Shameless creator Paul Abbott is rebooting his BAFTA-winning BBC limited series State of Play

Deadline

Abbott's 2003 six-part BBC political thriller starred David Morrissey, John Simm, Bill Nighy, James McAvoy, Marc Warren Polly Walker and Kelly MacDonald. State of Play was remade as a 2009 American film starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels and Helen Mirren. Abbott has long wanted to return to his acclaimed series, telling The Sun in 2007: “I was up until 3AM the other night working on scripts, I’m really excited."