The Shameless Franchise Legacy: from Manchester Roots to Global Remakes
By James H. Sterling
The creative success of the Manchester original did not stop in North America. Media formats travel globally when their central premise taps into universal social conditions: inflation, class divisions, and the absurdity of familial duty. Television executives across Europe and Asia recognized that every country has its own version of the Chatsworth Estate.
In 2017, Turkey's Fox TV launched Bizim Hikaye (Our Story), starring Hazal Kaya and Burak Deniz. Setting the story in Istanbul, Turkish producers stripped away the graphic sex, heavy drug use, and profanity to conform to strict RTÜK broadcasting regulations. Instead, the adaptation leaned into family melodrama and romance, earning astronomical ratings across South America and the Middle East through regional syndication.
Russia launched its own licensed version, Besstydniki, broadcast on NTV in September 2017. Set in the industrial outskirts of Moscow, the Russian adaptation reinstated the dark humor, bitter winter settings, and relentless alcoholism of the original, though it struggled to match the cultural longevity of the Western runs.
Despite multiple foreign remakes, the conversation inevitably circles back to the original transatlantic pair. Channel 4 proved that working-class regional stories could define prime-time television without patronizing their characters. Showtime proved that if you let an ensemble cast age together on screen over a decade, audience attachment outlasts changing television trends.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
