Cleaning Up

A six part series focusing on Sam, a struggling mum, and a cleaner with an addiction.

It is absurd, you need to suspend your disbelief, but it has an important message. Gambling is so often glamorous on TV, smart casinos, lottery wins etc, this shows the true reality of it, the pain, the misery, the lying, affects on family life etc.

Smith is terrific, the character of Sam is diabolical, she's awful, she lies freely, cheats on her friends, and will do anything other than tell the truth. I do see gambling as an addiction, and you truly see its ugly side here.

Some of the characters are a bit stupid, but the message here is an important one.

The one star ratings here are a joke, ignore them, it's not wonderful, but it is a good watch.

Some years back ITV made a drama called Hot Money which starred Caroline Quentin, this is on the same lines.

Watchable for Smith, and the true side of gambling. 7/10.

To the reviewer highlighting a continuity error, suggesting the girl's black eye changes eye from one scene to the next, I say watch again, the first shot was her looking in the mirror lol. Remained her left eye throughout.

Not the worst series I've ever watched but completely ruined for me by the morally bankrupt, hateful protagonist played by Sheridan Smith (In fairness - actually played very well).

The combination of the complete lack of any sort of redeeming story arc fornthe main character & seemingly endless loyalty / forgiveness by her friends & family made me want to kick a hole through my telly.

Also whoever wrote the final act needs to go to a maths class - unless we're expected to believe that her best friend is willing to just write off substantial sums of money to help her gambling addict friend pay off her debt with the vague hope of a potential future pay off from a quite frankly idiotic business / scam.

Great acting but as the series goes on it becomes more implausible.

The concept of this drama is brilliant. A bit different from the usual police drama or rom Com type drivel. My only issue and I will hold off a little until I have watched more is that it's just too slow and the characters are frustrating especially Sheridan Smith! Hopefully the coming episodes will be much better.