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Ofwonderful! (And All in the worst possible taste)

Comedian Tom Davis on The Great Celebrity Bake Off, Sunday, Ch4

‘I might have made the most disgusting thing the Bake Off has ever seen.’

THE CLEANER FRIDAYS, BBC1 AND BBC IPLAYER hhhh

The first series of this darkly comic sitcom starring Greg Davies as a crime scene cleaner, the man you call to do the jobs no one else has the stomach to do, had a mixed reception with critics and viewers alike. It was too quirky for some, too close to the bone in parts and also, I think, not quite what fans of Davies – probably best known for the Channel 4 game show Taskmaster (although in our house he is revered as Mr Gilbert, the teacher from The Inbetweeners) – might have expected.

I’m going to put my cards on the table and say I loved it, warts and all. It’s just my kind of thing, very much in the tradition of The Royle Family, Mum, Peep Show and other bittersweet, absurdist comedies that ilk, where not an awful lot happens plotwise yet a great deal is understood about the actions and motives of the characters.

It can be harsh, brutal and occasionally crass, with moments of slapstick verging on the grotesque. It pushes the boundaries of good taste to the limit, with results that are not so much funny ha-ha as funny odd. And much of the comedy comes from tragedy. Wicky – Davies’s character – inhabits a world of sadness and loss, mopping up the messes of people’s failed lives while struggling to make sense of his own. It’s not always the easiest of watches, but the underlying bleakness somehow intensifies the comedy.

The first series was notable for its stellar guests, from Helena Bonham Carter to David Mitchell. This second series kicks off with top thespian Dame Harriet Walter as a craggy, chain-smoking, whisky-swilling pub landlady whose (much younger) lover has been splattered over her pool table. Other famous faces to feature include Simon Callow, Zoe Wanamaker and Asim Chaudhry.

The calibre of co-stars is confirmation not only of the quality of the writing, but also of the unusually theatrical nature of this show. Yes, it’s a sitcom format, with recurring characters (namely Zita Sattar, who

reprises the role of Sergeant Ruth Edwards) but it could easily be seen as a series of short two-hander plays, with the action focused on single locations – a house, a basement, a pub.

Here, Walter arrives just as Wicky is using one of the deceased’s severed ears as a plectrum for his air guitar during an animated rendition of Iron Maiden’s Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter (I told you it was tasteless). Nonplussed, she offers him a beer and they embark on a funny, sad and touching meditation on life, love and self-esteem. Wonderful. Just don’t watch it over dinner.

He uses a severed ear as a plectrum for his air guitar

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2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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