Shaps attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire and studied English at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
[1] He began his career as a reporter on the Cambridge Evening News in 1979; in a speech to the Royal Television Society (RTS) he described this time as "a two-year stint in Siberia".
In 1982 he joined Thames Television as a researcher, having been turned down by the BBC for a job as a graduate trainee.
[citation needed] In 1997 he became director of programmes at Granada Television in Manchester.
[citation needed] He became ITV director of television on 21 September 2005,[2] leaving in 2008.