Anne-Marie Duff

Sex Education, season 2 review

Sweet, funny, admirable - but not very sexy.

After 11 series and all manner of twists and turns, it's time for Shameless to bow out in fittingly ridiculous fashion. Frank is home after a stint in prison, but Monica has a revelation which leads to the return of familiar faces including Fiona and Kev (Anne-Marie Duff and Dean Lennox Kelly), as Gallagher history threatens to repeat itself. Although Paul Abbott's stylised take on social deprivation lost its way a while back, this final snapshot of the Gallagher clan brings back memories of the show's glory days.

It's the end of an era tonight as we bid farewell to Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) and the Chatsworth Estate he's roamed in assorted states of alcohol and drug-induced delirium for 11 seasons. It's been a shadow of its former glories of late but at its peak, Shameless was a truthful, bawdy and poignant portrait of working-class Britain struggling to survive through hard times. It also launched the careers of a raft of top acting talent and some its former stars, including Anne-Marie Duff, Dean Lennox Kelly, Elliott Tittensor and Jody Latham have returned to bow Shameless out with one helluva party!

Paul Abbott's rambunctious drama has been in steady decline for years now, so it's time it signed off. Ironically this cracking final episode highlights just where things went wrong: the moment the focus shifted from that clan of lovable rogues, the Gallaghers, to the more straightforwardly criminal Maguires.

But as Frank is released from jail - in for benefit fraud, naturally - and is confronted by an unwanted surprise from Monica, the stage is set for many of the old regulars to return as the Gallaghers feel the push and pull of fractious family relations.

Anne-Marie Duff, Dean Lennox Kelly, Elliott Tittensor, Jody Latham and Kelli Hollis all turn up, but really it's David Threlfall's show to steal. He's never been more nauseating, compelling and heartbreaking as the reprehensible Frank, struggling to face further family responsibility. Will the feckless waster ever appreciate anything more than a party?

It's appropriate that David Threlfall, the one constant of this unfeasibly durable show, steps behind the camera for its final-ever episode. And fun, too, to see Anne-Marie Duff's Fiona joining the likes of Lip (Jody Latham), Kev (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Carl (Elliott Tittensor) in one last doomed attempt to tame the wild beast that is Threlfall's Frank Gallagher.

The plot, for what it's worth, sees most of the Gallagher brood reuniting for funeral so farcical that Fiona determines to take the remaining kids back down south with her. Can Frank, just out of prison and with itchy feet, rediscover a modicum of interest in fatherhood? A couple of half-hearted jokes about Jesus and abortion show that the series hasn't entirely sacrificed its aggressive taboo-busting for cartoonish irrelevance. But this is a shabby, subdued finale to a show that once fizzed with vigour, invention and purpose.

The lower-class heroes of the Chatsworth estate have been providing high-quality entertainment for more than nine years now, but it's finally time to wave farewell to the Gallaghers, the Maguires and the rest as Shameless airs its final episode.

Former cast members Anne-Marie Duff, Dean Lennox Kelly, Elliott Tittensor, Jody Latham and Kelli Hollis all make a reappearance for the Shameless curtain call, as iconic alcoholic Frank Gallagher ends his prison stint for benefit fraud and receives an unwanted surprise from Monica (Annabelle Apison).

The 11th and final series of the cult Mancunian drama arrives. We're promised an epic 14-part run, with many of the departed stars (including Anne-Marie Duff) returning for the finale. In this colourful opener, it's a double celebration on the Chatsworth Estate: the residents have been awarded an Olympic ring from London 2012 (well, sort of), while the Maguire family toast the expansion of their dodgy empire. Meanwhile, Frank Gallagher (the brilliant David Threlfall) has become a school caretaker.

After nine years, Shameless begins its drunken lurch off our screens with the premiere of its 11th and final series this week. The focal point of the first episode is Jamie Maguire (Aaron McCusker), who begins to question himself after making a shocking discovery about his family.

Elsewhere, everyone's favourite pissed-up reprobate Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) continues his transformation into an honest working man... while mingling with some of the area's finest prostitutes. Also, keep an eye out this series for the return of departed Chatsworth favourites such as Monica (Annabelle Apsion) Lip (Jody Latham), Carl (Elliott Tittensor) and Fiona (Anne-Marie Duff), all of whom will be showing their faces before the Shameless final curtain.

Anne-Marie Duff returns for final ever Shameless

The final ever episode of Shameless is currently shooting on the Chatsworth Estate and in true Shameless fashion some much loved characters turn up to sort out Frank in a suitably finale for the blisteringly funny and offbeat drama series.

As the US remake invades our screens, here's a chance to celebrate the more wild, more energetic, and ultimately superior original. Watch real-life lovebirds Anne-Marie Duff and James McAvoy dance a merry dance as Gallagher family linchpin Fiona and her car-nicking boyfriend Steve, and revel in David Threlfall's career-defining turn as drunken philosopher Frank, to which, as yet, Willam H Macy hasn't been able to hold a candle.