Brit Com (2006-2007) about a meek housewive and her copper husband who move to the seemingly idyllic village of Little Stempington, where a criminal turf war is raging beneath the postcard-perfect facade. The perps are two rival gangs of wealthy housewives — the "good" gang led by Barbara du Prez and the "bad" gang led by Camilla Diamond. The result is a biologically implausible result of a threesome between Desperate Housewives, Midsomer Murders, and The Sweeney.
Main characters include:
- Joyce Hazeldine: our beleaguered heroine, who finds herself being pulled between Barbara and Camilla.
- Camilla Diamond: the leader of the "bad" gang, running various criminal enterprises and rackets in Little Stempington.
- Barbara du Prez: the leader of the "good" gang, who is Camilla's Arch-Enemy and commits herself to defeating the bad gang by any means necessary.
- Hilary Davenport: one of Camilla's sidekicks, an archetypical cougar.
- Lillian Gordon-Moore: another of Camilla's sidekicks, a tomboy and near-sensual gun enthusiast.
This show provides examples of
- Affably Evil: Pretty much every character except the Hazeldines.
- Beneath Suspicion
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Jewel.
- Crapsaccharine World
- The Dark Side: Represented by Camilla and her group.
- The Ditz: Margaret.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the pilot, when Camilla tricks an extremely credulous Joyce into blowing up a little shop, threatens the shop's owners, then uses the crime to blackmail Joyce into joining her side.
- Evil Brit: Although most of the cast fit this trope, Camilla fits it most of all.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin
- Face–Heel Turn: Camilla was once close friends with Barbara, and became her partner in an all-female mafia system originally intended to rid Little Stempington of crime. However, she became corrupted by the monetary returns that came with the job, and soon became Barbara's enemy and rival. Hilary and Lillian quickly followed.
- Fight Clubbing: In the second series, Camilla's gang starts a fight club between everyone in Barbara's "book of disputes."
- Four-Girl Ensemble: Joyce, Barbara, Pam, and Margaret.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: In the good gang, Barbara is Sanguine, Pam is Choleric, and Margaret is Phlegmatic.
- On the flip side, the bad gang exhibits Camilla as Choleric, Hilary as Sanguine, and Lillian as Melancholic.
- Of all the four standard temperaments, Joyce leans closest to the good kind of Phlegmatic.
- On the flip side, the bad gang exhibits Camilla as Choleric, Hilary as Sanguine, and Lillian as Melancholic.
- Genius Bruiser: Lillian, who partakes in torture and conceives of at least one of the bad gang's racket schemes.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Barbara and her "good" gang.
- Naïve Newcomer: Joyce, to the point where she presses the Most Obvious Detonator in the World at Camilla's command without a second thought, with predictable results.
- Rural Gangsters: Parodied. The series features an all-out turf war between two all-female gangs of wealthy housewives, the "good" gang led by Barbara du Prez and the "bad" gang led by Camilla Diamond, taking place in a stereotypically idyllic English village. It revealed Barbara's group originally started as Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters designed to rid Little Stempington of crime until Camilla got corrupted by the monetary returns that came with the job.
- Stalker with a Crush: Lillian to Joyce.
- Stepford Smiler
- Stepford Suburbia
- Sociopathic Heroes: The 'good gang,' especially Pam.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Jeremy Hazeldine, the local police constable. He is unaware of the shenanigans Joyce and her friends are up to, but his instincts make him increasingly suspicious that something is going on.
- Town with a Dark Secret
- Trigger-Happy: Lillian, who is almost never seen in the series without carrying some kind of firearm.
