The Cleaner begins on BBC One tonight, in a primetime slot.
Everyone knows Greg Davies is a bit of a god when it comes to comedy.
The Inbetweeners, Man Down, Taskmaster… the list goes on. So does The Cleaner live up to his past triumphs, or is it a bit of a damp squib?
The Cleaner review
Greg plays Winky, a 50-something single man who has that same self-deprecating nature that Greg’s characters specialise in.
We’ve seen Greg play teachers before, but this time he really pushes the boat out and plays someone who is a crime scene cleaner.
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Not your CSI forensics type. No, someone who comes in dressed in a hazmat suit and comes armed with a bucket and a few bottles of specialist cleaning chemicals.
We’re told that every episode will be a self-contained story, with Winky visiting a brand-new crime scene every week.
And this week, he heads to a suburban house to clean up the blood and mess left by a murder – thanks to a wife who stabbed her husband to death.
The Cleaner review
Already we’re plunged into fairly dark territory.
After all, blood and guts aren’t and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. And there’s plenty of it in the opening scenes.
The sight of Winky on his hands and knees literally mopping up pools of gloopy blood will cause some to hide behind the sofa.
However, this is the trick that The Cleaner excels in and proves that you can find humour in just about anything.
Besides, this series is not about being a crime scene cleaner per se.
Winky’s job is merely a bridge for him to meet a revolving cast of strange characters.
And, of course, give Greg Davies the chance to pull that Greg Davies face at every opportunity.
The Cleaner review
In this first episode, we don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that the person he’s thrown into an absurd situation with is the woman who killed her husband.
Sheila (played by the fab Helena Bonham Carter) sneaks into the house to pick up some things before she goes on the run.
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It just happens that Winky is there and for the next half an hour, their toing and froing is both funny – really funny in places – and actually very touching.
Like all the best comedies, The Cleaner has plenty of gags but also a touch of pathos.
Because of Sheila, Winky is forced to examine his own dead-end life and think about what he really wants to do.
It looks like Greg Davies has another winner on his hands.
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