Let's get it out of the way shall we? "Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on...". Okay, you know Mrs Doyle from Father Ted? Well, she was played by a great actress called Pauline McGlynn. Our Pauline is going to make an appearance in Shameless as, get this, Frank Gallagher's latest love interest! Yoinks! She'll be making her bow in the show when it returns to our screens later this year. Filming has already started on the new spangly seventh series, which welcomes newcomers McLynn and former Grange Hill actress Valerie Lilley to Manchester's Chatsworth Estate. McLynn will play a local librarian called Libby who will stir interest from Frank... but which way will it go? Will he be dragged up, or her dragged down. My money is on the latter.

Related: Our Shameless section | Father Ted Collection

I'm a day late with this review. So shoot me. Actually, I figured by now you'd probably be suffering from Shameless withdrawal, as this week's episode marked the end of Series 6. Or maybe I'm just a lazy git. Either way, as predicted last week, the series finale had some tricks up its sleeve. Everyone probably predicted one of these tricks would involve Mad Maureen, but few could have expected just how far her madness would take her.

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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Faced with the loss of Liam and Stella, Frank knows he has to clean up his act, and proves surprisingly adept at it too. When the rest of the clan arrive home, he's already fettled the upstairs and is busy mopping the kitchen floor. Who are you, and what have you done with the real Frank Gallagher? His resolve to stay drink- and drug-free in advance of meeting with the social worker is sorely tested when he attends the homecoming party the Maguires are throwing for Mimi. Trouble is, although he manages it, Frank is so unused to having all his mental faculties, he's finding it increasingly hard to tell the difference between what happens in his dreams and when he's awake.

Hands down one of the best episodes this series, we open with a drunk Frank (no, really) staggering around a darkened and deserted Manchester Art Gallery, the reason for which is explained in retrospect. The Gallagher residence had mistakenly been allocated to another family on account of the council receiving no rent for the past 6 years and assuming it was empty. The resulting visit from the social started off badly, with a drunken Frank (seriously) being dragged back into the middle of the interview by Yvonne, but appeared to take a turn for the better when he sobered up and started pretending to be perfect.

Paddy went cold turkey last night - barricaded into his bedroom by his sons who were given strict instructions not to open the door except once a day for food and water, and to shoot him (with rubber bullets) if he tried to escape. Those instructions were tested on Micky in amusing Shameless style but from then on it was the long dark night of the soul for Paddy. A night that revealed something of what made him the man he is.

Related: TV Scoop's total lack of shame

There's nothing we like better than seeing a nasty piece of work like this get his comeuppance, and no-one better to deliver that vengeance than Jamie Maguire, who has displayed remarkable self-control since coming out of prison, especially considering what he was in for. But now that his mask of non-violence has slipped, revealing the demon that always lurked just beneath the surface, how is he going to avoid a return ticket to pokey? There's a clue in his name. When the clan Maguire pull together, they're a formidable force. Trouble is, as Jamie soon discovers, not only are they not pulling together, most of them are pulling in different directions. And some of them may as well just be pulling.

With Monica gone, the Gallagher clan appear to close ranks against Norma, wondering openly what she's still doing there. At least, Frank does, and none of the others argue. So with hardly a backward glance, except to open one more last-minute jar for Likkle Liam, Norma packs up her camper van and heads... somewhere. The only reaction from Frank is how strange the front yard looks now there's nothing in it.

Dystin Johnson has consistently been one of the best things about Shameless for as long as she's been in it, so I experienced a brief "Nooooo!" moment at the thought she may actually be leaving, but as Norma settled back into the container at the trucking yard where she's stored all her stuff, and met up with an old flame, it became clear her story was not yet over.

Channel 4 should publish a spin-off book from Shameless. The Wisdom of Likkle Liam. It's not surprising, although a little sad, that growing up in the Gallagher family has provided him with an overly cynical perspective on life, and a bucketful of pithy sayings. Last night, his opener was: "the only person you can ever rely on is yourself." How true. And there's a message in Liam's rhetoric for Paddy too, as he struggles to find his way home while his withdrawal kicks in, looking as rough as a badger's arse.

Shane and Kelly have hit on a money-making scheme: homemade porn. If only they could get the teddy bear on top of the wardrobe to hold the camera straight. Eventually they realise there's only one place for the camera. Between Ted's legs. At least that leaves his paws free to cover his eyes. Now all they need to worry about is how many other cameras are in the bedroom at the same time, because before long there's a pirate copy of their injun-and-squaw routine doing the rounds at the Jockey.

For a few weeks now Paddy Maguire has been intrigued by the mysterious woman who visited Fergal's grave. He's watched her, he's smiled at her, he's been tempted by the returned smile, and finally he's arranged to meet up with her. Big mistake. Without knowing quite why or how, he's now tied to a bed in a sparsely-furnished bedroom and if there's been any hanky-panky he has no memory of it. For one thing, he still has all his clothes on. Small mercy that, because for a man of Paddy's reputation and temper, things are about to get a whole lot more uncomfortable. Welcome back to the dark side of Shameless.

Related: The Shameless Section

It's James Bond theme night at the Jockey and before the evening kicks off, Frank is away with one of his famous fantasies - dreaming of all the Chatsworth girls cavorting like a Bond movie opening sequence. He's in 007th heaven, until Lillian shows up and brings him to a rude awakening!

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.

I wasn't too sure about the "talking baby" but thankfully since its first spurt that particular character has taken a back seat while the rest of Shameless hits its stride big time. The third episode opened with Frank getting arrested. Nothing unusual about that, you might think, and you'd be completely wrong. This time. Turns out he's been a victim of identity theft and his entire criminal record has been wiped. But before he has chance to celebrate this amazing stroke of luck, Stan and Tom reveal the flipside to the news. Frank is now eligible for jury service and his police buddies are more than happy to deliver him to court. Being Frank, it takes him less than a day to work out a way to turn this to his advantage.

What is there to like about Shameless (Channel 4, Tuesday, 27 January, 10pm?) really? Most of the characters are horrible, they're violent, thieving scumbags, sponging off the world and constantly up to the eyeballs on booze and drugs. Right? Wrong. Fact is, Shameless has one of those rare commodities - community. So believable is the heart and soul of this community that you could easily convince yourself that these people actually exist. They probably do, somewhere. It's this living, beating thing that has made sure that arses are promptly on the couch whenever Frank Gallagher and his cohorts stumble onto our screens.

Related: More Shameless on TV Scoop

Whichever preview you read for the new series of Shameless (which starts tonight, Channel 4, Tuesday 27 January, 10pm), it will say that the first episode marks a return to form for the stalwart series. I once read a review of it in a posh newspaper (or read or comment or overheard someone say something in some bar once, I really can't remember) that said that they couldn't bear watching something about working class people living on a council estate in Manchester because it made them feel grubby. If that's not a reason to like Shameless I don't know what is, but let's face it, series five wasn't all that great and even its creator, the heavily bum-licked Paul Abbott, agreed. So it's good that all the signs say that series six is a return to form. There's a trailer over the jump, where you can meet the latest addition to the cast - baby Stella, who specialises in internal monlogues.

You can go to the Channel 4 website to watch more trailers, by clicking here.

Former Shameless favourite, Maggie O'Neill, is set to join the cast of EastEnders as Phil Mitchell's love interest. Unlucky. You may remember Maggie playing Sheila in the TVScoop fave, but in Th'enders, O'Neill will play Suzy Branning, Max and Jack's sister. The new character, arriving in July, is "glamorous and independent", and sets her sights on Walford hardman Phil.

O'Neill said: "The Brannings are a great family and I'm excited to become one of them. Suzy is a woman to be reckoned with." The Brannings have played a central role in EastEnders in recent years, culminating in Tanya's bid to bury husband Max alive after Tanya found out Max was getting his leg over with his son's wife. Yipes!

Episode 15 Sneak Peak..

We're almost at the end of the series for Shameless, and here's a trailer from episode 15 (Channel 4, Tuesday at 10). Debbie and Tom, meeting secretly again, go to the aid of an assaulted woman, but Tom is the one arrested. Elsewhere, Shane and Paddy have a confrontation, which leaves Mimi in all sorts.