Review: Women on the Verge

It picks away at modern neurosis the way you pull at a loose stitch, or the quick of your thumb - with the funny, fierce instinct that everything, and everyone, is steadily unravelling.

It felt like a breath of fresh air when it burst onto our screens in 2004, but as it girds its loins for a final hurrah, the rambunctious drama feels as stale as Frank Gallagher's rasping breath after a heavy night.

Any warmth for the characters departed long ago and we're just left with a queasy mix of filthy laughs and stabs at poignancy. There's both in the storyline of Jamie Maguire (Aaron McCusker) discovering that Paddy wasn't his father.

The details of the revelation aren't suitable for the pages of Radio Times, but as Jamie struggles with identity issues, he becomes a fixed point amid the usual screaming vortex of lusty abandon.

Ironically, Shameless comes to an end just as the BBC's latest fly-on-the-wall ­documentary People Like Us causes the residents of another Manchester suburb to complain they're being made to look like a bunch of criminals, alcoholics and benefits scroungers.

But as the eleventh and final series begins tonight, Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) kicks off proceedings with a brand new poem in which he dares to compare himself to Her Majesty the Queen. And the residents of Chatsworth have strung out the bunting to celebrate their estate being presented with one of the Olympic rings.

But local pride soon turns into a riot when the icon that's unveiled turns out to be a more accurate symbol of Chatsworth's value than locals had bargained for.

While Frank and the Jockey pub remain the only links to the first series, when Shameless still smelled fresh, many viewers will agree that Paul Abbott's creation is now past its sell-by date.

But it still has some surprises up its sleeve. The biggest of these tonight is reserved for Jamie Maguire (Aaron McCusker) when mum Mimi (Tina Malone) drops a bombshell that will cast a magic mushroom-shaped cloud over his entire life.

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.