Revenge on class divide

The world is very much divided into the haves and the have-nots, and that division is highlighted strikingly in Cleaning Up, an absorbing new British drama. The always excellent Sheridan Smith, pictured, stars as Sam, a single mother of two young daughters, who is in debt thanks to her addiction to online gambling.

Working as a cleaner for a smart stockbroking firm in Canary Wharf in London, Sam is suddenly presented with a possible answer to her financial woes when she happens upon sensitive stock-market information. She begins to take revenge on the system that she feels has betrayed her by secretly entering the perilous world of insider trading.

Drawing on her innate intelligence, Sam is soon making large sums of money. But in attempting to illegally outwit the system, is she replacing one vice with another? Will her addictive personality lead her towards disaster?

Smith, who has also given tremendous performances in Care, Mrs Biggs, Cilla, The C Word and The Moorside, says she was drawn to this drama because it convincingly portrays the gulf between two very different levels of society.

‘‘Sam works as a cleaner at a company involved in stocks and shares. It’s a very different world from where she lives with her children,’’ she says.

The locations in Cleaning Up help to emphasise the financial chasm that separates so many people. ‘‘Sam lives in a cheap rented house overlooking Canary Wharf. To see so much money and then poverty right next door to it is fascinating,’’ Smith says.

‘‘It’s very much like that in London, with lots of working-class areas in among affluent areas, almost back-to-back. This drama depicts that and shows the two different worlds.’’

The 37-year-old actress also felt she could identify with the character of Sam. ‘‘The character is quite close to me and my own emotions and feelings, so it’s hard to switch off. I know lots of people who are single mums and are in debt like she is, so I related to her in that respect.’’

The actress was also intrigued by the fact that, ‘‘cleaners are invisible to the Canary Wharf traders in their big steel and glass offices. They don’t even notice them. So, when Sam overhears something about insider trading, she thinks this could be a way for her to make some real money and pay off her debts. She’s savvy enough to do it herself.’’

Cleaning Up poses knotty ethical dilemmas for us all to ponder. ‘‘Is it immoral?’’ Smith wonders. ‘‘Sam thinks that if a few people in this company are getting away with it, why shouldn’t she?

‘‘If I’ve done my job properly, I hope the audience will be rooting for Sam. She is a victim and a fighter. Sam is not going to apologise for what she is doing. She’s fighting back against the system. It’s that whole class divide. Hopefully this story will provoke a debate about right and wrong.’’

So would Smith ever be tempted to go down a similar path? ‘‘Obviously, I wouldn’t do anything illegal. But I’m pro-Sam all the way and I hope people will be cheering her on.’’

- James Rampton