About 'Suburban Shootout'

In Little Stempington the women don't kill time - they kill each other, with anything from Glock 9mm machine pistols to potato peelers if necessary! In fact, this sleepy English town is more South Central LA than Home Counties. Industrial strength Viagra is grated into husbands' suppers, high doses of illegal HRT are smuggled in from Marseilles and every high street shop is at the mercy of a protection racket so fierce no one is prepared to stand in its way.

Into this rural battlefield walk innocent Joyce Hazeldine and her policeman husband Jeremy, itching find a stress-free life away from the high crime rate of the big city. The opportunity to move into a peaceful, suburban environment couldn't have come at a better time. Or so they think. As wife of the new local superintendent, Joyce soon becomes an unwilling pawn in the epic power struggle between two rival gangs, and in this sleepy town, she has to learn to swim and shoot or sink and die...

In series one we are introduced to the two rival gangs of homicidal housewives who - beneath the tea and crumpets - vie for control of their precious town. One gang is headed by Camilla Diamond and the other is run by Barbara Du Prez. Once very good friends, Camilla and Barbara originally turned to weaponry and intimidation as a way of dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour but they soon splintered into two opposing gangs when Camilla grew greedy and used the group's increased clout for her own personal gain, dealing in extortion, racketeering, coercion and threats to local businesses and residents of the town.

In series one both groups knew that enlisting Joyce is crucial because, being the wife of the town's police chief, she could be very useful indeed. Both gangs were determined to get Joyce on their side. They used style, wit, and the occasional use of brute force to try and win her over.

At the end of the battle Joyce ended up on the 'good side' (Barbara du Prez's gang) but was soon sent underground into Camilla's group as an undercover spy.

Then un-expectedly Barbara is sent to prison after being framed by Camilla and so Joyce finds herself coerced by Barbara into becoming the leader of the gang.

Series two saw the format swap from six half-hour episodes to three, one hour-long episodes. For the majority of the series Barbara remains in prison (slowing becoming the nick's most feared inmate), which leaves Joyce to juggle her domestic existence with the responsibilities of keeping the streets of Stempington free from common crime and Camilla's organised crime. It's a situation that is complicated by the fact that her husband Jeremy is entertaining a conference of police delegates visiting Stempington to discover why the crime rate is so low.

Suburban Shootout will not be commissioned for a third series after the second series pulled in an average audience of just 592,000.