You know how it goes with Netflix: one week there's a new no.1 soaring high and captivating audiences the world over, the next week it's slid down the chart like yesterday's news. Except with writer-director Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen series, of course, which has been in top spot for a number of weeks.
What I really didn't see coming, however, was for The Gentlemen to be dethroned by yet another British crime drama (of sorts). And, no, it's not the long-forgotten Lock, Stock series that my T3 colleague wrote about just the other week. This time, it's a five-year-old drama that's having a surprise resurgence.
The series in question is called Cleaning Up, which first aired in 2019 on ITV – affectionately known as 'channel three' to most of us in the UK – and stars Sheridan Smith as a gambling-addicted cleaner, who sees a stock market con to potentially turn her life around. Check out the trailer below:
Smith has famously starred in a host of well-loved British comedies and dramas over the years, from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps to The Royle Family. She even broke into Hollywood with some success, including in The Huntsman: Winter's War.
That Cleaning Up is more than five years past its original ITV air date isn't the only interesting factor about the series: the Rotten Tomatoes scores are wildly conflicting, with some viewers calling it a 5-star show, others bombing it with half-a-star and warding others to "not bother". Each to their own, eh?
Whether it's reflective of the 92% Critics score or 43% Audience score shows what a raft of opinion there is about this particular series. It's not as if ITV is world-renowned for majority of its commissions, typically speaking.
Perhaps it's down to the subject matter: Smith, who plays Sam, seems an unlikely criminal – but that doesn't mean her actions are any less damning. So will she get her comeuppance? Well, you'll have to watch to find out.
There's certainly no series two if you are lured in as a new-found fan of Cleaning Up. Unless, of course, this new-found success is less than a flash in the pan. You never know: could Sheridan be making a big comeback for Cleaning Up: The Return on Netflix? I only jest – it's highly doubtful, just to clean that up.
If this new no.1 doesn't sound like your cup of tea, however, then don't turn off just yet: there's plenty more coming to the best streaming service, which another T3 colleague has rounded-up into a Top 5 for the month of April that are well worth sinking your eyeballs into.
