Shameless: Series 7 Episode 1

When Shameless arrived on our screens seven years ago it was a genuinely exciting, brashly fresh (even a little radical in its sympathetic portrait of council estate Britain) addition to the pantheon of British TV drama.

Inevitably as the show has aged, the series has lost some of the spark and originality that made it such electrifyingly in-your-face viewing, whilst the gradual departure of the original cast has contributed to the impression of a show in slow decline. Despite the move away from the social commentary at the heart of the early years and the resulting reliance on broad caricature and ever more outlandish plots, the show's saving grace has always been the brilliantly whirlwind central performance of David Threlfall as negligent, dissolute, work-shy patriarch Frank and the consistently entertaining scripts.

Happily the opening episode of this new 16-episode seventh series, by no means classic TV, is a characteristically fast-paced, no-holds-barred slice of pure entertainment that sees Frank find a new love in the form of unhinged local librarian Libby (Father Ted star Pauline McLynn), whilst elsewhere the Maguires welcome a new addition to the family in unusual circumstances, Liam ponders the nature of human relationships and Nin takes matters into her own hands in a strangely prosaic moment of violence.

If this episode feels a little disappointing it is only because the show has such high standards to live up to. This is solidly entertaining, watchable stuff that is still head and shoulders above most British TV.



Airs at 10pm on Tuesday 26th January 2010 on Channel 4.

Written by Sam Monk.