Shameless is a British drama television series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004. The comedy drama, centred on British underclass and working class 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 partially written by Paul Abbott, who is also the programme's executive producer. The second half of series eight will continue from 30th August 2011 on Channel 4 until October 2011.
On 11 July 2011 Dave stated they would be showing Shameless from Series 1–7, however only series 1 and 2 were shown.
The show has been renewed for a ninth series which will be shown in 2012.
In April 2005, the programme's first series won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards. It was also nominated for Best British Drama at the National Television Awards 2007, but lost out to Doctor Who. Shameless won an award at the Royal Television Awards Society North West Awards 2007 where it beat Coronation Street to the Best Continuing Drama Award.[citation needed]
The programme has been sold overseas, where it airs on channels such as SBS One (Australia), UKTV (New Zealand), Acht (Belgium), Showcase (Canada), Virgin 17 (France), Nederland 3 (Netherlands), YLE FST5 (Finland), SIC Radical (Portugal), RTÉ Two (Ireland), BBC America (only aired the first series) and Sundance Channel (United States), yes+ (Israel), I.Sat (Latin America) and Jimmy (Italy).