Adrian Lester was absent from the fourth season due to scheduling conflicts. Mickey's absence is explained as pulling off the ultimate con - selling the Sydney Opera House. Lester also admitted that he felt that the series "just got a little bit too 'light'".
In response to the extremely positive reaction, the BBC recommissioned the show for a second series on 17 March 2004, after just three episodes had aired. The second series retained much of the initial production team including Tony Jordan as lead scriptwriter, and introduced Karen Willson as producer.
Throughout his appearances, Danny Blue is referred to 'the kid' who will take over from Mickey as leader in due course. However, Marc Warren is in fact older than Adrian Lester, who play Danny and Mickey respectively.
Although having numerous credits in film and on the stage, Adrian Lester was an unknown face in television, having had less than two hours' broadcast screen time prior to the first series. Lester explained that he "couldn't imagine playing the same character for years, but Hustle was completely different. In the very first rehearsal we were doing a dance routine and then the next thing I know I'm whacking out several different accents and I just thought, 'I'm in heaven, this is great!'"
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
