‘The Cleaner’ is packing up the mop and heading to the Italian mountains, as Greg Davies (Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners) returns for a brand-new, one-off festive special on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Currently titled ‘The Cleaner In Italy’, the hour-long episode will see crime scene cleaner Paul “Wicky” Wickstead reluctantly swapping his usual grisly workplaces for a hiking holiday in the Italian Dolomites. Naturally, things do not go according to plan.
Joining Davies for the special are Robert Webb (Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look), Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy, Amandaland), Kevin Eldon (Hot Fuzz, Four Lions), Tori Allen-Martin (Here We Go), Veronica Ferres (Call My Agent Berlin), Zita Sattar (Holby City), Milanka Brooks (Black Mirror) and Dylan Blore (Shetland).
The story sees Wicky reluctantly joining his girlfriend Ruth, played by Zita Sattar, and her friends Andrew and Andrea, played by Robert Webb and Tori Allen-Martin, on a hiking holiday in the Dolomites.
When an accident occurs, Wicky is forced to spend the rest of the trip at a remote mountain hotel while Ruth heads off to enjoy the great outdoors. Surrounded by an eccentric hotel manager, played by Peter Serafinowicz, a collection of peculiar guests and some increasingly suspicious members of staff, Wicky’s boredom soon begins to turn into paranoia.
“I think Wicky has got to the stage in life where he only likes three things: his job, going to the pub and beer. To get the opportunity to force him to go to Italy on a hiking holiday is the perfect opportunity to test his breaking point. I can’t wait to show everyone how horribly wrong a holiday can go…” said Davies.
Written by and starring Davies, the special is the first hour-long episode of ‘The Cleaner’ and began filming this week.
The comedy follows Wicky, a state-certified cleaning technician whose unusual job involves removing the grisliest remnants left behind at crime scenes. While the work itself is generally straightforward, the people he encounters have a habit of making each assignment considerably more complicated.
The first series launched with 5.4 million viewers, making it the BBC’s second-biggest new comedy series of 2021. All three series were also among the five most-watched scripted comedies in the UK during their respective years of release.
The series is based on the award-winning, long-running German comedy ‘Der Tatortreiniger’, also known as ‘Crime Scene Cleaner’, which was created by Ingrid Lausund.
All three existing series of ‘The Cleaner’ are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.
‘The Cleaner In Italy’ premieres over the festive period on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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