Greg Davies To Write & Star As Crime Scene Technician In New BBC One Comedy ‘The Cleaner’
BBC One has commissioned a new comedy ‘The Cleaner‘, written by and starring Greg Davies, as a crime scene cleaning technician it has been announced.
Based on the multi-award-winning long-running German comedy series ‘Der Tatortreiniger’, Davies plays Paul “Wicky” Wickstead, a state-certified cleaning technician with a very special field of work: as a crime scene cleaner he is responsible for the removal of any signs of death. Wicky works for Shropshire-based cleaning contractors Lausen and is usually found, together with his baby-blue pickup truck, at crime scenes after the police have concluded their detective work.
Armed with chemicals, scrubbing brushes and cleaning rags, Wicky removes the gruesome mess at the scene of the crime. When carrying out his duties, he stumbles across the strangest of people: from the victim’s relatives, employers, neighbours and acquaintances, to occasionally even the murderers themselves. And because he’s a sociable type, he sometimes gossips more than he cleans.
“As a young man, I told a careers adviser that I wanted to mop blood up for a living or be a comedian. He told me with a giggle that neither were real jobs and I should consider learning a trade. Well, he’s not laughing now, is he?! (…Sadly, he’s dead…)” jokes Davies. “I’m thrilled to be adapting this wonderful show with Studio Hamburg UK for BBC One and can’t wait to get cleaning.”
The original German series was created by Ingrid Lausund and produced by subsidies of the Studio Hamburg Production Group. The British comedy comes from Studio Hamburg UK, part of Studio Hamburg Production Group, and is written by and stars Davies. ‘The Cleaner‘ was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director BBC Content and Shane Allen, Commissioning Controller Comedy. The Executive Producer for Studio Hamburg UK is Vivien Muller-Rommel and the Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Ben Caudell.
“Greg has done a knockout job of repositioning this hit sitcom for the UK audience,” adds Shane Allen, Commissioning Controller Comedy. “Wicky is a thoroughly decent everyman whose differing work situation each week brims with comic flourishes and opportunities to test his moral fibre. As with Ghosts and The Goes Wrong Show we’re keen to back distinctive ideas that play with form and tone for a mainstream BBC One audience and take the sitcom into unexpected new settings.”
‘The Cleaner‘ does not yet have a premiere date, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
