Desperate Housewives The first really massive TV hit of the Noughties. Yet it’s less well remembered that the portrait of secret suburbia was narrated by a ghost. Wisteria Lane resident Mary Alice killed herself in the pilot episode. And it was her intimate knowledge of the tumultuous private lives of Eva Longoria and her neighbours Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross that gave the show a unique edge. It was Wisteria Lane resident Mary Alice's intimate knowledge of the tumultuous private lives of Eva Longoria (above) and her neighbours that gave the show a unique edge But over eight series covering 15 years of their lives, Housewives became so popular, and the public lives of its stars so tabloid-friendly, that people forgot its unusual start. Now the Star channel lets you begin again. Disney+/Star, available now