Main cast talk about the show - Radio Times, January 2005

Features

Main cast talk about the show - Radio Times, January 2005

Shameless was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike in 2004. Prior to transmission of the second series, Alison Graham met the cast to get their take on their dysfunctional characters.

David Threlfall on Frank

"I was doing The Entertainer [John Osborne's tale of down-at-heel song-and-dance man Archie Rice] in Derby, so I'd been assimilating drunkenness. With Frank, there were traces of people I knew in there, and bits of me. Paul [Abbott] described it as finding someone who could operate on Frank's level of t**ttishness."

"He's talked himself out of a lot of jobs and into the wrong beds… and it will happen again. He's like a lot of men, his eye will wander. But he's not a proactive man, sexually. The other important thing is to make Frank as vulnerable as possible, despite his bravado. It would have been too easy just to nail him as an alcoholic and have him drunk all the way through. He's like the family dog; you can kick him, but if anyone else does… "

Anne-Marie Duff on Fiona

"Fiona is the compass-point character. The Gallaghers are a dysfunctional family but there is an incredibly huge beating heart in the middle of it."

James McAvoy on Steve

"I'd want to smack him if I met him. He thinks he's really charming, but he's not. The best thing about him is that he loves Fiona."

Audience reaction to the series

"Last year it was an unknown quantity. The reaction was such a surprise, the appeal was really broad, nothing to do with age or class."
ANNE-MARIE DUFF, actor

"I'll go shopping in Manchester and scally lads will shout 'Ian Gallagher! It's a f***ing great show!'"
GERARD KEARNS, actor

**

Now take a look at our full Shameless guide.

Advertiser link