushes to Cassie's rehab clinic, just after she leaves in a taxi. In the clinic, the nurse locks Sid in a padded room, deducing that Sid needs their help. Tony comes to his aid and Sid is released from the clinic and the two then look for Cassie. At the end of the episode, it is revealed after Sid left Anwar's party he was meeting with Cassie, who is sitting on a bench overlooking Bristol. He sits besides her, where they then hold hands.
Series 2
In the second series, Sid begins to distance himself from Tony, who has awakened from his coma and is slowly recovering from the brain damage inflicted by his accident. In "Tony and Maxxie", Sid refuses to visit Tony, who becomes frustrated by the lack of contact from his former best friend. In the "Lost Weeks", web episodes, it is revealed that Sid frequently attended to Tony in hospital following the accident, recording messages to help "wake" him up. Sid is now in a long-distance relationship with Cassie, and it is revealed with a picture of Cassie on Sid's wall that that he lost his virginity to her before she moved to Scotland, but there is a lack of contact between them, which Sid resents.
In "Sid", he misinterprets Cassie's closeness with her gay Scottish friend and later angrily accuses her of cheating on him, destroying the laptop he used to communicate with her. His grandfather is coming to visit, and Mark he persduades Liz to come around and pretend they are still together. Alex arrives, along with Sandy and his two sons, and it is made clear that Alex favours Sandy, allowing him to take over his business as a result of Alex's undisclosed illness and frequently belittling Mark. Sid believes this reflects on Mark being a disappointment to him, but Mark denies that he feels this way. Liz's German boyfriend Manfred shows up uninvited and bloody, wanting to see Liz and fights with Mark and Sandy. Liz takes Manfred to hospital, and Alex taunts Mark for losing Liz, to which Mark finally stands up for himself and kicks everyone out of the house except for Sid.
Mark is shown to be in a relaxed state. However, he unexpectedly dies the next morning, with Sid discovering his lifeless body the next morning. Still in shock, Sid goes to school as usual, and agrees to go for a drink with Tony. At the gig they attend, Abigail tries to seduce Tony and convince him that she is his girlfriend, but Sid breaks them up because of Tony's love for Michelle. When the headline act Crystal Castles start performing, Sid finally breaks down as the two embrace. They go back to Sid's house together to deal with the situation, which seems to patch up their damaged friendship. At the end of the episode, Sid is seen on a train, presumably headed to Scotland to see Cassie. At the same time, Cassie is seen taking a train in the opposite direction, presumably to visit Sid in Bristol.
In "Michelle", a grieving Sid ends up having sex with Michelle - who has also given up on Tony - while on a camping trip. They enter a relationship, and intend to keep it private, but they are soon caught kissing in Sid's bedroom by Cassie, who had returned from Scotland to see Sid. In "Chris", Cassie angrily confronts Sid and Michelle in front of their friends after running into the couple at a club. This also exposes Sid and Michelle's new relationship to Tony, who seems hurt by it. Sid attempts to explain things, but Cassie slaps him. In "Tony", Sid goes with Michelle to try to make amends with Tony, but it proves difficult as Tony is hiding under his bed. After coming back from the university interview, Tony finds Sid and Michelle having sex in the toilets of a club, where he tells them he loves them both, and even kisses Sid, saying he loves him even though he's a "useless fucker". Tony also tells Sid that he neither loves nor belongs with Michelle, he belongs with Cassie.
In "Effy", Sid has to do Effy's art coursework in exchange for her "sorting out his fucking soap opera". She does this by sending her friend Jake to Cassie, who has become extremely promiscuous, and planting pictures of the two kissing on Sid. Horrified, Sid goes to Cassie and finally confronts her, and the two reconcile. Despite rekindling their relationship, Cassie is still shown to be angry regarding Sid's relationship with Michelle, being annoyed at Michelle's presence at the dinner party hosted by Sid. She later tells Sid that she will "love him forever", but after witnessing the death of their friend Chris Miles (Joe Dempsie), she flees to New York City.
In the series two finale, Sid is told by Chris's father that the gang will not attend the funeral so he and Tony decided to steal Chris's coffin. They return it when Jal and Michelle demand that they do so. Sid is forgiven by Tony and gives him a ticket to New York to find Cassie. Tony hugs and tells him to lose the hat as it "makes you look retarded" and that he always "loved him [Sid] best". He arrives in New York with a photograph of Cassie and eventually walks past the restaurant where she is working. He turning his head to face the window where he will undoubtedly see her standing when the episode ends.
Post-Series 2
In the first episode of series 3, JJ, Freddie and Cook opened Sid's locker, discovering his beanie, the "Asian Fanny Fun" magazine as well as his name written inside. Cook acknowledges Sid, stating "I don't know who this Sid guy is, but he has a great taste in gash." All of Sid's possessions in the locker are then set on fire by Cook as part of a dare concocted by Effy.
In the sixth episode of series 5, "Asian Fanny Fun" appears again, a reference to Sid.
In "Skins Pure", Cassie returns to London from America. Whether Sid found her in New York or not is not directly confirmed, but Cassie states in a conversation with her roommate that before moving to London she was traveling around America with a boy, but decided to end the relationship because it could not go any further. Cassie stated that if the relationship did not end, it would have lasted forever. Cassie does not give the boy's name, but Skins co-creator Bryan Elsley, who wrote the episode, confirmed that this was intended as a reference to Sid. [3]
