Shameless

Shameless: A day in the life

The filming call sheet displays a list of the supporting artistes needed today on the Chatsworth estate. They include three burka girls, three prostitutes and one police officer, as the Shameless hit factory weaves yet more small screen magic.

Ian Wylie, Manchester Evening News, 22nd January 2009

HBO cues up US version of Shameless

US cable network HBO is to develop an American version of Channel 4 drama Shameless after striking a deal with John Wells, the writer and producer behind ER and The West Wing. Wells, who also executive produced Oscar-nominated movie Far From Heaven, is currently writing a Stateside version of the Bafta-winning drama series. The development deal follows years of negotiations over a US version by Shameless's creator Paul Abbott, with NBC previously linked to the project. The UK version has aired on BBC America and the Sundance Channel in the US.

Leigh Holmwood, The Guardian, 5th January 2009

One day someone will make a television programme in which people from the south of England, particularly Londoners, are not emotionally frigid workaholics, and people from the north are not loveably daft pleasure-seekers with warm, beating hearts of gold. Shameless (Channel 4) is not that programme - it is, however, many other things. I couldn't help feeling, as I watched the repulsive Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) head-butting his son and drinking himself into a stinking stupor that I was being encouraged in some way to forgive him. The fact that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't entirely hate him says much for the sterling quality of Paul Abbott's writing, and the amazing performance of every single cast member.

Shameless is, for all sorts of reasons, the drama about which everyone is talking at the moment. It addresses just about all TV's current obsessions: parenting, sexuality, substance abuse, social ills, the Blair government - the only thing missing so far is cosmetic surgery, but that may yet come. It is full of gallows humour and funny one-liners. It features acres of firm young flesh of both sexes, and last night it gave us a rare TV sighting of a milkman with a full erection. Like Footballers' Wives or Queer As Folk, it's got something to say and it knows how to say it. And it really couldn't have come at a better time for Channel 4.

Rupert Smith, The Guardian, 21st January 2004