You often hear it said that they don’t make television like they used to. Well, no, they don’t – and nor should they. But every so often there’s a show that rests on the shoulders of older giants. Hustle is a very old-fashioned show – card tricks, smoky bars, beautiful women draped in jewellery. Apart from it all looking very HD pretty, it feels like it’s come straight from 1974. It’s also enormous fun.

As you might expect from a show that feels and sounds like it’s come from the seventies, the plot is paper-thin and fairly easy to follow, for all its supposed twists and turns. But that’s not the point: since we all know the good guys will (probably) win out in the end, it’s not about the game, but about how you play it and having a scene where this week’s villain is reduced to spluttering in disbelief, gasping “but how… how?”.

In the latest episode, there’s even a ‘twist’ regarding the loyalty of one of the players, but the show has the good sense to know that the audience will have worked out that he’s not really a traitor after all – so much so, that when it’s revealed that he’s actually on the good side, the revelation is almost thrown away as an afterthought: it’s not really important to the glitter and shine of the game.

As befits a programme that could genuinely be called ‘That Seventies Show’, the presence of 78-year-old Robert Vaughn (The Protectors, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) adds to a great deal of the fun, while Adrian Lester gives a lot of class, although one can’t shake off the feeling that he’s somewhat slumming it between RSC jobs. However, the show still misses the presence of Jaime Murray as the sole female con, having been been replaced in recent years by Holby City’s Kelly Adams as Emma Kennedy, who appears to be no match (although, admittedly, that could just be because this reviewer prefers wittily caustic brunettes to perkily bored blondes).

All in all, Hustle remains undemanding, glossy, sharply-edited entertainment. At least, the audience will never feel cheated.

Airs at 9pm on Friday 21st January 2011 on BBC One.