The Cleaner: A Wonderful Autism-Focused Christmas Special

Introduction

When I was in hospital for my first cancer operation (which you can read about here if you a so inclined) I downloaded the first series of "The Cleaner" by Greg Davies because I had seen some more than decent reviews.

I like Greg Davies as a comic actor and comedian and this had some great supporting actors in the six episodes such as Helena Bonham-Carter and David Mitchell.

Paul 'Wicky' Wickstead, a state-certified cleaning technician, is responsible for the removal of any signs of death from crime scenes.

All of the episodes we excellent and you can catch them if you have access to BBC's iPlayer content here.

Every episode is wickedly funny with lots of gore, the odd dead body and more annoying people, but one episode really warmed my heart, something that caught me completely off guard.

The Influencer

The word influencer really turns me off, like entrepreneur and other such buzzwords, and in this episode, the Influencer, played brilliantly by Layton Williams is totally annoying right from the off.

The story starts like this:

Wicky attends the home of ‘Home Alone Hosea’, a 23-year-old social media influencer with millions of followers and an unhealthy obsession with the 1980s. Wicky is amazed to be surrounded by the relics of his childhood, one of which, a dangerously malfunctioning arcade machine, has recently electrocuted a repairman.

The Influencer gets more annoying throughout the episode until something happens that turns the whole thing on its head, and by the end, you have one of the most heartwarming half-hours of television that you will ever see. I won't tell you what happens but find a copy, watch and you will not be disappointed, though the whole series is worth watching.

A Clean Christmas

This is the 2022 Christmas special and starts with family feuds and a Christmas Day clean-up job at an ice cream parlour.

It's Christmas Day, and crime scene cleaner Wicky is looking forward to Weasel's Christmas raffle at the pub. First prize: an actual horse. All that stands in his way is a blood-soaked crime scene in an ice cream parlour and a regular customer who isn't going to let a little thing like a murder stop him from getting the perfect peach melba ice cream.

The regular customer is Robert Kendrick played superbly by Robbie Curran, who, every Sunday comes for a Peach Melba to the ice cream parlour and always leaves at 5:42 pm. The fact that it's Christmas Day and the owner is dead won't let that stop him from getting his Peach Melba.

Robert Kendrick is Autistic.

Robbie Curran is an actor and writer from London and was the first autistic performer to graduate from the Oxford School of Drama. Read more about him on IMDB Here.

I wasn't sure how this was going to go but the episode ends up with Wicksy and Robert Kendrick laughing and eating ice cream together after meeting Wicky's dad and dog.

The thing is, this really made me think, about people I know on the Autistic spectrum and how in some ways it makes them incredible at the work they do, but puts enormous pressure on them to conform to structures that are essential to their well-being.

Rules have to be followed and distractions must always be avoided otherwise pressures become too much.

I know very little about Autism, only what I read and what certain friends on the spectrum tell me but this episode will hopefully make me more accommodating to any friends and people I meet who are Autistic.

Please hunt out this episode, it really is a special half hour.

Conclusion

This touched me so much that I had to write a follow up on the effect it had, which is here.