James Cook Sr.

'''James Cook. Sr, more commonly called "James Cook" or "Cook"' by his peers is the main antagonist in third series of Skins''. He is James Cook's father and the overall reason why Cook. Jr is the way he is. He was portrayed by Matt King.

Characterization
Cook Sr. was a cruel, arrogant, manipulative and perverted sadist who had a very disgusting lifestyle, he was also incredibly poor and lived on a house boat throughout the series. He was also a very cheap man and would do anything to get something as petty as a free drink of beer in a pub. He would arrange deals, bets and bargains with people as well but whenever he lost a bet he would always find some sort of way to weasel his way out of it. At first he appears rather reasonable to his son and Effy but Effy quickly catches on to the fact that he is clearly putting on an act and only profiting from his son's arrival for his own personal, selfish needs causing her to run away from the two and call Freddie and JJ for help. When Cook Sr. finally reveals his true colours he tells his son that he never even wanted him in the first place then threatens to burn his face off with a firework, showing his wrathful and violent nature as well as his cruelty and sadism as he literally laughs in his distraught son's face.

Series 3
He first appeared when Cook wanted to introduce Effy to his father and Cook Sr. seemed alright at first although he slowly started to show his true personality to the two, Effy caught on to this and called Freddie and JJ for help. The next day Cook Sr. placed a bet with the owner of a pub he regularly attended saying that if his son where to win the annual village steeple race then he would get his pub, the owner agrees then tells him that if his representative should win over Cook Sr.'s then he would get his boat. At the race Freddie and JJ get involved and JJ ends up winning with the owner's representative placing second. The next morning Cook Sr. is preparing to flee with his boat when Cook arrives. Cook tries to reason with his father but he doesn't want to hear it and insults his son until he ends up taking the keys and sobbing. Enraged Cook Sr. threatens to burn his face off if he didn't return the keys and was about to do this until Freddie appears and knocks him unconscious. When Sr. wakes up he finds that his son, Effy, Freddie and JJ have sailed away and shouts with joy as the pub owner and his representative appear and run along the pier following the boat he then shouts to them using his title (Cook) enraging his son who walks towards his father and says that he's Cook, not his father before throwing him overboard. It is unknown what happened to Cook Sr. afterwards although he either drowned in the river or was taken to the authorities to be arrested.