14 new episodes of the drama are currently filming in Manchester, taking the total number of episodes to 139 by the finale.

Creator Paul Abbott commented: “Its 10th anniversary seems a fitting time to shut the book on Shameless. We’ve had an absolute ball making this stuff up for a living. We’ve given back in spades and got away with absolute murder, on behalf of such a fantastically outspoken audience.”

The State of Play writer continued: “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 added: “Shameless: ground-breaking when it launched and gob-smacking ever since, has over the years built a loyal following. We are in Paul Abbott’s debt for bringing his defiantly dysfunctional band of characters to Channel 4 and I’m delighted to say we have other drama projects with Paul in the pipeline.”

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