Suburban Shootout
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Suburban Shootout is a satirical black comedy television series from the United Kingdom. The series is produced for Five by Feelgood Productions in association with Oxygen and Paramount Comedy. The series aired in the UK on Five from April 27, 2006, on Paramount Comedy from April 28, 2006 and started showing in the United States March 22, 2006 on Oxygen.
A Second Series is currently in production, due to be aired in 2007.
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[edit] Premise
Joyce Hazeldine and her policeman husband Jeremy move to what seems to be an idyllic home counties town of Little Stempington from London. She soon discovers there are two rival gangs of housewives, one headed by Camilla Diamond and one 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 antisocial behaviour, and gathered a small group of local women to help further their cause, but the group splintered into two smaller gangs when Camilla grew greedy and used their increased clout for her own personal gain, dealing in extortion, racketeering, coercion and threats to local businesses and residents of the town.
Barbara's gang continues to take extreme action against perceived 'threats to Little Stempington life' (planned low-cost housing, teenagers wearing hoodies, etc.), while also working tirelessly against Camilla's gang. Timid Joyce, unfortunately, becomes a pawn in both gangs, enlisted by Barbara to work undercover as a way of getting closer to Camilla.
The plot later thickens with Camilla racketeering the local recreational drugs market with 8 times strength HRT patches from their contacts in Marseille (hence the twinning with Marseille in the town sign).
[edit] Cast
- Anna Chancellor - Camilla Diamond, head of the "bad" gang. Originally a very good friend with Barbara du Prez, and the two formed an all-female mafia system after accidentally killing a burglar. They used it to clean up Little Stempington, but Camilla saw what the crime could do for her own gain, and the two soon parted ways. Since then, she has had numerous plastic surgery operations, paid for by her racketeering and loan sharking, and her group is the main opposition to Barbara's, next to the recent incursions of travelling musical festivals and the French.
- Felicity Montagu - Barbara du Prez, head of the "good" gang. Originally a very good friend with Camilla Diamond, the two formed the original singular mafia after they were burgled and killed the culprit, using it to clear Little Stempington of 'dark influences' from outside forces and those inside as well, ranging from minor offences such as hoodies, to grave misdeeds like low-cost housing (Which she thwarts using land mines). The two parted company and the mafia splintered in twain once Camilla became greedy, and they have been at loggerheads since then.
- Rachael Blake - Hilary Davenport, one of Camilla's sidekicks. Her vanity is only matched by Camilla's, and she is constantly considering how to pay for her next plastic surgery operation. She doesn't do very much in the series, other than offer an interestingly pessimistic (Or perhaps simply half-drunken) point of view on most topics.
- Amelia Bullmore - Joyce Hazeldine, the naïve newcomer to Little Stempington. She was first acquired by Barbara du Prez, but was sent underground into Camilla Diamond's group as an undercover spy soon after. She is not very brave to begin with, but soon learns to stand up to the villainous Camilla and by the end of the French incursion, she has managed to learn enough to threaten Camilla with exposure. When Camilla frames Barbara with several thousand pounds worth of HRT patches, Joyce is unexpectedly coerced into taking her place whilst she sits her stay in prison.
- Cathryn Bradshaw - Margaret Littlefair, a sidekick of Barbara du Prez. A remarkably ditzy woman who seems to know a lot about making explosives and handling guns, for this she seems to be the 'good' counterpart to Lillian, with the slight difference that her aim is worse than Camilla's vanity, if you multiply it by 10^100... She was the one who managed to slip guns onto the ferry to France when Barbara and co. left to help Joyce.
- Lucy Robinson - Pam Draper, a sidekick of Barbara du Prez. She is likely the most posh member of the 'good' gang, and she is always seen in a clean and pressed suit. She has very little actual compassion for the people she combats, even threatening to castrate a man if he didn't start speaking 'the Queen's English'. Overall, she can be very nice, but like Hilary Davenport, plays little role in the actual series.
- Emma Kennedy - Lillian Gordon-Moore, one of Camilla's sidekicks. A definite tomboy, Lillian has more than a passing passion for firearms, and can handle virtually any weapon you put in her hands. She seems to have a growing crush on Joyce, and held her in a rather suggestive position upon pulling her from Emile de Proz's detonated car (She had planted the explosive, an out of date model saying, she had thought she had gotten a bargain, more likely to save Joyce).
- Ralph Ineson - Jeremy Hazeldine, Joyce's husband and the new local superintendent. He's very much used to the hustle and bustle of the larger city police force, so is always so remarkably bored in Little Stempington, where the housewives ensure that everything is kept calm and quiet. At one point he thinks Joyce is having an affair, and at others he is drugged with Viagra by Camilla, but eventually things calm down and he honestly starts to enjoy life in the "quiet" town.
- Vincenzo Nicoli - Emile de Proz, the French drug dealer Camilla gets her drugs from. He seems to adore Joyce in an odd way, even after being shot in the leg (Right above the knee cap!) and being cheated out of his money, and because of his phone calls Jeremy begins suspecting Joyce of having an affair. Initially, Joyce tells Jeremy that he's a cheese merchant, but eventually he is caught for several crimes include drug trafficking and kidnap
[edit] Production
- Direction By Vito Rocco, Gordon Anderson
- Production By Greg Boardman
- Music By Daniel Pemberton
- Executive Production By Laurence Bowen for Feelgood Fiction
[edit] Trivia
- Joyce Hazeldine's car was originally going to be a Renault Twingo, but they couldn't find one, so a Fiat Panda was chosen.
- The Little Stempington town sign was only be seen in the first four episodes because the writer, Roger Beckett, nicked it off the set. It is currently under his bed in his house.
- Most of the filming was done in Pinner, London.
[edit] Goofs
- Jeremy in episode 2 was driving a Lexus, but in episode 7, he drives a Vauxhall Astra. (Apparently not a goof...the Lexus is Jeremy's own car while the Vauxhall/General Motors/Opel Vectra (not an Astra) is a police car).
- Special H (the high dosage oestrogen patches) are frequently referred as Class A drugs, when they classed as Class C because they are licensed prescription medicines. (Not a goof either...Special H is an unlicensed version of a licensed prescription medicine and hence it's a Class A drug.)
- Emile's car in episode 8 has the registration for the départment of Haute-Loire (43), even thought he is from Marseilles which is in the départment of Bouches-du-Rhône (13). (The production team accept this although they plead mitigating circumstances. A French-registered BMW was needed but since the filming necessitated the car to be on public roads, UK law required that the car be legally registered (albeit in France) so more appropriate, fake registration plates could not be fitted. The BMW featured in the show was the only one in the UK available to the team during production.)
