Paul Abbott's Shameless Top 5

7 May 2013

How can you pick just 5? Well he did… Here goes…

Series 1, Episode 3. Debbie’s abducts a 3yr old kid to compensate for her own Mum’s abandonment. Very close to the bone during broadcast since several real life incidents were still fresh in the audience’s minds, but we managed to make it both compelling and funny - proving to our audience that Shameless could literally turn anything on its head.

Series 5, Episode 5. Micky Maguire and Ian Gallagher share a post-coital ciggie when Paddy Maguire catches them in the act. Heart attack looks imminent for Micky since he knows his Dad’s going to kill him... Except it doesn’t even cross Paddy’s mind, he just tells them to put some clothes on because they ‘look like a couple of queers.’ Just a terrific, five star gag.

Series 6, Episode 3. Frank is unfathomably summoned for jury service. He compulsively spots a real earner and obstructs the verdict – any verdict – to rack up his expenses for ‘loss and earnings’. Pure Frank.

Series 8, Episode 18. Frank’s the main suspect in a GBH investigation. Even though Frank has no memory of it the proof stacks up against him and even Carl has to admit his Dad might be guilty. The moment when Carl and Frank have a heart to heart and Carl assumes the parental mantel over his own Dad to get him to turn himself in pulls at our heartstrings and shows the audience that in our 100th episode, we can still pull off that unique cake-mix that no other show’s dared to mimic.

Series 11, Episode 1. Mimi embeds herself in the running of the local comprehensive whilst Frank gets trounced on by two bulging prossies nicknamed ‘the Gastric Bandits’. The whole team have pulled out all the stops for our farewell to Chatsworth and this final series has some stunning surprises lined up.