Simon Crawford Collins Movies
- 2004
In the tradition of the classic movie The Sting and the '60s television show The Rogues, the lighthearted British adventure series Hustle was about a gang of London con artists who only ripped off the rich, the nasty, and the greedy -- in other words, people who deserved being conned, and who could afford to lose the cash. Masterminding the gang was "Mickey Bricks" Stone (Adrian Lester), a veteran of 49 successful scams who had ironically done jail time on unrelated charges. The father-figure of the bunch was Alfred Stroller (Robert Vaughn), a slick and stylish "roper" who located likely suckers. Ash Morgan (Robert Glenister) was the "detail man" of the outfit, a positive wizard with technical devices and indispensable in meticulously researching each assignment; hot-headed young amateur Danny Blue (Marc Warren) was Mickey's protégé and verbal sparring partner; and Stacie Monroe (Jaime Murray) provided the feminine interest. Created by Tony Jordan, the series was distinguished by two trademarks -- the constant breaking down of the "fourth wall" as the characters directly addressed the camera to explain potentially confusing plot points; and the inevitable third-act twist, in which the con job at hand was imperiled by unforeseen circumstances. First telecast by the BBC on February 24, 2004, Hustle made its American bow on January 14, 2006, by way of cable's American Movie Classics, which partially bankrolled the series' third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Premiering May 13, 2002, on BBC1, the British espionage-adventure series Spooks pitted undercover agents of the country's MI-5 squad (the U.K. equivalent of the NSA) against international troublemakers and terrorists. Though extremely violent and almost unbearably tense, the series scored its biggest points by dramatizing the pressures brought to bear against "average" people engaged in a top-secret profession: For example, one of the many plot threads involved the love life of Senior Case Officer Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen), whose girlfriend was convinced that Tom was merely a lower-level computer tech. Other members of the "Spooks" team included Quinn's second-in-command, Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes), technical genius Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo), reckless Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter), and department head Harry Pierce (Peter Firth). During the series' first season on the air, Spooks made headlines throughout the British Isles by virtue of its explosive second episode, in which a popular soap opera actor, misleadingly advertised as one of the series' "stars," was abruptly and nastily killed off; thereafter, audiences could never take anything that happened on the series for granted -- and the viewership soared. Spooks debuted over the American A&E cable network under the title MI-5 on July 22, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, (more)
