Shameless

Meet the Galaghers: six children, housing estate in Manchester, mother’s cleared off, father’s an incontinent alcoholic. A constellation that reeks of gloomy social drama, depression guaranteed. But with SHAMELESS, nothing could be further from that. With a sure-fire instinct for dialogue and situation and the emotional forcefulness of authenticity, Paul Abbott has created a masterpiece of absurd comedy that never loses affection for its protagonists, even when they’re at their most vulgar.