New UK television drama centres on internet gambling addiction

The controversial new ITV television drama Cleaning Up takes as its central theme gambling and addiction as it follows the ill-starred progress of a City office cleaner and struggling mum of two (played by political drama star Sheridan Smith).

Careless disposal of sensitive corporate information presents the lead character, a gambling-addicted office cleaner called Sam, with an illegal opportunity to exploit lucrative insider information.

She asks herself why the working class is shafted whilst the fat corporate cats prosper as she attempts to justify her subsequent illegal insider trading actions, aided by a team of fellow cleaners who conspire to create illicit wealth to pay off their debts and enjoy the good life…in Sam’s case a GBP 15,000 online gambling debt.

Don’t expect online gambling to be portrayed in a favourable light in this socialist-leaning story from the pen of screenwriting  newcomer Mark Marlow and is promoted as “…contract cleaners being exploited by their bosses and shows how online gambling companies target vulnerable women.”

According to the promotional material Marlow was inspired to write the story when he was watching the film Wall Street and saw cleaners in the background of a trading scene, motivating him to “…tackle the class divide, austerity and corporate greed. It’s an underdog tale about a working class woman getting one over on the bankers.”

Bearing in mind the current furor over the volume of UK gambling advertisements, ITV has undertaken not to screen any gambling adverts during the presentation of Cleaning Up when it is broadcast in January next year..

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