Quality has been variable since creator Paul Abbott ran out of time to write the hyper-real saga of life on the chavvy Chatsworth, but Ed McCardie's opener to series six was a triumph, weaving together four plots and throwing in some surrealism, too.

There are so many ghosts on the streets of the Chatsworth Estate, magic characters who made Shameless great, that it's hard not to feel their loss every time you hear Frank Gallagher's opening rant. Lip and Fiona, Veronica and Kev, crazy Sheila - few dramas could stand the departure of such top talent without staggering on their feet a bit.

Last time around, when the cartoonish Maguires took centre stage, Shameless looked dead beat. A crudely drawn farce that once had been a sharp black comedy. But, like a boxer who refuses to succumb to a knockout blow, Shameless has taken a whiff of smelling salts and is back to punch our lights out. It's too early to cheer a total return to form, but Shameless still carries the salty smack of real life like nothing else on TV.

Series Six Review

What is there to like about Shameless really? Most of the characters are horrible, they're violent, thieving scumbags, sponging off the world and constantly up to the eyeballs on booze and drugs. Right? Wrong. Fact is, Shameless has one of those rare commodities - community.

Whichever preview you read for the new series of Shameless, it will say that the first episode marks a return to form the stalwart series. I once read a review of it somewhere in a posh newspaper that said that they couldn't bare watching something about working class people living on a council estate in Manchester. It made her feel grubby. If that's not a reason to like Shameless I don't what is, but let's face it - series five wasn't all that great, and even its creator, the heavily bum-licked Paul Abbott, agreed. So it's good that all the signs say that series is a return to form.

Shameless heads for place in dictionary

Its grimly comic take on the savage underbelly of the British underclass has won Shameless a plethora of television awards. Now the show could receive recognition of a more permanent kind after the Oxford English Dictionary confirmed that it was considering including the programme's title in future editions.

Shameless is back. The days when it was a semi-autobiographical family saga written by Paul Abbott are long gone, and for years now it has been jumping sharks on a regular basis. Despite that, it still has a raucous energy and an irreverent, devil-may-care humour, and David Threlfall's performance as Frank Gallagher is up there among the finest comic performances to be found anywhere on television in the past ten years.

London Paper Review

Does anyone else think Shameless went a bit rubbish, oh, about four years ago? Yet, oddly, the worse it gets, the more episodes it seems to have.

London Paper Review

Does anyone else think Shameless went a bit rubbish, oh, about four years ago? Yet, oddly, the worse it gets, the more episodes it seems to have.

David Threlfall interview

David Threlfall reveals Frank Gallagher's top tip for surviving the recession... just steal everything.

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.