McGlynn lands Shameless role

She was more likely to bake cakes than show her buns as dowdy Mrs Doyle in 'Father Ted', but now Pauline McLynn takes on a most unholy role in TV’s 'Shameless'.

The 47-year-old Irish actress has filmed nude scenes after being cast as Frank Gallagher’s love interest librarian Libby Croaker.

She said: “It’s not exactly a part people have seen me play before. I was always handier as character old crones, I get to be someone my own age now and actually somebody’s love interest.

"And I have to get my kit off because it’s 'Shameless' and sex with someone else, or something else, comes hand in hand with being on the Chatsworth estate.”

The sex scenes are certainly further from 'Father Ted' than Manchester is from Craggy Island, where Mrs Doyle attended to Father Ted and his sidekicks Dougal and Jack – often employing her famous “ah go on, go on, go on, go on” catchphrase, but McLynn has thrown herself into the deed.

“There’s a lot of shagging between Frank and Libby, as there is with the beginning of every relationship, and I did get naked. It doesn’t bother me that people have clothes and underwear on during sex scenes but if it’s a time when they should be naked then they should be naked, so I did get my kit off for the first time in my life ... well the first time for money,” she said.

As well as playing Frank, David Thelfall directs certain 'Shameless' episodes too, including the one in which Libby and Frank sleep together for the first time.

McLynn said: “He was great, he talked me through all the shots but I found it very hard to concentrate on my lines.”

The seventh series of 'Shameless' begins on Tuesday January 26 on Channel 4.