Actor Macy set for US Shameless

Macy received an Oscar nomination for his role in the black comedy Fargo

Film star William H Macy is to play colourful drunkard Frank Gallagher in a US adaptation of Channel 4's Shameless.

Subscription channel Showtime has ordered a pilot of the show, which has had a convoluted five-year journey to the small screen.

Rival networks HBO and NBC were previously attached to the show, which is being produced by John Wells, whose credits include ER and The West Wing.

Wells penned the pilot episode with the creator of the UK series, Paul Abbott.

Abbott's original, based around the anarchic, outrageous behaviour of the Gallagher family, was loosely inspired by his childhood in Burnley.

The writer was just 11 years old when his father walked out, leaving him and his seven siblings to fend for themselves, just two years after their mother had also fled the family home.

Anti-hero Frank Gallagher steals money from his children to buy drugs

"To observers we were a chaotic bunch of kids trying to bring ourselves up after both parents had walked.

"No doubt about it, we were a mess. But how were we to know that?" he told the Lancashire Telegraph earlier this year.

The US adaptation will be set in present-day Chicago against the backdrop of the recession.

The plot sees 18-year-old Fiona tasked with keeping her five younger siblings in line after their mother goes missing and the father turns to alcohol.

According to Variety magazine, the pilot will be shot in December.

The UK version of Shameless, starring David Threlfall as Frank Gallagher, has been seen in the US on BBC America and the Sundance Channel.