Independent study: Shameless


The subject of my independent study is channel 4’s award winning hybrid production, Shameless. Shameless follows the life of the Gallagher family, who live on the Chatsworth estate in Manchester. The show follows the Gallagher’s never ending troubles and issues, most of which are widely associated with today’s working class, such as; alcoholism, drug use and overcrowded living conditions.

As well as these more issues associated with the working class, shameless also covers deeper slightly more taboo issues such as sexuality and cancer. And it because shameless can cover such serious issues that the British public can relate to on a large scale, yet still conform to its predominantly ‘comedy drama‘ genre, that Shameless is so popular and can pull in approximately 3 million viewers a week.

Shameless breaks away form the usual base of a British drama as a less than perfect world is portrayed. For example there is not two point four children living in a nice house in the suburbs, instead there’s an ever-changing mass of people
crammed into less than adequate counsil accomodation. However it does relate to many dramas at this point in time because it, adventurously, adresses many serious issues recently covered in the media.