IT'S rare that a show can get to its fifth series and remain as sharp, funny and as ground-breaking as when it started.

Shameless, Burnley writer Paul Abbott's wonderfully dysfunctional comedy-drama about life on a Manchester council estate, is one such programme which bucks the trend of steady decline which affects so many series.

Last week's opener saw Frank Gallagher, surely one of the great tragi-comic creations of modern times facing death. It gave David Threlfall the opportunity to wring every last drop from one of life's perpetual losers.

Last night, it was the turn of the Maguires, the other major family on the Chatsworth Estate, to bring Tuesday night's viewing to life.

Shameless is a story of grotesque characters, none moreso than Mimi Maguire. Husband Paddy incurred her wrath by hinting that she was fat - the man clearly has a death wish.

Shameless is not for the faint-hearted and the easily-offended may be tempted to dismiss it as crude and shocking.

But if you are prepared to accept a world in which drugs are served across the bar in the local pub, swear words are basically common or garden adjectives and luncacy reigns, it is an hour of pure, grown-up quality.

It is one series which you suspect in 20 years time will be studied by academics for its accurate portrayal of a society in decline.