When Mimi Maguire takes out a contract on husband Paddy, you know things are bad. That, or the end of the series is nigh. Well both, as it happens, because there’s only one week of Shameless left and with that in mind the producers, writers and actors served up a classic episode just in case we’d forgotten how good Shameless can be. And to be honest, for most of this series, I had. All it took to remind me was the sight of Frank squatting behind a tree at a family funeral, having eaten boiled knicker curry the night before (“what was that green stuff on the stove?”) and, moments earlier, accidentally revealed to the assembled mourners that the deceased had introduced him to the Joys of Rumpeh when he was a lad of 15 and she was 40-odd.

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Norma informs Frank in no uncertain terms that his problem is he doesn’t listen enough. To people’s problems. To what’s going on around him. To anything other than his own addled mind.

He spends the rest of the episode being in the wrong place at the right time to do enough listening for a lifetime. Having been thrown out of the house (again) he’s kipped in the confessional just in time to hear Mimi confess to taking out that contract. Brought on by Paddy’s rage at having his Mango Bolognese ruined by a cellar full of salt, things finally came to a head and he half admitted his attraction to Mad Margaret, which was too much for the love-challenged Mimi.

Debbie meets up with her phantom bloke at the funeral but his off-colour comments about her Dad lead to a row. Later Frank, once again in listening mode, overhears her confessing that she thinks she’s in love with him. Seems like it’s mutual too, when he arrives carrying a kitchen chair and takes up residence in the street, prepared to wait as long as it takes for Debbie to talk to him.

Frank is also creeping around Yvonne and Stan’s house just in time to hear them admitting the Story of Kash to Meena.

Just about the only Chatsworth secret Frank doesn’t uncover this week is Mickey’s. And with Liam doing his best to get Ian to change his mind about returning to Ibiza, it’s a wonder, as Mickey’s ham-fisted seduction attempts are nothing if not obvious.

It’s funny how Paddy always turns to Frank when he’s in real trouble. This time, he really only wants him as a human shield when he takes to the street, High Noon-style, to face the contract killer (who he’s also put on to Mimi). Unfortunately his plan backfires when the killer reveals he’s quite happy to off both of them and let the other local gangsters on to the Maguire patch. Debbie’s boyfriend comes to the rescue with a well-aimed blow from his kitchen chair, Frank explodes in a rant of classic proportions, spouting street secrets to the assembled crowd, which leads Debbie and her boyfriend to learn of each others’ true feelings and fall headlong into a sex-fuelled heap in front of the Gallagher washing machine – a scene surely intended to pay homage to the very first series when Fiona and Steve enjoyed their first clinch in exactly the same position.

Or is there something erotic about the Gallagher’s washing machine? With Shameless, anything is possible.