TV Review/Shane Hegarty: Reviewed this week: Hustle BBC1, The Deputy BBC1, Terry Jones's Medieval Lives BBC2, Secret Sights RTÉ1
In Hustle, the central characters - assorted con artists brought together for a big score - regularly pause, look into the camera, pause again for a moment, and then break into a wide, conspiratorial grin. Isn't this a lark, they are saying. Isn't it just like Ocean's Eleven?
Writer Tony Jordan was also responsible for the enjoyable Spooks, which itself pilfered from 24. Hustle gives many nods towards such movies as Heat and The Grifters, but it head-butts Ocean's Eleven and strips it clean of its arch interpretation of the old-fashioned caper flick. Just as in that movie, its gang is comprised of a suave cocktail of good cons, pulling off a scam in the most convoluted way possible and enjoying nothing more than walking in tight formation to the sound of funky jazz as the city stretches above them. All that is missing at these moments is red and blue smoke streaming from their tails.
The thieves are led by the unfortunately named Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester), recently out of jail and looking for "one last score". Join the queue, Mickey. He is joined by Stacie Monroe (Jaime Murray), so striking that she only has to look at a man for the wallet to fall from his trousers.
Marc Warren plays the eager young gambler looking for a way into the big time and Robert Glenister plays a fixer, which, for those who don't know con jargon, means that he does all the bits that it would make no sense to get the other characters to do.
The final member of the gang is Albert Stroller, as played by Robert Vaughn. This would be an indulgent reference to 1960s retro, if it wasn't that he brings a certain colour to proceedings. He is a character with real character