Greg Davies Returns for Festive The Cleaner Special Set in the Italian Dolomites

Image: BBC

By Jon Donnis

Greg Davies is back as UK crime scene cleaner Paul ‘Wicky’ Wickstead in The Cleaner In Italy (w/t), a brand new one-off special of the BBC comedy series, which will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One over the festive period.

Written by and starring Davies (Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners) and produced by SHUK, The Cleaner follows Wicky, a state-certified cleaning technician whose unusual day job involves scrubbing away the grisliest remnants of crime scenes.

The show's first ever hour-long special, which began filming this week, sees Wicky reluctantly join his girlfriend Ruth (Zita Sattar) and her friends Andrew and Andrea (Robert Webb and Tori Allen-Martin) on a hiking holiday in the Italian 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 (Peter Serafinowicz), an array of peculiar guests and a cast of increasingly suspicious staff, Wicky’s boredom soon turns to paranoia.

Additional cast joining the special include 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).

Series one of The Cleaner launched to 5.4 million viewers, making it the second biggest new BBC Comedy series in 2021. All three series of The Cleaner were in the top five most viewed scripted comedies in the UK across the market in their respective years of 2021, 2023 and 2024.

All three series of The Cleaner are available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

Greg Davies, writer and star of The Cleaner In Italy, says: “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…”