LONDON – Paul Abbott, the writer and creator of cult British TV show Shameless, says his show will finish after 11 seasons.
Shooting now on location in Manchester, Abbott, production banner Company Pictures and broadcaster and backer Channel 4 said the eleventh outing would be the last for the funny and offbeat drama series.
Shameless charts the unpredictable chapters of the lives of feckless anti-hero Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) and all the colorful characters living on the Chatsworth Estate.
James McAvoy, Anne-Marie Duff and Maxine Peake have all rocked up on screen in the show over the last 10 years.
Abbott, who is story-lining the full series and is planning “a suitably Shameless finale” for his creation, said its 10th anniversary seemed a fitting moment to draw a halt to it.
“We’ve given back in spades and got away with absolute murder, on behalf of such a fantastically outspoken audience,” Abbott said. “But this is also the year my Dad died and he was, in abstract, my core inspiration for starting the whole Shameless party rolling, I wanted to make invisible people vivid. Closing the two eras in the same year feels very right. Now I’m off to build the next whatever-it-is.”
Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt described the show as “ground-breaking when it launched and gob-smacking ever since.”
Shameless returns for its swan song in 2013. By the end of the 11th season, 139 episodes will have aired on U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.
