Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners on Channel 4 follows compulsive cleaner and OCD sufferer Linda Sykes, a likeable woman who is so fanatical about cleaning she has set up her own cleaning agency in North Wales.
The aim of the show is to bring other OCD sufferers together and channel their obsessions and special skills into helping people to clean their homes. Each week Linda matches one of her compulsive cleaners with someone whose home is in need of a thorough clean and the OCD cleaning team also help with special projects such as cleaning a swimming pool , a drop in centre for the homeless and similar.

The programme makes sense. OCD can be a debilitating mental illness that requires the sufferer to carry out rituals and obsessively clean their own homes, so setting a sufferer  to help clean up for other people does seem a to be a win win situation all round at first glance.
Previous episodes have seen Mark – an obsessive who can spend hours on small details such as getting his curtains to hang straight, matched with hoarder Julie Arkwright who lives amidst piles of junk, Cynthia who has a fear of germs, matched with Daphne an elderly lady living in considerable squalor and Denise who spends her life obsessively cleaning her own house matched with retired widower Frank who is struggling to keep his head above the housework.

The big problem with Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners on Channel 4 is that it all feels a bit like watching a freak show. Many of the people the OCD team help, have genuine mental problems of their own and some of the cleaning team seem genuinely distressed by the proximity to filth and disorder. This is a very real mental illness after all and the series has attracted a lot of criticsm from OCD UK a charity that supports children and adults who suffer from OCD.
Despite the criticisms, the viewer needs to remember that the OCD cleaners are not forced into doing this and if their unique disorder can be put to good use, perhaps it is not such a bad idea. Whether or not it is entertainment you can decide for yourself.  Watch Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners via youriplayer.co.uk and make up your own mind.
 

Watch all episodes of Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners here. Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners is a tv-programme of BBC One. You can see all episodes of Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners here via Youriplayer.co.uk.