Greg Davies is once again stepping off the Taskmaster throne and picking up a bucket and mop, because the BBC has confirmed that his popular comedy show The Cleaner will be returning for a third season.
Davies stars as Paul "Wicky" Wickstead, a man with the morbid job of cleaning up crime scenes. He's cleaned up ice cream shops, holiday homes belonging to exes and 1980s-centric influencer shrines, and season 3 promises lighthouses, pregnancies and more.
A remake of German show Der Tatortreiniger, Davies not only acts but is the writer of the show, which also stars Zita Sattar as a police officer and a range of one-off guest stars. Many more of the latter are promised for season 3.
In past seasons, guest stars have included David Mitchell, Helena Bonham Carter and Zoe Wanamaker. The BBC is set to announce season 3 casting in the near future, ahead of the show's release.
The BBC hasn't confirmed when The Cleaner season 3 will land on our screens yet, but it won't be any time soon — the language of the BBC's press release implies that filming hasn't begun, and a story by the British Comedy Guide from early January 2024 suggested that filming wouldn't begin until late in the year.
Past seasons aired on BBC One and iPlayer. The Cleaner season 3 is expected to retain the format of the past two seasons; that is, six episodes of half an hour each.
The last season of The Cleaner came out in 2023 while the first was released in 2021, so hopefully that two-year release gap won't be repeated before season 3 arrives. At least there was a Christmas special in 2022 to tide us over.
Greg Davies spoke to What to Watch ahead of the first season's release, about how he adapted Der Tatortreiniger and created this character, and you can read it here.
The Cleaner wasn't the only new BBC comedy announced today, with a new Alan Patridge show called And Did Those Feet..., a return of Diane Morgan's Philomena Cunk in Cunk's Quest for Meaning, new seasons of Dreaming Whilst Black and Man Like Mobeen and one brand-new show called Only Child.
