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Chris Miles | |
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General Information | |
Nickname(s): | Chris, Monkey Man |
Gender: | Male |
Born: | 1990 |
Age: | 17-18 (series 1 & 2) |
Status: | Deceased |
Died: | 2008 |
Cause of death: | Subarachnoid hemorrhage |
Education: | Roundview College (expelled) |
Occupation(s): | Student (formerly) Real estate agent (formerly) |
Relationships | |
Family: | Graham Miles (father) Unnamed mother Peter Miles (older brother) † Sammy Miles (paternal half-brother) Mary Miles (step-mother) |
Romances: | Numerous female sexual encounters and love interests Angie (love interest; formerly) Jal Fazer (girlfriend) |
Friends: | Maxxie Oliver (best friend) Anwar Kharral (best friend) Cassie Ainsworth (flatmate/best friend) Tony Stonem Sid Jenkins Michelle Richardson Posh Kenneth |
Enemies: | Merve (rival; formerly) |
Series Information | |
First Appearance: | "Tony" (episode 1.01) |
Centric Episode(s): | "Chris" (episode 1.04) "Chris"(episode 2.05) |
Last Appearance: | "Cassie" (episode 2.09) |
Potrayed by: | Joe Dempsie |
Christopher "Chris" Miles is a fictional character in the British teen drama Skins, portrayed by Joe Dempsie.
Characterization[]
Chris' character was initially portrayed as being very into pills and a bit of a hedonist, but at the same time he had other layers to his personality. According to the official Skins website, he will "smoke/screw/rob/snort anything". He is eager to go to his psychology class because he has feelings for his teacher, Angie, who is described as "out of this world" in Chris' eyes. He later becomes involved and falls in love with Jal. Jal becomes pregnant late in the second series, but does not keep the baby. He is also shown to have a great admiration for his deceased older brother and feels that he cannot compare to him. In his profile on the E4 website, he says that he likes listening to 1970s emo music and 1980s pop, and that he doesn't like television at all, seeing it as "[...] a box with images in...". Chris died in Season 2 Episode 9, of a brain hemorrhage like his brother. In the last episode, the gang celebrates their graduation and goes to Chris' funeral.
Character History[]
Series 1[]
In the van, Chris is convinced he sees a green truck, but his friend Paul is right, the paint is fiberglass and it is actually green, to go to a "big gay night out" with Anwar Kharral, but being bored, they end up going to Abigail Stock's party instead, where he and a Polish girl have wild sex. His flirtatious relationship with his Welsh psychology teacher Angie is also revealed. In "Cassie", he accidentally sees Angie naked in the teachers' shower and later apologizes.
The episode "Chris" develops his character the most. He wakes up one morning having taken viagra which he did not need the night before, and comes downstairs to find his mum has run away and given him £1000 to live off. After spending the money on a huge party, and embarrassing himself with his erection in front of Angie who came to the party, he finds himself homeless after he is kicked out by a squatter who is living in his stripped-down house, of which he had to sell the contents.
Chris is homeless and naked. He walks to school naked and goes to Angie for help and advice. His friends arrive and give him clothes, which Cassie Ainsworth and Maxxie charmed from boys in Unseen Skins' accompanying episode "A Friend in Need". Jal Fazer takes him to see his dad who doesn't want anything to do with him or his mother, who is implied to be mentally unstable. Chris accidentally drops his baby half-brother, and runs as fast as he can to the graveyard, where he tells Jal the best day of his life when he was in the scouts, when his older brother Peter helps him when Chris was humiliated. Once he finishes telling Jal his story, he stands up revealing that the gravestone he was sitting at is in fact his older brother's. In the episode's conclusion, he is put up to live in a dorm room by a sympathetic Angie.
Eventually, in "Maxxie and Anwar", Chris and Angie admit their feelings for each other. After fellow teacher Tom talks badly to Angie - whom he could not seduce, Chris tries to cheer her up and they end up kissing, which leads to sex. They are caught by Maxxie, who is visibly shocked and hurriedly closes the door.
Chris and Angie's relationship progresses throughout the series, until the series finale, where the return of Angie's fiancé Merve completely destroys their relationship, Chris realizing he may lose Angie for good. He concludes that Merve is "obviously gay", after watching a video tape of Angie's showing Merve as a campy weatherman on Australian television. Eventually Chris takes Angie's engagement ring, and is confronted by Merve and two of his friends, and told to give it back. Chris denies he has it, and it is only when Angie eventually bursts in, and asks Chris to return it, does he comply. However, when he gives the ring back, Chris drops it, probably accidentally, and kneels down to pick it up, causing Anwar's uncle to think that Chris is proposing. Angie takes the ring, and runs off, leaving both Chris and Merve opposite one another. After she runs away, Chris comes to the conclusion that she loves him, and thus earns a punch from Merve, starting a minor brawl. In the closing montage, he and Angie are seen staring at each other with sad expressions through a window. In Chris's lost week webisode, he is seen recording a message to Angie.
Series 2[]
In the first episode of the second season, Chris is seen with Maxxie and Jal trying to comfort and look after Tony Stonem following his accident. That night, they go to a party which they have tried to keep Tony from finding out about.
In the next episode we learn that Angie has decided not to return to teach her class. She leaves a private message to Chris in code, but does not say goodbye to him explicitly. Chris is upset and confused about this, as he had been looking forward to Angie coming back, partly so that they could see each other again. After this, he goes on the camping trip for Michelle Richardson's birthday, and is attracted to her stepsister, Scarlett and spends the weekend complimenting her and looking at her breasts.
In episode five of the second season, we see Jal and Chris make a deal that Chris will give his life a go and stop saying 'fuck it' and Jal will stop saying no to everything. After a number of unsuccessful jobs, Chris gets a job as a sales person and squats in one of the houses he is supposed to be selling, where Cassie moves in temporarily. Inevitably he and Jal end up getting together, and Chris' life begins to straighten up. Chris is performing exceptionally at work, and with support and affection from Jal he is genuinely happy for a change. However things lead to chaos when Cassie decides to have a house-warming party there and Angie turns up. The two have sex in the bathroom, however Chris abruptly stops when he thinks of Jal. Chris opens the bathroom door to leave and finds Jal outside, and she realises what has happened between him and Angie. Chris then attempts to get Jal back and invites her to the flat that Angie left him before leaving. They get back together, however he doesn't yet know that Jal is pregnant, with his baby.
In episode eight Jal returns from her audition to find Chris has been taken to hospital because he has suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a result of the hereditary condition that his brother died of previously. Jal tells a comatose Chris she is pregnant and gives him her lucky coin to take into an operation.
Following his surgery, Chris does not remember Jal telling him about her pregnancy. After Michelle says that Jal is in trouble, Chris realizes he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, which prompts Jal to tell him again and further discuss the status and the plans for the pregnancy. Jal tells him she wants and abortion, and he agrees, despite obviously conflicting feelings. During a conversation with Cassie the next morning, he reveals that he feels that he would make a bad father and that this child would ultimately hold Jal back from her career as a musician, to which Cassie reassures him that it isn’t about him, but that it’s just bad timing. After this conversation, he tells her he’s okay and she leaves to get milk for tea. On her way home, Cassie sees his mother in the car park and rushes upstairs to get him before she leaves. Upon getting to his room, she hears him crying, presumably about his feelings regarding his agreement with Jal about terminating the pregnancy. Later, Cassie tells him he could probably convince her not to do it if he tried, which he again says he will not do because he doesn’t want to anger or upset her.
In the series' penultimate episode, Chris dies from a second subarachnoid hemorrhage. Cassie gave him a T-shirt with "Monkey Man" written on it, Chris is happy with the shirt and tells Cassie that he cannot wait to show it to his girlfriend. This is when he realizes that he cannot remember Jal's name. Chris leaves the room after he begins to hyperventilate and falls onto his bed. Cassie runs after him and then runs to find her phone. Cassie calls an ambulance then runs back to Chris. Chris is now bleeding from his nose and then tells Cassie that he remembers Jal's name. After witnessing Chris die in her arms, Cassie flees to New York in a state of severe shock.
After Chris' father forbids Chris' friends from attending his funeral (because in his opinion they are the reason he had changed), Tony and Sid Jenkins decide to steal his body to hold their own funeral. However, Jal is distressed at this idea and she and Michelle persuade them to return the coffin to the hearse. Chris' friends decide to watch the funeral from afar, whilst Jal makes the following speech comparing Chris to one of his heroes, Captain Joe Kittinger, and referencing Kittinger's Project Excelsior:
- "I've been thinking about what Chris would have wanted me to say today. The advice he'd give me, which'd be something like, 'Know what, babe? Fuck it. These guys know all about me. Tell them about someone different.' So I thought I'd tell you about a hero of Chris's: a man called Captain Joe Kittinger. In 1960, climbing into a foil balloon, Captain Joe ascended 32 kilometers into the stratosphere. And then, armed only with a parachute, he jumped out. He fell for four minutes and thirty-six seconds, reaching seven hundred and forty miles per hour before opening his parachute five kilometers above the Earth. It had never been done before, and it's never been done since. He did it just because he could. And that's why Chris loved him - because the thing about Chris was, he said yes. He said yes to everything. He loved everyone. And he was the bravest boy - man - I knew. And that was - he flung himself out of a foil balloon every day. Because he could. Because he was. And that's why - and that's why,.......we, we loved him."
- ―Jal
After Jal had finished her speech (which Chris' father listened to over the funeral proceedings), the friends set off several bright pink fireworks to say goodbye in their own way.
Series 3[]
Cook now lives in Chris's old dorm room, as evidenced by the graffiti that reads "Chris loves fish" with a picture of a fish. Cook is also wearing a red-and-white striped shirt that Chris used to wear, although it is dirtier and more worn.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Chris Miles Profile on the official E4 Skins site
- Chris Miles' Condolence Book on the official E4 Skins site
- Chris Miles on Myspace