HBO recently announced that they are producing an American remake of this UK show, so I’m downloading it now from UK Nova to check it out. Haven’t seen it yet but based simply on the synopses it could well be the best show ever.
SUBURBAN SHOOTOUT
Surreal comedy-drama about two power-crazed housewives and their gangs, embroiled in an on-going turf war for control of a seemingly quiet English village.
EPISODE ONE
Joyce and Jeremy arrive in Little Stempington. But an invitation for a guided tour of the town turns into a nightmare when Camilla Diamond, one of the towns leading social lights, blows up the local Wicker Barn for not paying protection money, framing Joyce in the process. But she’s offered a way out by rival gang leader Barbara Du Prez.
EPISODE TWO
Camilla and her crew ask Joyce to prove her mettle by ‘persuading’ the Little Stempington public library to up their overdue book fines to 20 a day. But the librarian panics and accidentally falls off the edge of the library roof: has Joyce just killed her first ‘civilian’? At her dinner party, Camilla laces the men’s Baked Alaskas with super-strength Viagra, giving Jeremy and Joyce a night to remember.
EPISODE THREE
Joyce is shown the plans for Camilla’s new ‘big idea’ - the release of triple-strength HRT as a new club drug. An infamous Marseilles gangster travels to Little Stempington with a sample and Camilla forces ex-bilingual secretary Joyce to act as official interpreter. Barbara, meanwhile, has wired Joyce up with a nipple mic Emile begins to find increasingly stimulating. Jewel seduces Joyce’s son Bill.
EPISODE FOUR
Keen to raise more funds from the ladies of Little Stempington, Camilla hosts one of her quarterly botox parties with the cocaine-addicted former Harley Street plastic surgeon, Dr Nicky Forbes. Meanwhile, Joyce and Lillian are used as guinea pigs to test the triple-strength HRT. Joyce turns into a version of Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’ while Lillian turns into Judy Garland for the day!
EPISODE FIVE
Two DJs foolishly come to Little Stempington to set up an illegal rave. Meanwhile, Joyce is given 24 hours to raise an additional 40,000 pounds for Camilla’s triple-strength HRT deal or Jeremy dies. When Joyce learns that the rave hits town that night and that the DJs carry all their cash on them, she ends up involved in her very first heist.
EPISODE SIX
Camilla announces a Christmas ‘shopping trip’ to Calais - a courier mission to meet French dealer Emile Lesoux, who is providing the raw material for her new illegal HRT operation in return for 300,000 in cash. However, Jewel has secretly discovered the money and taken it. Camilla, Joyce and gang are actually heading to France to meet one of Europe’s most notorious criminals with only a bagful of caravan magazines!
EPISODE SEVEN
A new 24-hour superpub opens in Little Stempington. A horrified Barbara and her gang plan to spark off a full-scale riot and then make sure the police are nearby to close it down. But Camilla decides that its opening night will be an ideal opportunity to shift their first consignment of triple-strength HRT, now rebranded ‘Special H’ and pitched as a heady mix of ecstasy, cocaine and Viagra.
EPISODE EIGHT
Joyce is kidnapped by Emile Lesoux, who wants her for his personal crack whore. Barbara uses Camilla’s 300,000 to bid for Rod Stewart’s thong at the charity auction. The bidding ends abruptly when Emile snatches the money and is promptly blown up in a car bomb. When Camilla frames Barbara for HRT smuggling, Joyce is offered the role of gang boss. Will she accept or will she and Jeremy leave the village for good?
I have high hopes for this one.