Shameless (C4)

Boss Swap (C4)

Doctors And Nurses (BBC1)

PAUL Abbott's Shameless will give C4 the drama hit it so desperately needs. Recent attempts for find a hit to join Teachers have floundered.

A Manchester estate is the setting for the story of a family abandoned by their mother and whose father is permanently drunk. The six children are left to bring themselves up.

All of which makes Shameless sound grim and depressing. But that's exactly what it's not. Abbott, best known for Clocking Off and State Of Play, makes the antics of this dysfunctional bunch extremely funny. There's also enough bad language and raunchy behaviour to keep new watchdog regulator Ofcom busy for months with the complaints.

Shameless, already being touted at this early stage as the best series of the year, is performed by a mostly unknown but extremely capable and energetic young cast. At a time when most TV drama is written to formula, the raw energy and bravado of Shameless is most welcome. Small wonder that C4 commissioned a second series before the first had even started.

Boss Swap, on the other hand, is more of the same from the makers of last year's big hit Wife Swap. This time two managing directors change places for 12 days. As usual, researchers match up total opposites, ensuring maximum confrontation when they're plonked into each other's environment.

Isobel Schofield - "call me Mrs S" - runs a company making industrial doors. She likes to keep the factory running at a sure and steady pace. Dave O'Grady's business makes mass-produced scaffolding parts. His approach is "fast and furious - he wants everything now". Small wonder that Mrs S clashed with Dave's partner Barney over paying overtime - despite "touching base on neutral ground" over a champagne cocktail.

Dave was busy being hassled by management team member Peter, who seemed intent on sabotaging any changes Dave tried to make. He even circulated an email to staff inciting them to resist the new man's suggestions.

Nobody actually came to blows, although there was a good deal of frustration on both sides and harsh words were said (mainly to the camera behind people's backs). Both Mrs S and Dave made changes, which they considered improvements, although a footnote revealed that they'd both reverted to their own methods since getting back behind their desks.

Boss Swap wasn't so much fun as Wife Swap, mainly because invading someone's intimate living space is so much more alarming that seeing a stranger in the boss's chair. Who knows where this will end? PM Swap, in which the British and French prime ministers swap places for a fortnight?

Doctors And Nurses aims to show that the National Health Service is a joke, something opposition politicians have been saying for years. Adrian Edmondson is in fairly restrained mood as an overworked doctor in a hospital where management's main concerns are budgets and building private wings and nurses run a book on the size of male patients' private parts. Non-medical jokes are along the lines of "the Isle of Wight has more pensioners than David Dickinson's fan club".

I doubt that this sick comedy will prove much of a tonic for the state of TV sitcoms.