About Suburban Shootout
In Series 1 viewers are introduced to 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.
Both groups instantly knew that enlisting Joyce would be crucial as, being the wife of the town's police chief, she could be very useful indeed. Each group was determined to get Joyce on their side, using style, wit, and occasional brute force to try to 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, unexpectedly, 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 2 sees the format switch from 6 half-hour episodes to 3 hour-long episodes. For the majority of the series Barbara remains in prison (slowly becoming the nick's most feared inmate), leaving Joyce to juggle her domestic existence with the responsibilities of keeping the streets of Stempington free from both 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 was axed after the second series pulled in an average audience of just 592,000 viewers.