Shelly Mohan (Charlene McKenna) seems to have it all. In fact, she might even have a little too much. She has three children at two different schools in the suburbs of Dublin; as far as they’re concerned she’s a mix of chef, nanny, chauffeur and tutor. There’s always laundry to be done, dishes to be washed, a house to be cleaned, and when her detective husband Jason (Barry Ward) comes home every night there’s a freshly cooked meal on the table. Does she still have time to volunteer to bake for the school fundraiser in between flirty glances with fellow parent Matt (Trevor Kaneswaren)? Of course she does.
Oh, and she’s pretty handy when it comes to murder. (Are we about to discuss a key plot point? Yes, but it happens very early in the series. This is not a whodunnit.)
Just to be clear, Shelly is not a serial killer. In fact, when we first meet her she’s perfectly happy with her life. Well, maybe not entirely happy; her eldest son has a sneaky weed habit, and it looks like her husband may be having an affair with a work colleague. But killing someone seems like the last possible thing on her to-do list… right up until the moment her long-buried past threatens to come to the surface.
Charlene McKenna as Shelly Mohan and Barry Ward as Jason Mohan. Credit: Deirdre Brennan / ShinAwil / Incendo
Their second meeting is full of surprises. For one, he’s shaved off the beard. And when he says “I’ve been waiting for years to do this again” as they embrace, maybe he is looking for love after all. But Shelly’s horrified expression tells a very different story. He says he found God, then he found her, and now he’s here to save her from her past sins.
“I’m Mrs Shelly Mohan,” she tells him. “Maggie is dead”. Not long after that, so is he.
Clean Sweep is loosely based on actual events. While those events aren’t specified, it’s not hard to think of more than one case where a former criminal started a new life in suburbia, only to find their past wasn’t as easy to move on from as they hoped. It’s what happens next that gives this series the buzz of quality true crime.
The murder that kicks off things is pretty straightforward (we see Shelly pull the trigger, and she pulls it more than once). It’s her motive that remains unknown, and that’s the mystery that drives the following episodes. What could she have possibly done in her past that was so awful that she’d kill an old friend to keep it buried?
There’s one other twist. Her husband, the one who’s a detective with the local Garda? When the mystery man’s body is discovered, he’s the one assigned to lead the investigation. He’s thrilled; it’s a big career bump for him. Shelly is somewhat less excited at the news.
Family life continues for Shelly Mohan (Charlene McKenna). Credit: Deirdre Brennan / ShinAwil / Incendo
This is where Charlene McKenna’s performance really shines. Shelly goes from initially being a confident, almost cocky wife and mother to a complete wreck after the murder – and then she has to put the confident façade back together for her friends and family. McKenna makes the act Shelly’s putting on seem totally plausible, while letting us see the cracks behind the wisecracks.
Throughout the episodes that follow, Shelly is a woman constantly on the edge; if her flashbacks and guilt and worries that maybe she didn’t dispose of all the evidence (and being seen by a friend throwing up nearby after the murder might not have been great either) weren’t bad enough, now the person charged with finding her is sitting across from her at the dinner table every night.
Where will it all end for Shelly? Credit: ShinAwil / Incendo
It's that extra turn of the screw that makes this such a gripping psychological thriller. There’s no moment when she can let her guard down; the man hunting her down is the man she shares a bed with every night. And with three children she loves, there’s no way she can go on the run.
Shelly starts out with everything, and now she could lose it all.
