Shameless is a BAFTA award-winning British comedy drama television series set in the fictional Chatsworth Estate (the choice of this name is a humorous reference to one of the most sumptuous great houses in Britain) in Manchester, England. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004. The dramedy, centred around UK underclass culture, has been accorded critical acclaim by various sections of the British media, including The Sun newspaper and Newsnight Review on BBC Two.
The programme was created and, at least initially, mainly written by Paul Abbott, who is also the programme's Executive Producer. Much of the series is based on Abbott's own experiences growing up in a similar situation to the Gallagher children in Burnley.
The first series was co-written with Danny Brocklehurst and Carmel Morgan. In subsequent series, Abbott and Brocklehurst shared the main writing duties.
For the fifth series a 6,100 m2 (66,000 sq. ft) exterior and interior set was built on an industrial estate in Wythenshawe, Manchester.
Plot
The opening credits have always featured a monologue from what could arguably be called the central character of the series, Frank Gallagher. The series charts the lives of the dysfunctional Gallagher family, comprising the father, Frank Gallagher and his nine children, widening the scope to other occupants of the estate as the series progresses. Central characters include:
- Fiona (1.1 - 2.10),
- Lip (Phillip) (series 1.1 - 5.1),
- Ian,
- Carl,
- Debbie,
- Liam,
- Nigel and Delia (2.0 – 4.3, Frank's twins with Sheila),
- Stella (born at the end of series 5. Frank denied that he named her after the beer)
Other characters featured in earlier series included Fiona's boyfriend Steve, a middle-class car thief (series 1-2); Kev and Veronica (series 1-3, guests in series 4), the Gallagher's neighbours; Kash, the owner of the local shop, and his wife Yvonne; agoraphobic Sheila (series 1-4) and her daughter Karen; Lip's girlfriend Mandy Maguire; the policemen Tony and Stan, along with various regular background characters. The cast was expanded for the series 2, with Carol and Marty, Veronica's mother and brother, becoming regular characters after guest roles in the first series. In series 3, Mandy's family, led by her drug-dealing mother Mimi Maguire and Paddy Maguire, became key characters. In series 4 we also meet three of the Maguire parents' sons: Shane Maguire, who is determined to show his parents and the estate that he is a hard man and a good worker, and Mickey Maguire, who is gay and similarly determined to prove himself. We also meet Jamie Maguire, who has been in prison for 10 years for murder. The estate are initially scared of him in case he turns against anyone, but as we find out he is a partially reformed character, and wants to get on with his life. He eventually marries Karen Jackson.
The Gallagher family reside at 2 Windsor Gardens, on the fictional Chatsworth Estate, a council estate in Stretford, Greater Manchester. Originally the show was filmed on location on a council estate in West Gorton and in the Pie Factory Studios in Salford. From series 5 onwards the show has been filmed from a purpose built set on the Roundthorn Industrial Estate in South Manchester on the site of the old Umbro factory and around Wythenshawe, Manchester
Critical acclaim
In April 2005, the programme's first series won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards, the most prestigious awards given in the British television industry. It was also nominated for 'Best British Drama' at the 'National Television Awards 2007', but lost out to 'Doctor Who'. Also 'Shameless' has won two awards at the 'Royal Television Awards Society North West Awards 2007' where it beat 'Coronation Street' to the 'Best Continuing Drama Award' and Gerard Kearns (Ian Gallagher), won the 'Best Performance In A Drama Award' for his role in Channel 4's 'Mark Of Cain'.The programme has been sold overseas, where it airs on channels such as SBS (Australia), Showcase Television (Canada), Nederland 3 (The Netherlands), YLE FST5 (Finland), SIC Radical (Portugal), RTÉ Two (Ireland), Sundance Channel and BBC America (Which only aired the first series (United States)), yes+ (Israel), and Jimmy (Italy)
Style
Shameless is noted for having a style very different from other British comedies. A "moving camera" shooting technique (employing few masks or filters) is employed, reminiscent of the BBC2 drama This Life. The show’s interiors are filmed on staged sets and occasionally on location. The soundtrack is part naturalistic, but occasionally uses music and voiceovers. The music is by composer Murray Gold.Each episode begins and ends with a narrative voice-over by one of the characters highlighting the themes of the episode. The opening and closing voiceovers are often humorous in nature, as the point of the episode has already been shown. The commentator of each episode is normally the one on whom the plot focuses. This was much more prominent in the first two series, where a plot revolving around one character would normally prevent any other prominent sub-plots involving other characters; in series three, co-abiding plots revolving around different characters are more common. However, unlike many shows, these plots are not entirely separate and the plots always support each other to the episode's conclusion.
The show is characterised by Paul Abbott’s extensive use of Manchester dialect and slang - and considerable profanity - and is a humorous but warmly realistic portrait of under-class life on council estates where petty crime and violence loom large and authority figures are the antagonists. (Whilst the two policemen, Stan and Tony, are likeable individuals, the police force as a whole is portrayed as antagonistic). An underlying tenet of the show is the strong underlying bonds of blood and loyalty which bind the Gallaghers and by extension families, in the face of any vicissitudes. Parental figures are largely absent or feckless, the cohabiting siblings often left to fend for themselves or forced into a reversal of the parent/child relationship (as made evident by Frank Gallagher's admission "kids who are convinced I'm actually theirs" in the revamped opening credits for season 5), ever wary of the authorities becoming aware of their living situation and separating them; indeed, many episodes’ plots involve evading the authorities. There is some idealisation of this living manner, making poverty and criminality become the norm while somewhat antagonising other classes. (In Series 1, Steve’s middle-class status was often the subject of adverse comment.)
Episodes
Series one of Shameless included seven episodes, and aired between January 13 and February 24, 2004. Such was the popularity of the first series that the third was commissioned at the same time as the second. A Christmas special aired December 23, 2004. The second series began January 4, 2005, and finished March 8, after ten episodes. A New Year Special aired January 3, 2006. The third series began the following week on January 10 and concluded on February 21, after airing 7 episodes. With effect from the second episode onwards, each episode was premiered on the partner channel to Channel 4, E4, each Tuesday evening following the Channel 4 episode. Shameless returned for a fourth series on January 9, 2007 and aired until February 27, with a total of eight episodes. The fifth series began on January 1, 2008, and ran for sixteen episodes, airing through to April 15, 2008.In March 2008 Rebecca Ryan, who plays Debbie Gallagher in the show, announced filming on a sixth series would begin in April.
Cast
The role of Frank was originally given to Sean Gallagher, but then it was thought he was too young to play the character. It cost makers Company Pictures £100,000 to re-shoot the scenes already filmed with David Threlfall as a replacement. In 2007, it was revealed that Matt Lucas and Bill Nighy asked for cameo parts in Shameless, but creator, Paul Abbott said the show would lose its realistic charms if they brought in celebrities to play parts.DVD releases
| Shameless: Series One | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 27 December 2004 | 22 September 2005 | 24 April 2007 | ||
| Shameless: Series Two Plus Christmas Special | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 31 October 2005 | ||||
| Shameless: Series Two | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 16 January 2006 | ||||
| Shameless: Series Three Plus New Year Special | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 30 October 2006 | ||||
| Shameless: Series One, Two And Three Boxset | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 30 October 2006 | ||||
| Shameless: Series Four | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 29 October 2007 | ||||
| Shameless: Series One, Two, Three And Four Boxset | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| 29 October 2007 | ||||
| Shameless: Series Five Limited Edition | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
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| 21 April 2008 | ||||
| Shameless: Series One, Two, Three,Four And Five Boxset | ||||
| Set Details | Special Features | |||
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| Release Dates | ||||
| , | ||||
| 21 April 2008 | ||||
See also
Further reading
- Munt, Sally R. (2007). Queer Attachments: The Cultural Politics of Shame. London: Ashgate Publishing.
- Walters, James (2006). "Saving Face: Inflections of Character Role-play in Shameless". Journal of British Cinema and Television 3 (1): 95–106.
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 10:33:17 PDT (GMT -0700)
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