The Hustle gang are back in business, ready to take each and every cheat, liar and criminal for all they’ve got, as the drama returns to BBC One for a sixth series.

> Buy the Series 1-6 boxset on Amazon.

Albert is played by Robert Vaughn, Ash by Robert Glenister, Mickey by Adrian Lester, Sean Kennedy by Matt Di Angelo and Emma by Kelly Adams.

 

Episode 1
Monday 4th January 2010

From MPs’ expenses to fat-cat bankers, there are plenty of marks for the team to target. Brother-and-sister duo Sean and Emma are working out well as new members of the crew and, as much as Mickey hates to admit it, Albert was right about them – they are proving to be real assets to the team, especially as Emma bears a striking resemblance to a certain Antipodean songstress.

As the team wraps up an ingenious con featuring Emma as pop princess Kylie Minogue, Albert is busy priming the next unsuspecting mark: former banker Piggy Richardson, who has been hounded by the press after a public pension scandal. When Albert introduces himself as a headhunter for the Western Bank of California and paints a very pleasant picture of what life could be like away from the glare of the media, Piggy is keen to meet Mickey, who is posing as a currency specialist with a PhD in Economics.

However, just as the plan starts to fall into place, a mysterious woman enquires about Mickey’s whereabouts and throws everything into disarray. Mickey has no idea who she is or what she wants but, when she invites him out for dinner, he’s intrigued – that is, until she turns out to be DCI Lucy Britford. With a 95 per cent conviction rate and a good idea of what the crew is up to, Britford believes that catching Mickey would be the “ultimate scalp” and a great stepping-stone in her career. Emma is the only one who seems worried – although it’s possible her concern may be tinged with jealousy…

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Mickey is certain that he can outsmart Britford – after all, no one’s managed to catch him yet. With the agreement of the team, he decides to plough on with the con. His confidence has so far served them well but this time his arrogance could prove their undoing.

 

Episode 2
Monday 11th January 2010

Albert has decided it’s time for a break so he’s off to Sin City to try his luck at the casinos, leaving the crew to fend for themselves in his absence. At the airport, seeing Albert off, the team is greeted by a familiar face, “Liability” Finch, a bumbling, ex-grifter mate of Ash’s from back in the day.

Finch seems to be in a spot of bother with a certain Head of Customs, Clifford Davis, who rightly believes that Finch is behind the theft of a valuable “Van Gogh”. Unfortunately for Finch, when he stole it, things didn’t quite go to plan and the painting is now stuck in a locker in a Brazilian airport. To make matters worse, the Russian art collector who paid Finch to steal the painting has threatened to break his legs if he doesn’t deliver the Van Gogh in the next few days. Finch needs the team’s help, but Mickey refuses. He’s called “Liability” Finch for a reason – he may be a great friend, but he’s a hapless thief.

Davis is soon on the crew’s case and tells them how he plans to recover the stolen masterpiece and charge Finch in the process. He also demands that Mickey and his team help set up Finch or he’ll take them down as well. Davis has Mickey backed into a corner, threatening the most vulnerable members of the team, Sean and Emma, but Mickey doesn’t want to back down.

Mickey tells the team they need to lie low for a while and keep out of trouble, while it all blows over, but Sean ignores the boss and tries to help Finch – landing himself in hot water as well. Mickey is faced with a tough choice: help Davis take Finch down or let Sean go to jail. Will Mickey grass up a fellow grifter to save Sean’s bacon?

 

Episode 3
Monday 18th January 2010

Albert is in Chinatown to close a deal with Phil and his brother-in-law, Czech Charlie. Charlie is a notorious hard-man and not one to consider conning, so when Phil collapses and dies, Albert decides to cut his losses and leave the con. But Charlie isn’t pulling out – he wants the cash by the end of the week or else. Can the team con their way to half a million pounds to save Albert’s bacon?

First they need a mark, and quickly. Fortunately, Sean has found Luke Baincross; a wannabe playboy with a huge country mansion. Baincross Hall houses an Indian art collection, including a life-sized gold tiger worth £10m. Luke was planning to sell it to finance his third divorce, but the estate’s trust has forbidden it. Emma is sent in to capture his attention with the hope they can steal the tiger, have Luke fake an insurance claim and pay the team a fee of half a million.

They convince Luke to lend it to a major museum to make it easier to steal and more convincing to the insurer. He loves the idea – it makes him money, gets him great publicity and he gets one over on the infuriating museum curator.

The gang set to work on a recce of the museum – escorted by the curator, Ms Baboor. She assures them that the museum’s vault is the most secure 200 square feet in London. The team is left with the challenge of making sure that the tiger ends up in the gallery and not the impenetrable vault, but with Mickey having no plan B, the gang may be skating on thin ice…

 

Episode 4
Monday 25th January 2010

The gang are just about to close a deal worth £50K – that is, until Sean is distracted by someone with whom he has a score to settle. Sean lets the mark walk off with the money while he pursues this man, who Emma is shocked to discover is none other than Rex Kennedy – Sean and Emma’s dad, who walked out on them 25 years ago. Sean is determined to get even and wants to con his dad to get the money he owes in back-dated child support. The gang are dubious but Sean is adamant he wants to go through with it, so they reluctantly agree.

Rex is a property developer so Sean decides to run a version of the “treasure map” con. Mickey poses as a surveyor interested in buying Rex’s land and, while visiting the site, they spot Sean, a treasure hunter with a metal detector who finds, and then hides, a jewel-encrusted bracelet in the mud. When Rex spots this he later visits the site to take it for himself.

Sean tracks down Rex and spins him a yarn about a group of aristocrats in the war who used his Uncle Lonnie to smuggle valuables to America. Unfortunately the plane was shot down and the jewels were buried with it and he thinks that Rex’s land is where “X marks the spot”.

Sean and Rex go to a retirement home to visit Albert – posing as Lonnie – in order to find out clues as to where the treasure could be buried. Sean is shocked that Rex is honest and decides that he wants out. But Rex is having none of it – he won’t let Sean walk away when the treasure is worth millions. With no plan B in place, Sean is out of his depth. Will he and Emma get to even the score with their father and find the answers they have been looking for?

 

Episode 5
Monday 1st February 2010

The gang is left in shock when the unthinkable happens and Mickey is conned; someone has ripped him off by selling him a useless mobile phone online. And, according to the age-old laws of Grifting, when a Grifter is conned, he is guaranteed a run of bad luck. What will the gang do if Mickey has lost his mojo?

They head to Eddie’s to drown their sorrows, only to find it heaving with customers. It seems that Lady Luck has switched her allegiance and the gang needs to do something to restore the balance.

The team sets about researching the company that conned Mickey, leading them to Mervyn Lloyd, an outrageously cocky and slimy businessman, who’d sell his own grandmother to make a fast buck. Mervyn sells the latest mod cons through the internet but, unlike more reputable retailers, he doesn’t actually worry whether they work or not. Mervyn dreams of working with famous entrepreneurs such as “Dragons” Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne, but has none of their integrity or morals.

The gang sets about working out a plan to reel in Mervyn. Due to Mickey’s rotten luck he has to sit this one out and someone else needs to run the con. The baton passes to Ash. All they need to do is convince Mervyn that Albert is on the verge of creating the next big thing, but what? The team needs to hatch a foolproof plan to snare Mervyn and get Mickey’s mojo back; otherwise it looks like his bad luck is here to stay…

 

Episode 6
Monday 8th February 2010

The gang is just about to close another successful deal in the final episode of the series, but a cruel twist of fate reveals one of the marks to be an undercover police officer. It seems the team might be in a spot of bother.

Mickey and the team are arrested and unceremoniously thrown into prison. Things seem to have gone from bad to worse when Nigel Chambers and Jennifer Hughes from MI6 arrive to question Mickey. The pair have a proposition for him and, unfortunately for Mickey, these two don’t play by the book.

Jennifer has an ulterior motive – she is friends with DCI Lucy Britford who was conned by the team and has a score to settle. MI6 is willing to offer the team a pardon if they will do a little job in return. The target is the National Bank of Syria and the heist is the unknown contents of a security box. The reward for the team is their freedom plus as much cash as they can carry from the vault.

With no choice but to agree, Ash sets about trying to find a way into the vault. However, the bank has as much security as Fort Knox, which means that Sean and Emma are going to need to find a way in on the inside as well. The team needs to go the extra mile to pull it off and it seems that even Mickey can’t charm his way out of this one.