Hustle



The con is on...

A British drama show (2004-2012) centered around a group of con artists, who specialise in the only co] those who deserve it. [[Spiritual Successor|Highly inspired by [[The Stin]; it's mentioned more than once and almost every con that appeared in the film ends up being played in Hustle at some point.

This show got renewed for a second series only four episodes through its six-episode run due to its popularity.

The show itself is unafraid to con the audience, with the characters having back-up plans and only revealing part of the trick until the end; seemingly random and unrelated moments throughout the episode are revealed to be vitally important. The one thing you can count on is that [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee|if you think you know how the con works, you don'].

The fourth series saw a change in the cast; Mickey was busy in Australia "selling the Sydney Opera House", leaving Danny as the (far-more chaotic and improvisational) leader. The fifth man was Billy, a younger and naive short con artist who idolised Danny.

Mickey returns in the fifth series, but with Danny and Stacie in America, Albert in prison, and Billy... unmentioned, Mickey and Ash need to put together a new crew.

Seven series have aired to date; it has been announced that the forthcoming eighth series will be the last.

It has an across the pond [[Trans-Atlantic Equivalent|counterpar] in [[Leverag], though save for general concept and at least one prominent guest star appearing on both shows, the two shows are unrelated.

Not to be confused with the ESPN original miniseries about Pete "Charlie Hustle" Rose, or the Japanese comedy-oriented [[Professional Wrestlin] promotion.

"Mickey: Because we're professionals, because we don't like prison and because we don't work with anyone who has 'Liability' in their name!"
 * [[Actor Allusio]: In a season eight episode, Jodie Prenger plays a friend of the gang who winds up in hospital after using a dodgy diet product sold by that episode's marks. Before her acting career took off, Prenger won the UK version of [[The Biggest Lose] and subsequently worked as a writer on diet issues.
 * In the final episode it's proposed that the now seven-person team should be called [[The Magnificent Seve]. Albert, played by Robert Vaughn, seems very taken with the idea.
 * The Alleged Steed: The fake racehorse in "Signing Up to Wealth".
 * [[All Women Love Shoe]: Emma
 * [[And Starrin]: Robert Vaughn gets credited as "And Robert Vaughn as Albert Stroller" in later series.
 * An Aesop: The ending of series two has all the main characters delivering an aesop to camera; the last ever episode has an extended reprise of this sequence.
 * [[Animated Credits Openin]: Full of [[Stealth Pun|Stealth Pun] for grifting terminology.
 * [[Art Shif]: Used for exposition scenes. A description of a very old con trick is done via a B&W silent movie, and an explanation of fugu fish preperation is done with anime.
 * [[Aside Glanc]: Every main character, on a fairly regular basis, except for Billy (in fact, it happens very rarely in Series 4 at all).
 * [[Asshole Victi]: Who the hustlers generally target, partly to justify their crimes to themselves since otherwise they are in it just for the thrill and the money. Notably they are reluctant to go after the really evil [[Asshole Victim|Asshole Victim], like gangsters and killers, purely because they know their normal marks won't chop them to pieces if they get caught out, and not because they think their normal targets deserve it more.
 * Played with when Emma and Sean go after their Disappeared Dad, who vanished when they were kids shortly before their mother died and never showed up again. Sean expects him to be this and had been waiting for years to get back at him; part of his con rests on the idea that his dad (who doesn't recognise them, since they were only kids) will screw him out of a deal. He doesn't, and it never even occurred to him to do so, which leaves Sean shaken. It turned out that he didn't know his wife died and when he found out, he actually did try and find them, to no avail. They are still mad at him, especially since he started another family and didn't tell them what he had done, but they decide not to ruin his new life and only take from him the money they think they are owed in allowance, passing up a chance to rob him of more. He admits to them that he loves and is proud of them before they leave.
 * [[At the Opera Tonigh]: Partly invoked at the end of episode 4 of the first series when the team taunt the mark by hiring a [[Visual Pun|larger female opera singer to sin] outside the mark's place of business after they con him.
 * [[Back for the Final]: Stacie.
 * [[Batman Gambi]
 * Bavarian Fire Drill: A very common tactic used by the crew, also
 * [[Berserk Butto]: The team only ever take on bad people anyway, but if you do anything to hurt Albert, Eddie, or anyone they care about, they will destroy your life.
 * [[Big Stor]: Once an episode.
 * [[Black and Gray Moralit]: The marks are sleazebags, but usually on just the right side of the law; the hustlers are criminals whose cons involve making money off the marks, but rarely actually bringing the marks to justice or preventing them from going straight back to whatever they were doing before.
 * [[Book End]: The first and last episodes both feature a
 * Boxed Crook: Occasionally tried on the team; usually a very, very bad idea, especially if the cop that tries it does anything illegal or unethical in the process.
 * Break the Haught]: Any Police officer, Customs Official or [[MI 6 agent who believes they can catch or [[Boxed Crook|manipulat] Mickey and the gang.
 * Also, Victor Maher is Series 1.
 * Carlton Wood.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Monologues to camera or, sometimes, two of the characters having a conversation while everyone else is frozen.
 * Also, some Characters wink into the camera (seemingly at the audience) with some ironic smile at certain moments. AKA [[Aside Glanc]
 * In the final episode of Series eight, they didn't just break the wall, they took ruddy great sledgehammers to it and reduced it to rubble!
 * [[Brief Accent Imitatio]: Ash, [[Man of a Thousand Voice]
 * Brought Down to Normal: Mickey gets scammed when trying to buy a new phone over the Internet, and loses his mojo.
 * [[Butt Monke]: Eddie, especially in Season 6. They occasionally reward him well for putting up with them, but they constantly con him out of drinks and wreck his business. One wonders why he puts up with them.
 * Justified after the return of Mickey in series 5, as he and Ash are then the owners of Eddie's Bar.
 * [[The Cape]: The season 2 finale, "Eye of the Beholder" has the gang stealing the Crown Jewels
 * Caper Crew: (original crew) Mickey is the Mastermind, Stacey is the Distraction, Ash is the Hacker, the Gadget Guy, and the Safe Cracker, and the Driver. Danny is the New Kid. Albert and Stacey take turns acting as the Partner in Crime; everyone except Ash takes turns as the Conman.
 * [[The Casin]: "Big Daddy Calling"
 * Celebrity Paradox: One guy mentions the TV show [[Dr Kildar]. Another episode has Richard Chamberlain as a [[Special Gues].
 * Chained to a Bed
 * [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrom]: Billy vanishes without explanation between seasons 4 and 5.
 * Cold Cash: 'Liability' Finch keeps his stash hidden in the freezer.
 * [[Cold Readin]
 * [[Cool Old Gu]: Albert
 * Companion Show: [[The Real Hustl], which is somewhat stylistically inspired by Hustle: a show that tells viewers about real cons and how to avoid them. Making it a show easy to watch in its own right without watching Hustle.
 * It's really a companion show [[In Name Onl].
 * [[The Co]
 * [[The Con Within The Co]: In season 2,
 * Continuity Nod: Season 8 episode 2 is full of them, including Ash's speech about what great grifters they are, which is mostly a list of previous plotlines; also former recurring character Cyclops puts in his first appearance since season five, and at the end Mickey (jokingly) moots a con involving a fake Mondrian painting, which the original crew already did in season one (he even suggests they use the same forger again).
 * Crime-Time TV
 * [[Delayed Wir]: Final episode of the first series and again in the first episode of the fifth.
 * [[Directed by Cast Membe]: Adrian Lester directed an episode of the final series (which resulted in Mickey spending much of the episode locked in a car boot).
 * [[End of Series Awarenes]: Seemingly at the end of Series 2, and very much so at the end of the final series.
 * [[Enforced Method Actin]: Occasionally, an in-character version as the team mislead one of their own to get a better reaction; for example in the first episode, a realistic reaction to can only be guaranteed by Danny not being in the know.
 * [[Evil Gloatin]: Lucy Britford. [[Break the Haughty|It's not a good idea to gloat about how you're going to catch Mickey Brick].
 * Mos], right down to the nasal voice and [[Genius Ditz personality.
 * [[Fan Servic]: Every young or middle-aged woman on the show is always dressed up and wearing high heels, with very few exceptions.
 * [[Fake America]: One episode had what may be a triple subversion:
 * [[Fake Bri]: Parodied - one episode has Albert convinced he can do accents, much to the others' horror.
 * Five-Man Band, but in terms of specific con roles:
 * Danny: [[Con Ma] (slick). The youngest member of the group, with a crush on Stacie.
 * Mickey: [[Con Ma] ([[Hustle]). The leader of the bunch. Arguably a ([[Chessmaste])
 * Albert (played by Robert Vaughn): [[The Rope], and resident [[Cool Old Gu]
 * Stacie: The banker (played by Jaime Murray, who is also in [[Dexte]), occasionally required to [[Show Some Le]
 * Ash: The Fixe], occasionally providing [[Mission Control as well. He has a metal plate in his skull and frequently allows himself (off-screen) to get [[Flopsy|hit by car] so he can get the insurance money.
 * Reworked somewhat in seasons 4, 5 and 6. In 4, Mickey is away in Australia, selling the Sydney Opera House, and Danny takes over his position for the crew's time in the USA, with a young (and forgettable) con artist called Billy replacing hi]. In 5 and 6, Stacie and Danny (and the single-season Danny-clone from season 4) have been [[Put on a Bu], and replaced with the [[Brother-Sister Tea] of Sean and Emma. The roles remain basically the same, however, with Sean replacing Danny as the young, talented but inexperienced learner, and Emma as the sex appeal/love interest for Mickey. Actually, when Emma and Sean first join the gang she is actually stated to be the "young, talented but inexperienced learner" ("A natural," Albert describes her as, much as he had previously done for Danny) while her kid brother wasn't sure if he even wanted to be a grifter and was more or less the [[Tagalong Kid. It was later that they slid into their Chick and Team Protege roles, respectively.
 * [[Flag Bikin]: Seen in "And This Little Piggy Had Money" as part of a fantasy the mark has about what his life will be like when he accepts the high-paying job in California that Mickey's crew is offering him.
 * [[Gag Peni]: Ash "Three Socks" Morgan
 * [[Hanging Judg]: Mr Justice Kent, the mark in "Lest Ye Be Judged".
 * [[Honor Among Thieve]
 * [[Impersonating an Office]: Very common. Can get you free passage from Australia to the UK.
 * [[Janitor Impersonation Infiltratio]: In "Eye of the Beholder", Ash gets a job on the cleaning crew at the museum so he can scope the place out as part of the team's plan to steal the Crown Jewels.
 * Just Like Robin Hood: Occasionally, usually as a [[Pet the Do] to balance out the protagonists' criminal activities.
 * Karmic Thief: They only con those who deserve it.
 * [[Kick the Do]: Most marks get at least one moment.
 * Subverted (possibly doubly) in one episode: they're conning a woman who had her husband's dog put to sleep.
 * [[Landmark Sal]: The London Eye, the Hollywood Sign and the often mentioned Sydney Opera House con.
 * Laxative Prank: Often used to temporarily incapacitate someone for the purpose of a con.
 * [[Let's You and Him Figh]: The first episode of the fifth series sees  This is due to
 * [[Loveable Rogu]: All of the main characters. Pretty much the whole point of the show.
 * The Mark: Of course.
 * [[Meaningful Nam]: Mickey Stone is a meticulous planner, while Danny Blue prefers to fly by the sit of his pants.
 * Arguably Albert Stroller being the [[Cool Old Guy|old gu] (though he's not that old).
 * Might as Well Not Be in Prison At All: Any time Albert gets incarcerated.
 * Mile-High Club: Danny Blue is a member according to the episode "Gold Mine".
 * Mind Screw: The final minutes of the show's [[Grand Final]. May border on [[Gainax Endin].
 * [[Mock Millionair]: The con often involves one or more members of the crew pretending to be wealthy. Occasionally the mark turns out to be this as well.
 * [[Ms. Fanservic]: Stacie and her successor, Emma.
 * More so Emma; the woman very rarely has anything covering her legs from the thigh dow]. [[All Men Are Perverts|Not that that's a bad thing.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Throughout season six, Emma keeps referring to Lucy Britford as 'Lucy Bitchface'.
 * [[Names to Run Away From Really Fas]: 'Liability' Finch.

"DS Terri Hodges: Mickey Stone is unique. He doesn't think like we do. You can't second-guess him. He gives the impression that he's making it all up as he goes along. But everything is planned, precise. He puts together complicated and seemingly unrelated events, impossible to unravel, but all leading to the big con. The higher the stakes, the more he likes it. Just when you think you've got him, you haven't."
 * [[Nice to the Waite]: The marks never are.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the first episode of Series 6 the mark is a former banker whose bank was bailed out by the government and he is now retired on a huge pension (part of which the team try to relieve him of) which has outraged the tabloids and public at large. Just like former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin.
 * [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Din]:
 * [[Not Named in Opening Credit]: Guest actors aren't listed in the opening credits anyway, but there was no advance publicity for 's appearance in the final episode.
 * [[Obfuscating Disabilit]: The forger in "Picture Perfect".
 * Office Golf: The mark in "Gold Mine".
 * [[Parental Abandonmen]: Sean and Emma - their father walked out when they were little, then their mother died and they went into care.
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish: In a series 7 episode, where the password to the mark's computer is the name of his dog.
 * Perfectly Cromulent Word: Mickey and Emma have a long debate over whether Mickey's term 'stickability' is a real word.
 * Phoney Call: In "Father of the Jewels", Sean is with the mark when he calls Mickey and starts acting like he is talking to nursing home. Mickey is initially confused but quickly figures out that Sean is letting him know that they urgently need to set a nursing home for the next stage of the con.
 * [[The Pla]: Many, many episodes, but.

"Danny: Why did you make a back-up? - Beat - Ash: As a back-up."
 * parallel) but then . Another episode has them conning an Indian sweatshop owner, but.
 * They do con a Japanese businessman at the start of one episode, but it's not exactly made clear whether he's particularly bad or not. He certainly doesn't seem it, but then they get conned themselves by his son and his girlfriend. Is that karma or not?
 * His son and his girlfriend?.
 * At the beginning of series 6 they con a rich Arab.
 * So far in series 7 they've conned a woman of mixed race, an Iranian man, and a black man.
 * And in season 8 they con a black man again.
 * Power Walk
 * [[Put on a Bu]: Mickey in Season 4, Danny and Stacy in Season 5.
 * [[Rash Equilibriu]: The end of "Picture Perfect".
 * [[Reverse Mol]: While not directly done, the same concept is used in that a random character often turns out to be working with Mickey and the team.
 * [[Ripped from the Headline]: The mark in the first series 6 episode was a banker who had been bailed out and retired on a massive pension.
 * Benny, Ash's old friend in series 7, lost substantial amounts of money betting on England to win the 2010 World Cup.
 * [[Running Ga]: Eddie, the barman, is always falling for short cons from the crew and has never fully been paid for the drinks he's provided.
 * There's also a bit of one regarding Sean not being allowed alcohol, after he gets very drunk during their first score together, and calls Emma, "Sis" in front of [[The Mark|the mark].
 * Squib
 * Scary Black Ma]: Mickey, normally more of a [[Gentleman Thief, resorts to this to frighten a bank manager in the first episode of series six.
 * There was also the time Mickey beat a man to a bloody pulp with a baseball bat for sleeping with his wife. That was probably quite scary for the other guy.
 * [[Scoundrel Cod]: Often referred to as the 'Grifter's Code'.
 * Shaped Like Itself: After a forged wine bottle gets smashed, the grifters simply carry on the con with a second forged bottle, leading to the exchange:

"Emma: How would you like it if I drooled over you? (significant look from Mickey) Emma: Forget I asked that."
 * [[Sherlock Sca]: Part of the art of the cold read. Albert gives a detailed explanation of the process to Danny in "Gold Mine", and Ash explains it to Sean in "Lest Ye Be Judged".
 * [[Shout-Ou]: to a number of movies in the Hollywood episode.
 * [[Show Some Le]: Stacie does this often.
 * [[The Smurfette Principl]: Stacie and then her replacement, Emma.
 * [[Spanish Prisone]: Oddly, they've yet to do this one, though Danny mentions it in one episode.
 * Now done in the first episode of season seven.
 * [[Spit Tak]: Albert washes the coffee table with vodka when it's suggested sex is the way to get to the mark in Series 1 Episode 5 and having already met the woman involved he immediately assumes the team expects him to do the deed. Thankfully for him, they don't.
 * [[Spoiler Openin]: subverted in the final episode.
 * Staged Shootin]: Used to scare the mark into taking off and not coming back for his money (it's an old con trick, but something of a [[Fridge Logic moment now days, as even if the mark left the country they would undoubtedly look up on the internet to find out what the police were saying about the non-existent shooting). Subverted on one occasion when the mark got caught up in the emotions of the moment, drew his own firearm and fired a couple of real bullets into the 'victim' as well!
 * [[Star-Making Rol]: For Louise Mardenborough in season 7, with her [[Fake American|faux-American accen] (claiming to be from Minnesota)
 * [[The Stinge]: After the credits on the last episode, Eddie switches off the lights and exits the Bar through the back door
 * [[Stupid Crook]: 'Liability' Finch
 * Stylistic Suck: The eighties gameshow Ding Dong, That's My Song as hosted by Mark Williams' character in series 8 episode 5.
 * [[That Came Out Wron]: This exchange between Emma and Mickey:
 * [[That Came Out Wron]: This exchange between Emma and Mickey:

""Arse!!!""
 * Time Stands Still
 * [[Undercover As Lover]:
 * Sean and Emma give this vibe in their first episode. It's even commented on by some of the other characters. Eventually they get revealed as brother and sister.
 * [[Unspoken Plan Guarante]: At least [[Once an Episod]. Generally the only thing about the plan you can guarantee is that it isn't what it looks like.
 * Unsuspectingly Soused: In "New Recruits", Sean gets smashed when the mark spikes his orange juice with vodka.
 * [[Unwitting Paw]: Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding.
 * [[Unwitting Paw]: Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding.

"Albert: Nobody does it better. Ash: Makes me feel sad for the rest."
 * [[Upper Class Twi]: Alfie Baron in "The Road Less Travelled".
 * [[Violin Sca]
 * [[Viva Las Vega]: "big Daddy Calling"
 * Waxing Lyrical: After Mickey completely takes in a mark, the gang (who are listening in through his earpiece) quote the theme from [[The Spy Who Loved M] in appreciation.

"Eddie: Why don't you just pay your hotel bill like normal people? ... I can't believe I asked that."
 * [[We Would Have Told You Bu]: Used throughout, for a variety of reasons.
 * [[You Answered Your Own Questio]:

"Danny: ... I'll be using three of my favourite words. "Unsubstantiated", "Libelous" and "Court Case". Ash: "Court Case" is two words. Danny: Oh yeah? Well I used a bloody hyphen!"
 * [[You Fail Biology Foreve]: In one episode the gang has to prove Albert is the son of Queen Mother. To do that they switch a sample of her DNA for his. Not only does no one notice that the DNA is identical, they fail to notice it's the wrong sex.
 * You Make Me Sic: Played straight and semi-subverted by Ash and Danny in one episode.

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