Cranky Curmudgeon: "The Cleaner"

M. Lion

April 8

The Cleaner

Before running across this series on Britbox last week I had only ever seen Greg Davies on The Graham Norton Show, telling stories on himself and being a thoroughly funny guy. He's also a freakishly tall man who used to teach children before turning to comedy. Good thing he did. I nearly didn't stop my scrolling to land on this series because it's about a crime scene cleaner. What's funny about that, I wondered. But I turned on the first episode because why not, and wow. There's comedy gold in gory crime scenes.

Each half hour episode is set at one scene, and there is always a good amount of gooey, red blood. In a pool on the floor, splashed onto the walls and lamps and furniture, and sometimes with an added bit of body parts for seasoning, the show doesn't hold back from the gore. In the first episode "The Widow", he walks into a kitchen where a woman has stabbed her husband 38 times. The police are still looking for her, and Wicky is in a hurry because it's curry night at the White Horse, his pub away from home. Still, he gets on his knees and begins swabbing up the large red pool in the middle of the white floor, until he's interrupted by a woman in a trench coat. She has crossed the crime scene tape to pack her bags and run away to the Dolomites, now there's no husband to hold her back. She promises to come back after a couple of weeks to face the music. Just, she could use a wee bit of vacation first.

The episodes, all written by and starring Greg Davies, have an odd sort of humor that seems fairly straightforward at the start. Each episode is Wicky in his element, not working very hard but good at his profession, and his interaction with whoever is in residence at the bloody house or business he's needed. After introducing the death and the blood, the majority of the half hour stories are extended character studies of typically misguided and not at all nice people at the scenes . He defends himself in every episode from a, "You're a cleaner." comment with, "I'm a CRIME SCENE cleaner." As he and the focus person interact, they share increasingly empathetic moments and not a few humorously jarring exchanges until the always unexpected end.

I found myself always surprised at the revelations in the character studies, as Davies dissects what could be simple stereotypes, until we discover hidden nuances through Wicky. And then we realize despite the nuances, there is a reason for stereotypes. It's a great balancing act and every scene is absolutely different from all the others, except for the gore, and the LOL moments.

The first season is more closed in than the second, which I thinks works much better for this format. The second season is okay because Davies is so funny, but the addition of more characters and larger scenes robs the show a bit of what made it so unique and entertaining the first year.

Give this a series a watch if you can. It's odd and endearing and beautifully written with Davies patented skewed sense of humor. It roams from gore to ribald to pathos in a half hour format, and I wish there was more than two seasons.