Now you know Shameless is back on form when there’s some gratuitous frontal nudity and a few nob gags. But the funniest story this week was the one involving bodily hair. That belonging to Mandy and her new squeeze, to be specific. He was overheard complaining about hair and before you know where you are, both him and Mandy have been told quite clearly that the other can’t stand body hair. So Karen offers to perform an amateur Hollywood waxing on Mandy, while Jamie advises shaving of the entire upper torso, which accidentally includes the trimming of a nipple too. Ouch. It wasn’t even body hair he was talking about in the first place.

Even less Shame.

This week also saw something you never thought would happen on Shameless – Frank helping around the house. Only it’s Frank’s version of helping, naturally, which means he’d be more use crashed out on the couch. Monica is feeling decidedly unloved and undesirable when Frank keeps finding excuses to avoid her amorous intent. When all else fails, she turns to the hypnotist act at the Jockey to inject a bit of spice into life.

He’s fine with the injecting part, but his spice definitely loses its flavour when his wife catches him with Monica in the toilets (Shameless’ equivalent to the idyllic pastures of Oxfordshire as seen in Lark Rise to Candleford. Draw your own parallels).

Mickey’s love life takes a turn for the worse too, as his erotic literary partners and sometime threesome lovers kick him out when he threatens to out the bloke. And after the annual pilgrimage to Fergal’s grave and the discovery of its desecration, Paddy installs a webcam and is intrigued by the return of the woman who was apparently attending another grave at the same time. What, or who, is she looking for, and could there be marital strife ahead for Mimi?

For Carl, the car wash business proves not only a nice little earner but an easy route into the massed knickers of Chatsworth. Trouble is a tip isn’t the only thing he picks up. When you’ve got an itch, you’ve got to scratch it, and since Carl’s been a busy lad there’s a hell of a lot of scratching going on around the estate. The only thing Stan is scratching is his head – in confusion about why Yvonne can’t see the funny side of him keeping his genital wart in a specimen jar. I mean, come on girls! As a conversation piece that one is hard to beat.