Paul "Wicky" Wickstead, a state-certified biohazard technician, drives his yellow van from murder scene to murder scene, scraping brain matter off flock wallpaper while strangers bend his ear. Each half-hour episode traps him with one new guest star in the freshly soiled house: Helena Bonham Carter’s bored widow who’s just shot her husband, David Mitchell’s poisonous failed novelist, Stephanie Cole’s sofa-proud aristocrat, Alex Lawther’s woodland shaman. The blood is fake, the chatter is everything.
Greg Davies, who also writes, adapted the format from the German hit Der Tatortreiniger and keeps the tone cheerfully grim; corpses are props, the real subject is loneliness and the odd alliances born of other people’s tragedy. Directors Tom Marshall, Dominic Brigstocke and Alex Winckler leave the camera on Davies’ six-foot-eight frame as he negotiates tiny kitchens, letting the guest star dominate the space until Wicky’s deadpan politeness cracks.
BBC One aired the first six episodes in autumn 2021, followed by a Christmas special in 2022 and a second series in spring 2023. A third and final run landed in October 2024, ending 8 November. The 19 episodes total under ten hours yet cram in more than forty credited guest turns, from Shakin’ Stevens playing himself to Zoë Wanamaker as a deranged town historian. The theme is a jaunty klezmer-style clarinet riff by Samuel Karl Bohn that plays over closing shots of Wicky hosing down his overalls, ready for the next mess.
Production Details
BBC One / 3 Seasons / 18 Episodes / 2021
Created by: Greg Davies
Showrunner(s): Vivien Muller-Rommel
Writer(s): Greg Davies
Producer(s): Sam Ward
Main Cast
Greg Davies as Paul Wickstead
Zita Sattar as Ruth Edwards
Jane Lewis as Barbara Chant
Sam Ward as Man in Meeting
Barry Castagnola as Weasel (voice)
Helena Bonham Carter as Sheila
Paul Chowdhry as Man Boy
Shobu Kapoor as Neeta
David Mitchell as Terence Redford
Georgie Glen as Mrs. Gathernoid
Darren Gordon as Food Truck Man
