Note: contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Cleaning Up.
We’re two episodes in to ITV’s new drama series Cleaning Up, and it’s already pretty clear that struggling mum Sam’s (Sheridan Smith) life is going downhill fast.
Tens of thousands of pounds in debt thanks to her gambling addiction and with a debt collector lurking in the background (Humans’ Neil Maskell), Sam has already bugged one of the offices she cleans to get stocks information, dabbled in illegal insider trading and betrayed her best friend Jess (Jade Anouka) in an effort to raise enough money to pay off her debts.
And her home life is falling apart too, with Sam’s kids – teen Alice and younger sister Lily – probably better off moving in with their dad Dave (Matthew McNulty) and his girlfriend than staying with their increasingly desperate mum at home.
After a second episode that featured her making even more nail-chewingly awful decisions (walk away from the slot machines, Sam!) and mistakes (the forgotten zip drive), we’re left wondering whether she’ll actually make it to the end of the final four episodes with her kneecaps intact.
The episode ended with Sam making yet another gamble with possibly life-altering consequences. In readiness for the next week’s episode, here are the burning questions bothering us about the drama…
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1. Why hasn’t Jess noticed Sam is still gambling?
All Jess wants is to raise enough money to buy a van so she can start a mobile coffee shop business (because there aren’t enough of those around already).
It’s understandable that she would initially go along with Sam’s get-rich-quick scheme of buying stocks low and selling high to get the start-up money she needs, but she too easily believes her friend when Sam promises she is no longer gambling, even leaving Sam in charge of their money.
Which, of course, turns out to be a very, very bad idea.
So why on earth does Jess trust Sam in the first place? After all, you could argue that the insider trading Sam is dabbling in is a form of gambling, which should have set off some alarm bells for Jess.
And if that weren’t bad enough, Sam then steals her best friend’s profits – not to pay off debts as she tells Jess, but to gamble with, at the slot machines and on her phone.
What on earth was Jess thinking, leaving Sam in charge of their cash? Didn’t she notice Sam clutching her smart phone like her life depended on it (well, it kind of does) or ever hear the tell-tale rattle of the online roulette wheel?
Sam’s been a pretty rubbish friend to Jess so far, so if she does get caught, we’re getting worried that an increasingly desperate Sam may throw her best friend under the bus to save herself, too.
2. Doesn’t ANYONE at the Canary Wharf banking offices have computer security?
Whenever we see Sam wandering past the desks where she works as a cleaner, all the computer screens are visibly on with documents open on the desktops.
Are we supposed to believe that not one member of staff has bothered to install a screensaver featuring a cuddly cat or holiday snap? Not one of these city high fliers has a screen lock that has to be opened with a password?
Even our local library has log-ins on the public PCs – are we really supposed to believe that a major banking corporation doesn’t have any computer security whatsoever?
And while we’re on the subject of technological nonsense, in episode two Sam goes to a recruitment firm for a job interview but walks out when she can’t master Excel.
Fair enough, but just a few scenes later she’s sneaking into the brokerage office with a zip drive, ready to copy important files off a stranger’s computer. Surely if she can commit corporate espionage she could manage a bit of Excel?
3. Sam and her ex, Dave, seem nice enough – so why are their daughters so awful?
We know Alice is a teenager so is hormonally prone to be stroppy, but good lord, she’s utterly horrid.
After sneaking out one night leaving her mum worried sick, Alice ends up at her dad’s and refuses to come home, saying she is sick of being ordered about. Does she not notice that her mum is working two jobs just to keep the family together?
Even younger sister Lily is a pain in the ass – tricking hapless babysitter Glynn (Robert Emms) into believing her school friend Sophia is allowed to come over for the afternoon, and then running riot and getting Sam into trouble with Sophia’s mum and the school.
Do these girls want to be taken away from their mum permanently? And just what are Dave and his girlfriend plotting – do they want custody of the girls?
The way they have been behaving, he’s probably welcome to them. We do wonder, however, whether Alice’s new-found interest in boxing could come in useful later on – perhaps saving her mum from the debt collector or some enraged banker?
4. Why did insider trader Blake tape his mobile phone under his desk?
The rattling noise in Blake’s office was traced to Sam’s hidden listening device, so you would think the insider trader would be extra careful not to get caught by his bosses now his office has been searched and he knows he has been bugged.
So why on earth does he tape his mobile phone to the underside of his desk? Is it set to record so he can catch the person who has been taping him and frame them for his crimes?
If it’s the phone he’s been using to make insider trades, there must be safer places to hide it than in the office.
5. Why doesn’t Sam just invest in both 3D printer firms?
While she was bugging Blake’s office, Sam overheard that the next business she should invest in was one launching a fancy new 3D printer – but she didn’t get the name of the company.
After a rather clever snooping session, she’s narrowed it down to two firms by the end of the episode, but – always the gambler – she flips a coin to decide which one to invest in.
Erm, wouldn’t it have made more sense to invest half the money in each of the businesses, knowing she’d at least make a profit on one of the investments?
Of course, that wouldn’t be as dramatic, would it? We’ll just have to wait until the next episode to discover whether Sam has made piles of money or lost everything…
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