Shameless axed

TV hit Shameless has been axed after more than eight years on air.

The Channel 4 show, starring David Threlfall as the layabout dad of the dysfunctional Gallagher family, racked up a cult following following its debut in 2004, helping to launch the careers of James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff.

However, the upcoming 11th season will be the last due to falling ratings.

Creator Paul Abbott, whose late father was his inspiration for the comedy, says, "Its 10th anniversary seems a fitting time to shut the book on Shameless. We've had an absolute ball making this stuff up for a living. We've given back in spades and got away with absolute murder, on behalf of such a fantastically outspoken audience.

"But this is also the year my dad died and he was, in abstract, my core inspiration for starting the whole Shameless party rolling, I wanted to make invisible people vivid. Closing the two eras in the same year feels very right. Now I'm off to build the next whatever it is."

The final series will air in 2013.