The Committee – The episode begins with Wicky/Paul Wickstead (Greg Davies) and PS Ruth Edwards (Zita Sattar) having a brief roll in the sack before he arrives for a job at the Drakefield Community Centre. He immediately ruffles the feathers of Frank (Roger Sloman) and Maud (Sheila Reid) when he parks in front of front of the Center. Frank’s first impression of Wicky only further sours after learns he’s there to clean. Matters aren’t improved when Wicky learns from a very stressed-out Margaret (Philippa Dunne) that because of his late arrival, he’ll now have to wait until the specialist group is finished with the space before he can clean it.
Wicky makes the mistake of choosing, Maud’s chair as his place to wait out the specialist group’s performance. Although he apologizes and gives her the seat, she appears ungrateful. It’s only seconds later that Wicky realizes he’s now in Frank’s seat. Franks is nowhere as near as easy to please and gets Margaret involved. Despite all this, things get even worse once Maud realizes the café/bakery is now closed and she can’t get her tea to take her medication.
Wicky’s next attempt to clean the accident is briefly sidelined by Jennifer (Ellen Thomas) and The Watercolour Wanders. Despite his promises to clean as quietly as possible, this proves nearly impossible. At the same time, Maud has had enough of the disruptive Wicky and is on her way to confront him. Thanks to her failing vision, this only ends with her lying face down in the blood.
Margaret pulls Wicky aside to further express the committee’s outrage with him as if it wasn’t already evident enough. Thanks to Pauline’s (Josephine Welcome) nearby confrontation with Sue (Paula Wilcox) Margaret’s demeaning isn’t prolonged. Wicky attempts to use the opening to return to his truck to get a fresh cleaning kit but finds himself standing in front of an expectant crowd with a microphone in his hand after he is mistaken for a professional singer. It doesn’t take the crowd long to realize he’s an imposter but just as he begins to get them on his side, Margaret interrupts.
After being threatened by a lawsuit from the real Huw Davey, things get yet even stranger for Wicky. Pauline approaches him with her theory that Bill’s (Derek Griffiths) accident wasn’t an accident at all. Pauline suspects Christine Kenyon (Elizabeth Counsell) is involved and claims her portrait is proof. Wicky is on his way to look at the portrait when he is sidelined and unwittingly roped into Sue’s scheme to get back at Carol Davies for wearing the same ball gown. Sue apparently suspected this and asks him to stand guard outside the lady’s bathroom while she changes. This immediately goes bad the moment Carol, Frank, and Maude show up.
The encounter leaves Wicky with a peeping Tom charge added to his ever-growing resume, but surprisingly enough, Jennifer offers him the opportunity to get back into the Committee’s good graces by selecting the artist of the week. Unfortunately, this will do the exact opposite for him after he brings attention to Christine’s portrait of the well-endowed Bill. By this point, Wicky has received so many Committee citations that he’s forced to attend a Committee hearing.
A later conversation with Margaret at the ball reveals that the Committee issued Wicky a red card warning. As to what that actually means is left a mystery. Wicky will finally get his opportunity to tackle the cleaning once the ball ends. It doesn’t take him long to accomplish the task and he can’t help but laugh when he learns that his truck was impounded for illegally parking.
The episode ends with Margaret’s memory of her pushing Bill off the balcony after he subtly suggests that she might be double dipping into the subscription fees.
The Cleaner Review
I really enjoyed the mystery theme tied in with this episode but felt that it was a bit of a double-edged sword because it made the episode feel rather longwinded at times. As I’ve said, I’m new to the series and don’t know if they’ve pursued a similar avenue in the past but after three seasons, it would be hard to imagine that they haven’t. For me, the thing that really made the episode enjoyable was the underlying truth.
I don’t know how many people realize it, but older folks are oftentimes some of the orneriest individuals you can deal with. They get set in their ways. To use an overused quote, they get set in their ways. I’d give the episode a 5.2 out of 10.
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