The Cleaner on BBC One is a brand-new, Friday-night comedy series – and one most definitely worth a watch
Starring Taskmaster and Man Down star Greg Davies, it features his character doing a very unusual job.
So what’s it about and is Greg’s job really a thing?
What is The Cleaner on BBC One about?
Greg, 53, plays Wicky a ‘crime-scene cleaner’.
When all the forensics people have finished their investigations, it’s down to people like Wicky to come in and clean up. Literally.
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This unusual but ripe scenario sees Wicky visit a new crime scene every week armed with his bucket, specialist cleaning products and his hazmat suit.
In the first episode, Wicky heads to a suburban house to mop up after a particularly grizzly murder.
There he meets the person who actually carried out the murder and that’s when the fun really begins.
Is The Cleaner on BBC One an original idea?
Multi-talented Greg wrote and stars in this series, but it takes inspiration from a German series.
Der Tatortreiniger (Crime Scene Cleaner) ran on German TV for seven series and between 2011 and 2018.
It featured Heiko ‘Schotty’ Schotte (Bjarne Mädel) as he travelled to various crime scenes around Hamburg.
Are there any other TV series about crime scene cleaners?
The job of crime scene cleaner is very much a thing.
And it’s a rich vein of inspiration for TV dramas and now comedies.
For instance, French series Spotless on Netflix features the owner of a crime scene cleaning business forced into business with a powerful mob boss thanks to his irresponsible older brother.
Is ‘crime scene cleaner’ a real job?
While The Cleaner on BBC One is fiction and a comedy, these jobs really do exist.
If SOCOs (Scene Of Crime Officers) work alongside police to recover forensic information, crime scene cleaners work independently.
Crime scene cleaners specialise in sanitising and cleaning vehicles, businesses, and homes after death. That could mean suicide, homicide and even industrial accidents.
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They’re also expected to act compassionately, sometimes working with the deceased families to return a place of death back to places of habitation.
Crime scene cleaners also undergo rigorous training.
Safety risks such as exposure to blood-borne pathogens and the wearing of biohazard suits, respirators and gloves are a given.
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