Everyone calls her the tattooed milf. Even her mother.

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#32 : The Cleaner

Greg Davies adapted and starred in this adaptation of the German series Der Tatortreiniger, about a man tasked with removing crime scene evidence from the homes of several guest stars. It might not be the most original premise, but when The Cleaner worked, it really worked.

I like Greg Davies on Taskmaster and various other things, but I wasn't even aware this existed.  Which has thrown up some lovely surprises so far, so let's hope for more of the same...

Hmmm, well - it's an interesting one.  It's very Greg Daviesesque (that's a word, right?) - fuelled by sarcasm, annoyance and awkwardness, with some surprising moments of humanity shining through at times.  And it's very funny at times, but not always - and it's not entirely clear to me whether that's intentional or not.  It's also not clear whether we're supposed to like the main character, side with him, pity him or what - it's all a bit inconsistent.

But, as The Guardian says "when it worked, it really worked" - and episodes 1 and 3 worked best for me.  Episode 1 ("The Widow") features Helena Bonham-Carter and Shobu Kappor and it's always surprising how amusing it is to just have Greg Davies stand next to short women (or kick a pie out of their hands).  I also wasn't expecting to watch a musical duet between Greg and Helena, where she was sat on the toilet.  And episode 3 ("The Neighbour") is a really lovely episode featuring Ruth Madely and has a lot to say about society's attitudes to the disabled.  And, to a lesser extent, veganism.  But who cares about them vegans, eh?  Episode 6 ("The One") also gets a mention for coming up with a bittersweet ending when it could quite easily have ruined it with something lazier.

For the most part, the episodes are two headers with Greg and A N Other, where generally neither Greg (as "Wicky" the cleaner - sorry, "crime scene cleaner, thank you very much") nor A N Other has to do an awful lot of acting out of their normal range - Greg is Greg, HB-C is a kook, David Mitchell a fussy type and Stephanie Cole a posh snob.  The acting is generally pretty good - let down, if anything, by the writing or excessive characterisation (Layton Willliams is good as an influencer in episode 5, but it's a bit of a one-dimensional character for me).  Away from the two-headers, I will also call out Zita Sattar as Ruth, Wicky's police colleague who brings a great deal of humanity to a pretty minor part (with a fine Brummy accent).

So - I haven't actually said if I liked it, have I?  I did - but overall it left me with a bit of a disappointing feeling.  It's not a missed opportunity as such but more something that could, without a huge amount of effort, have been a lot better.  It's certainly worth a watch - there are some absolutely gorgeous moments in there where the humanity just shines through.  But there are also plenty more disappointing moments in there which don't quite hit the spot or feel a bit lazy, which leave a bit of a sour taste.  If there is a next series, I'll watch it just to see what they do - it could be great but, then again, it might not be. 

#31 - Just watch it, OK?
#33 - Send my apologies to the sisterhood