Solovision - Robert Vaughn

There's a scene in the new BBC1 drama Hustle where the action stops and the characters turn to address the audience directly. They engage in a bit of banter about the nature of a confidence trick before normal service resumes.

It's a slick little moment that's preceded by various nods and winks to camera from the main protagonists, a group of grifters on the make. These direct engagements with viewers at home are tough to get away with, and can be done only when a drama is quite unashamedly not taking itself too seriously. Thus we have just one of the many essences of Cool TV.

Cool TV dramas are the high-living relatives in the television family, the wastrels who are gossiped about and sniffed at by the older and more staid members of the family. They're the naughty boys and girls who live on the edge and never face the consequences. They can get away with anything, and dammit, they look good.

At its best, Cool TV makes you want to leap up from your armchair and shout, "Yes! I want to live like that! I want to wear sunglasses to work and walk down corridors in slow motion!" Frequently, Cool TV becomes iconic: The Avengers, The Prisoner, Twin Peaks. All nonsense, but with a sleek look (who didn't want to own a black jacket with white piping, just like Patrick McGoohan's?) that invited you in simply to have a good time, like the charming host of a fabulous party.

The nature of cool has changed during the past few years, though. Yes, it can still be glossy, action-packed and aspirational (Spooks) but it can also simply be a great story that never lets its audience pause for breath (Paul Abbott's State of Play).

Gareth Neame, the BBC's head of independent drama commissioning, the Mr Cool who brought us Spooks, State of Play and now Hustle, knows what makes the thermometer drop. "I've simply followed my love of American TV series," he says. "They always have fantastic production values. Too many of our series are traditionally too gritty and dark. Too many of our dramas don't look fun enough; they don't look entertaining."

Hustle is diaphanous, glossy fun that neither stands up to, nor expects, close scrutiny. It's shiny and fast, populated by shrink-wrapped characters who leap at us, fully formed, in the first minute of the first episode. It comes from an unlikely source: Tony Jordan, the writer responsible for some of Eastenders' finest moments. It follows a gang of conmen (and one decorative conwoman) as they pick their "marks" and rip them off. The cast is a lively mix of quirky, good-looking actors, presided over by one of TV's all-time coolest men: the Man from UNCLE himself, Robert Vaughn.

Hustle is an escapist fantasy that just about manages to shrug off the niggling doubt that it's all a bit amoral. At its best, Cool TV can manage that quite easily. (See Seinfeld, whose characters were the biggest bunch of self-seekers ever to walk the earth.)

"We talked about this, but I don't think any of us felt it was the case," says Neame. "It's pure entertainment. We're not saying, 'Go out and be conmen.' The Hustle team are more likely to con people who are corrupt themselves."

Cool TV can make the most unexpected worlds appealing. Journalism and even politics looked sassy in State of Play. "Inevitably with a writer like Paul Abbott, State of Play had a more contemporary, cooler take on the political thriller," says Neame. Casting, too, is crucial. "Casting is such a chemical thing, but we're never led by it. We don't cast shows until we agree we're going to make them."

It's that elusive chemical element that can make the best cool TV shows gel: Queer as Folk, The Sopranos and This Life all sparkled with unknown casts that, without the baggage brought to any project by big names, made everything work perfectly.

Robert Glenister on...
His character "Ash Morgan is the laid-back one, the scruffy one in the bunch. He's the fixer who'll rent an office or a hotel room, and he's also the gang's computer expert. Ash is composed, enigmatic and a bit nomadic. For him, the gang of five are like family."
Cool TV "My father was a TV director, so the TV that made the biggest impression on me was costume drama he worked on, like The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Casanova."
Icons "Hustle reminds me of the best of American 1970's TV like Starsky and Hutch, Columbo and The Rockford Files."
Real life "Being a parent is my biggest achievement. You can never succeed at it, you just fail honourably, which is cool."
Cooldentials Numerous TV roles, from Between the Sheets to Prime Suspects.

Jaime Murray on...
Her character "Stacie Monroe is on the ball, organised and never gets ruffled. She's an actor: she knows instantly what's required, and can produce it--improvising, changing her demeanour, speaking in an accent."
Cool TV "Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch--when women were women and not afraid of being glamorous."
Icons "The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Ally McBeal--stuff with fantasy elements and heightened reality, like Hustle."
Real life "I'm named after Jaime Sommers, the character from the funky 1970's series The Bionic Woman played by Lindsay Wagner.
"I don't consider myself cool. I'm the kind of person who gets excited and enthusiastic and I gush. I'd love to be trendy, but I only work out what's in fashion when it's out of fashion."
Cooldentials A 24-year-old newcomer, she's guested on The Bill and Casualty. Her father is Billy Murray (DS Beech in The Bill).

Robert Vaughn on...
His character "Albert Stroller is what Napoleon Solo could have been in later years--he's collected his pension and taken his expertise over to the other side, although it is a point of honour among these people never to do scam jobs on people who can't afford it."
Cool TV "I love The Office, but I hardly watch TV--I'd rather read a book."
Icons "Hustle is definitely going back to the likes of To Catch a Thief, the Cary Grant picture. But it's all speeded up for modern audiences."
Real life "I loved working in London again--I worked there originally 30 years ago doing a series called The Protectors. There aren't many things you'd completely change five months of your life for, but this was a superior script."
Cooldentials The Man from UNCLE; Superman III; appeared in The A-Team.

Adrian Lester on...
His character "Michael Stone leads the gang. He's always very sharp--he can spot the people on the street and second-guess what they're thinking before they know it themselves. Their targets are fat cats who would break the law themselves to make money."
Cool TV "The Man from UNCLE."
Icons "James Coburn in Our Man Flint: the scene where he's lying with his head and feet on two chairs with nothing supporting his body. He stands up and stretches--he's already wearing a suit--and walks out of the room. Not that Hustle gets that silly."
Real life "While I was filming Hustle I was also playing Henry V every night at the National Theatre--but give me a chance to hit a couple of bad guys and I'm happy. I've been studying Tae Kwon Do for seven years. I'm going for my black belt later this year."
Cooldentials Major role in the feature film Primary Colors.

Marc Warren on...
His character "Danny Blue is a likeable rogue, the sort of con artist who works on the street doing Find the Queen card tricks. He wants to go up in the world, and he joins the gang to learn the art of the long con, but he doesn't fit in well."
Cool TV "The Sopranos."
Icons "Steve McQueen. I kept asking Robert Vaughn about being in The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt with McQueen."
Real life "Anybody who knows me has seen my sleight of hand and mind-reading tricks. Doing it properly takes high levels of concentration. The moment people see it and just can't work it out--that's wonderful. But then people want to know how you did it and you're never going to tell them, so that gets wearing."
Cooldentials Made a big impression as a cop with kinky tastes in The Vice. Starring roles in State of Play and an episode of Band of Brothers.

Cool or What? Programmes that give you instant cred -- Radio Times magazine 21-27 February 2004

Hustle's gang of good-looking grifters are slick enough to qualify officially as Cool TV, says RT's TV editor Alison Graham. Main photography by Trevor Ray Hart. Actor interviews by Geoff Ellis.