MTV announced this week that it will develop a U.S. version of the British hit television series “Skins.”

The US version will retain one of the British show’s creators, Brian Elsley, as a writer and executive producer. But perhaps more importantly, MTV will maintain the unique writing and casting model that made “Skins” a success across the pond. This means MTV will select a group of unknown teenagers to be both the writers and stars of the show, which will be set in Baltimore.

“We intend to preserve the authenticity of the British version and are excited to collaborate with the original team to develop stories that will speak to American youth,” said Liz Gateley, Senior Vice President, MTV Series Development.

Like most teen dramas, “Skins” is about all the of the good and bad teenagers encounter growing up and looking for love. Since it’s premier in January 2007, it has made a major cultural impact on British teens, who are now sometimes referred to as the “Skins Generation.”

In the UK, “Skins” was the third highest-rated show of the year on the channel E4.‚  It also won a 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Audience Award and Best Drama Series at the 2008 Broadcast Awards — the former of which is voted on by the public.

If an American needs any further excuse to sit down and watch a British drama, Mobile is it. Mobile will convince you.

A seeming madman starts blowing up cellphone towers all over England and shooting people in cold blood simply because they were talking on their mobile phones — messages graffitied nearby proclaim the phones to be the work of the devil.

The four-part series brings together three main interlocking plots. A former telecom engineer with a terminal brain tumor comes under suspicion for the bombings. The plot then turns to two executives, Sir James Corson (Keith Allen) and David West (Michael Kitchen) who take turns trying to ruin each other’s careers. Enter Maurice Stoan (Jamie Draven) a former army sharpshooter who misses out on his chance to become a third generation warrior (the 2003 invasion of Iraq — perfect parallel to modern history) when his wife and child are killed by a hit-and-run driver, sending him home on bereavement leave.

The three plots culminate in the fourth and final episode. It’s explosive. It’s dramatic. It’s got guns, sex and betrayal. You just know some American film company is going to steal the plot and make an awful Hollywood movie out of it.

Before that happens, you need to watch Mobile.

Mobile’s stars — British veterans Kitchen (Foyle’s War) and Allen (BBC America’s Robin Hood) and a younger up and coming Jamie Draven — perform their roles with typical British dramatic perfection. Two female costars may be familiar to Americans — Samantha Bond (Moneypenny in the Pierce Brosnan Bond films), as the wife of the telecom executive and Julie Graham (Bonekickers, At Home with the Braithwaites) as the wife of the engineer.

The 2007 series was a big TV hit in the U.K. but has never been seen publicly in the United States yet. Mobile won a Silver World Medal at the 2008 New York Festivals International Television Broadcasting Awards.