By Liam McInerney

Copyright manchestereveningnews

It has been 21 years since gritty comedy drama Shameless was released on TV – and one of the stars from the iconic show recently watched it back for the first time in years. Shameless ran on Channel 4 for almost a decade and was set in the fictional Chatsworth council estate in Manchester where Frank Gallagher and his sizeable brood got up to all sorts. Kelli Hollis, who also starred in Emmerdale , famously played Yvonne Karib, a character who ran the local shop and employed Frank’s son Ian, who ended up having an affair with her husband. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Kelli, 49, revealed she recently turned to Shameless for some evening entertainment – and was not disappointed. “Shameless,” she said with a tone of fondness. “I actually watched the first episode fully for the first time in years the other day. Everyone always asks me about Shameless and I watched the first episode which was interesting. You forget how good it is!” Praising the show that was created by Paul Abbott, she continued: “When you say Shameless you think nudity, bad language, drugs and Frank Gallagher (played by David Threlfall) is the iconic character. “But I think rewatching it, it is so beautiful when I think of some of the scenes. It is so well put together and it is actually a lot deeper than what people think. When you go back and watch it, you think, oh God yeah, it is actually really human in that respect. “It is not just telling scandalous stories from a council estate. There is so much more to it so I really enjoyed watching it the other day.” Shameless, which is now available on Netflix , aired for the last time in 2013 after 11 seasons and 139 episodes and its popularity even inspired a US version – a long running hit that ran from 2011 until 2021. And while many fans still ask Kelli, who is from Beeston, Leeds, about the show, lots of people also quote memorable lines from Frank Gallagher, which became known as “Frankisms”. One of his iconic lines was: “People say the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way. But after you’ve had eight of your own, you realise that’s a load of ********. Darwin had the right idea; just leave the ****** to fend for themselves.” Another cracker included: “Son when you have them, little babies, you love them. Even if they’re real mingers. I mean when Ian was born he looked like David Gest.” Kelli returned to the UK in November after over two years in Thailand and she reflected on Shameless after giving a powerful interview about her dad who was jailed for 17 years. You can read that interview in full, where Kelli opened up about the estranged relationship , here.