List of Hustle characters
Hustle is a British television comedy–drama series made by Kudos Film & Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom.
Michael Stone
Michael Stone, who uses the alias Mickey Bricks, was the show's principal character from Series 1 to 3 and 5 to 8.Mickey is a professional grifter who makes money by setting up long cons. He is intelligent, charismatic and quick-witted. Although he works with Albert Stroller, who is one of his mentors, Mickey is the leader of his "crew" of grifters. Mickey did not return in the fourth series, instead he led a con off-screen in Australia. He later, however, returned in the fifth.
Background
Mickey has a strong dislike of being told what to do or having a job. These feelings appear to stem from his childhood. In series one, he revealed that his father was an ordinary, law-abiding citizen whose only dream was to retire when he was 60, until he dropped dead of natural causes three days before his 60th birthday. Having watched his father play by the rules all his life and being destroyed, he has a strong hatred of people who simply use the system to make themselves rich at the expense of others. Mickey therefore always selects marks whom he has reason to dislike; by making his motive personal, he stops himself from ever making the con about the money. The gang states that their first rule is, "You can't cheat an honest man," not simply because they should not, but since those being conned are greedy and dishonest, they are less likely to over-analyse anything that would make them rich. In that sense, Mickey is not hypocritical because he does not steal from "old ladies"; all his marks are either blatantly dishonest or simply coldly dismissive of others – he stole a man's credit card after hearing him attempt to convince his staff to only pay Eastern Europeans £2.50 an hour. On at least two occasions he has also masterminded cons where innocent people gain more than the gang themselves. At the same time, however, Mickey has no qualms with staying in hotels without paying or doing anything about his bar tab.Career
Most people consider Mickey to be one of the finest grifters alive. He has never been charged with grifting. He has three weaknesses – loyalty, his extraordinary ego, and his hatred of being told what to do by anyone. He is a unique con artist because he does not think like a normal person; it is impossible to second-guess him. He gives the impression of being spontaneous, but everything is planned and precise. He puts together complicated and seemingly unrelated events, impossible to unravel, but all related to the big con. He greatly enjoys high stakes. He has attempted several grifts – such as trying to con an amnesic who saw through their first con before he lost his memory by 're-doing' the original scam, or using the same con on four different marks at once – simply because people say that it is impossible. He often removes things from people's pockets and on one occasion drives off in a gentleman's car after convincing him he is a valet, but he frequently insists he is "not a thief". His cons often reflect this, as on several occasions he makes it appear as if a theft has taken place when the "stolen" objects are simply hidden or moved.Personal life
In addition to his crew, Mickey is also friends with various other grifters. However, he does not seem to have any non-grifter friends, although he was married once. He has previously stated that as a grifter you should never have "anything in your life that you can't walk away from in a second". His marriage ended after his wife had an affair. Mickey beat up the man responsible and was sent to prison for three years, returning to the streets in the first episode.Several episodes have suggested a past relationship with fellow team member Stacie Monroe. In the episode, "A Touch of Class", Mickey breaks one of his cardinal rules by having an affair with the target of a con, which resulted in the con going awry and the wrong victim being hit when the original mark tricks them into going after an innocent man.
Later on, Mickey appears to be rather taken with newcomer, Emma Kennedy, flirting with her on occasion. However, after Sean Kennedy, Emma's brother shows hostility toward Mickey concerning his intentions towards his sister, Mickey reviews their relationship. Mickey and Emma decide that continuing would only cause problems, so they end it. Despite this, references to the feelings they had or still have are made until the very end of the series.
Departure
In Series 4, Mickey had left to take part in a con in Australia to sell the Sydney Opera House. Danny Blue took over as leader, with Billy Bond filling the resulting gap. Mickey appeared to call Danny at the end of the Series Four Finale, but the audience never saw Mickey; they heard Danny say "Sorry, bit busy, can I call you back?" and then hang up.Return
The con in Australia succeeds but Mickey loses the money while attempting to escape the police. After stealing the uniform of a Naval Commander, Mickey returns to the UK where he discovers his team has split up and has gone their separate ways. He then manages to bring the remaining members of the team – Ash Morgan and Albert Stroller, although Albert briefly served as an occasional advisor while in prison – back together, aided by new members Emma and Sean, to help him start a new string of cons within the city of London. At the show's conclusion, he retires after faking his death to escape with his share of almost 10 million pounds his last mark was tricked into investing on the London Stock Exchange.Ashley Morgan
Ashley Morgan, known simply as Ash to his own crew, and "Three Socks" Morgan to the wider grifting circle, is a seasoned grifter, and the team's "fixer". He got the nickname while serving an 18-month prison sentence when a short-con known as 'The Flop' he pulled on an insurance broker went wrong. While in prison, he would 'go into the shower with 3 socks', suggesting he is a well endowed man. Ash is prone to talk about the working man and people making an honest living.As a "fixer", it is Ash's role to ensure to get anything the team needs to carry out a con. He possesses considerable technical expertise and can hack into CCTV, security systems, phone lines and computer servers. He is also tasked with building websites to convince marks of the legitimacy of any fake business and will fabricate any props and small electronic gadgets, such as bugs and phone taps. His failures are few and cause his friends some surprises when they occur. He also has many contacts for more general items, from fake IDs and forged items to cars and hotel rooms. In Series 4, the gang needed £30,000 worth of roubles to con a caviar shop owner. The mark was having trouble getting that amount anywhere, whereas Ash felt insulted that Danny even asked if he could locate them at short notice.
As well as being the fixer, Ash is an excellent grifter in general, able to play the part of various characters easily. Despite being mild-mannered, he also acts as the team's "heavy", intimidating others with considerable menace. It has been hinted in several episodes that Ash was "tasty" in his younger days, and often the threat of him becoming violent is enough to defuse situations where the team need protection.
It was revealed in one episode that Ash was one of two candidates for Mickey's Fixer, the other being a notorious grifter called Benny. However, although Benny was the more skilled grifter, capable of playing other roles such as the roper, Mickey chose Ash because he was a better team player who would keep his word.
Although his age gives the impression that he is the second-most-experienced team member, Ash has stated more than once that he is not interested in leadership, recognising his niche and remaining within that area even when the group votes for a new leader during Mickey's absence. In the absence of a leader, Ash ends up running short cons rather than assembling a team of his own. Even when he was temporarily put in charge, he tended to subtly rely on Mickey for inspiration rather than exclusively coming up with his own idea.
He often falls back on using a skull fracture he obtained in a bar room brawl many years ago to play a con known as "The Flop". He steps out in front of careless drivers, gets hit and acts badly injured, wearing a padded coat to avoid real damage. A hospital x-ray then shows the fracture and the driver's insurance pays out. His ex-wife June also used to perform the con, but eventually suffered brain damage from the impacts. Ash gives a lot of his earnings to funding her treatment. When the gang heard about this, they decided to all contribute to her medical expenses. He gives his date of birth as 21 July 1960, and in the final episode states that he has known Mickey for around 20 years. He is the only character to appear in every episode.
Albert Stroller
Played by Robert Vaughn.Albert is an elderly American who acts as the group roper; his role is to identify targets and lead them to the inside man. His distinctive style exudes the kind of dignified professionalism that wealthy, unsuspecting marks trust implicitly, making him the ideal man to rope them in for the serious score. As a result, he is a member of numerous establishments where the very wealthy can be found – private gentlemen's clubs, casinos, top hotels and restaurants are regular haunts for Albert and his targets. He is friends with many wealthy people under numerous aliases. Albert was Mickey's mentor for long cons; his lessons encouraged Mickey to develop his eye for detail.
He is a master of cold reading – a technique often used by mentalists, fortune tellers, psychics, and mediums to determine details about another person to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they do. Even without prior knowledge, a practised cold reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by carefully analyzing body language, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, and manner of speech. This ability helps Albert get close to his marks quickly.
Although born in America, he was stationed in North London during World War II, where he fell madly in love with a local girl, Lily Cooper. A few weeks later, he had to evacuate the base and didn't have the time to get word to Lily. He wrote her a letter and posted it as soon as he could, but received no reply. After the war, he came back to London to look for her, only to see her at the church as she was getting married.
He fled from the United States in the 1970s. Originally, he was a shoe salesman in the Midwest until the workforce was laid off. To secure a decent redundancy package, Albert conned the company out of $60,000 and shared it among his former co-workers. He reputedly enjoyed the experience so much that he became a grifter and moved to Las Vegas to work the marks there by day, and the casinos at night. However, soon all the casinos became wise to the grifters and banned them from even entering their premises. Albert left for the UK shortly afterwards. One of his partners-in-crime in Las Vegas was Joey Pepper, and together they would work the Shoe-switch scam. However, Joey was once caught doing the switch and was almost killed by the Casino security.
At one point, he fell in love with a woman called Susan, to the extent that they were planning to get a house together, but Susan left after Albert lost the money they had raised in a card game. When Susan reappeared years later, she revealed that she had discovered that she was pregnant with Albert's child shortly after leaving him, but never returned because she didn't think that Albert's lifestyle was suitable for a child, and she did not want Albert to change for her sake. Albert was reunited with Susan and their daughter Kathleen at the end of the seventh series – where he also learned that he had grandchildren – but he missed a chance to say goodbye when he got caught up in a poker game to celebrate the gang's latest victory.
He was "out-grifted" once by Victor Maher, before joining with Mickey Bricks and the rest of the crew. However, he had spoken about Maher to Mickey before Maher turns up in Series 1 Episode 4 trying to out-grift Mickey.
He cannot go to Indonesia as he sold the air force some fighter jets in the '70s, and they still haven't arrived.
Stroller is a habitual gambler; he is also a habitual card cheat. These two habits combined have proven to be a weakness. During the first series, he was hospitalized after receiving a severe beating after being caught cheating by a casino owner. During the second series, he briefly dealt with a bout of depression after the death of a close friend caused him to question his own lifestyle. In the fifth series premiere, it was revealed that Albert was serving two years in prison for cheating in a casino, but he stated that he was enjoying the rest, and set Mickey and Ash up with new team members Emma and Sean Kennedy, subsequently being released several months early on parole for good behaviour after the team manipulated a judge into thinking Albert knew the location of a lost treasure, while Albert himself conned an unsympathetic member of the parole board into releasing him.
His birthdate is 3 June 1933, however, this may not be true as previously mentioned he was stationed in London during WW2 which would make him 12 years old in 1945.