Shameless

Karen's baby was born on the pub floor of the returning Shameless, delivered by the scoundrel Joe, who lovingly wrapped him in a beer mat. So he's not all mad. Frank Gallagher celebrated his 50th with a romance with a librarian (Pauline McLynn, Mrs Doyle from Father Ted) who mistook herself for Cathy from Wuthering Heights and Frank for someone worth bothering with. Seven series on, I doubted whether Shameless would be worth bothering about either, but somehow it is. I'll maintain to the end that its take on the underclass is a kind of lie, but it's a darkly funny one, like this thought from last night's beery discussion of sex after too many pregnancies: "It's like chucking a chipolata up the Mersey Tunnel." I bloody well hope not.

Shameless return watched by more than 3 million

First episode in seventh series of Gallagher family drama is Channel 4's most popular show of the day.

Lock your doors and hide your fivers. The seventh series of Channel 4's popular comedy drama series about life on the fictional Chatsworth Estate in Manchester sees the return of Broken Britain's irrepressible, straggly-haired poster boy - the effing, blinding, boozing, stealing, philandering and yet strangely huggable scourge of society, Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall). Or, in the words of his long-suffering son Liam (Johnny Bennett), a "job-shy, sponging waste of space". It's not hard to understand the success of this ribald, foul-mouthed series. In an admirable tradition that Channel 4 has appeared to make all its own, Shameless glories in the graphic social meltdown of its down-at-heel characters. This first episode alone features a burst colostomy bag, a breezily shocking murder, and the delivery of a baby on the carpet of the pub's floor. Celebrating his 50th birthday, Frank has reached the pinnacle of his professional life - community service as a lollipop man. As he helps children to cross the road with his high-visibility jacket and a fag in his mouth, Frank meets an alluring, Byron-quoting librarian, Libby Croker (Pauline McLynn), and thinks he's fallen in love. "For all I know you're a charlatan," she protests. "Heaven forfend," grins Frank. And yet, even with the writing still sparkling, the drama often staggers about like its brandy-swigging protagonist. One minute it's as gritty as The Street, the next it's as pedestrian as Hollyoaks. But are we glad to have Frank back? Absolutely.

This is the seventh series of Shameless and an eighth is already in the works. Sadly, it is not a cause for celebration. The only way to enjoy it nowadays is to stay focused on David Threlfall's performance and try not to remember how good the first series was all those years ago. Tonight, on the eve of his 50th birthday, Threlfall's character Frank Gallagher has met the new love of his life. She's a librarian who lights a flame in his soul, don't you know, and makes him feel as though he would like to become someone other than the job-shy, sponging waste of space that everyone knows him to be. She, for her part, is a Byron-spouting narcoleptic in search of adrenalin and excitement, who wants to wake up not knowing what the day has to offer. Like a soap opera straining after flamboyance, not a word of it rings true.

Three cheers for the return of the Chatsworth Buccaneers. Frank is now 50, doing community service and still seriously lacking the basic parenting skills, Liam's decided he needs a hero and everyone else is thinking about sex (or stealing stuff) as per usual. Some promising new plot threads emerge, though, chief among them Frank's love-at-first sight encounter with a librarian called Libby.

What is it that signals the death knell of a series? Is it when the Yanks take an interest? (William H Macy is on board to play Frank). Is it when the search for storylines gets so desperate that the characters are compromised? Or is it just when the best cast members leave? It's probably the latter, isn't it? Which explains why Shameless has been on the slide for about four years.

The injection of new characters - Pauline McLynn will (will, will) strip off as Frank's librarian girlfriend - helps, but it all feels a bit forced. Always keen to show off the heart of gold after a shock, there's a bit of a strained feel to an ep about Frank's 50th. To sum up the zany nature, check out the following three facts: Frank is doing community service, there's a birth on the pub floor and a murder over a plate of chips.

Nothing's really changed on the Chatsworth Estate as the seventh series begins. Glasgow kisses are two-a-penny, as are drunkenness, rampant sex and four-letter words that would make Gordon Ramsay blush. But this time there's also a birth (on the pub floor) and a homicide (over what looks like a plate of pie and chips). It's Frank's (David Threlfall) 50th birthday but, most unlike him, he doesn't join the party organised for him down the Jockey, preferring to neck whisky in his bedroom and brood about his life. It doesn't stay loveless for long, though. While he's doing his community service as a lollipop man, Libby the librarian (Father Ted's Pauline McLynn) literally falls into his arms. Unfortunately, Libby has a passion for romantic literature and tends to drone on "Byronically", while Frank's mind is focused on much earthier topics. But no one's perfect, and certainly not on the Chatsworth Estate.

As we revisit the Gallaghers and their scallywag cohorts, Frank is turning 50 and has got a job. It's actually community service but the nation's most feckless man never lets the truth get in the way of trying to prove he's not a complete waste of space.

And he has to put on the mother of all acts this week when he sees the new woman of his dreams, Libby (Father Ted's Pauline McLynn), a bonkers Byron-obsessed librarian who steps out in front of a car while he's being a lollipop lady (and no, that's not a typo. I know he's male but his hair certainly isn't).

If almost getting run over wasn't enough of a sign that Libby should have gone to Specsavers, she soon falls for Frank.

It's widely accepted that Giles from Buffy The Vampire Slayer boosted the street-cred of librarians but this character may single-handedly destroy all that good work and give them the image of strange nymphos with bad glasses.

Not only do we get a disturbing scene involving Libby using a book to flirt with Frank, there's a sex scene so funny it rivals any of the comical horizontal aerobics randy Samantha got up to in Sex And The City.

Elsewhere, we have Glasgow kisses galore, Mimi talking about her lady bits (you'll have nightmares for weeks) and Frank Butcher's mum from EastEnders turning up as this Frank's grandmother Nin. It's a scene-stealing performance by actress Edna Dore but make the most of it because it's her only episode.

Shameless, Channel 4, review

Benji Wilson reviews Shameless, the return of the northern estate comedy-drama series starring David Threlfall.