Do the Hustle: drama indie Kudos's latest series is an off-the-wall comic drama about an elite gang of grifters on the make, produced by the winning team behind Spooks. Jon Creamer meets them.(In production Hustle)

Publication: Televisual

Publication Date: 01-NOV-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Centaur Publishing Ltd.

Kudos Film and TV's MI5 drama Spooks is a rare beast: a winner both critically and commercially, with the potential to keep returning season after season.

So when Kudos's joint md Jane Featherstone pitched Hustle to the BBC, a new series about a gang of high-rolling conmen, it would be fair to say her hand was very nearly bitten off. "Right from the first pitch onwards, it's all been very straightforward," she says.

Because any production company that manages to provide a channel with a drama hit like Spooks has the ear of any commissioning editor--especially when the project being pitched comes with the same producer, executive producer, director and a good-sized chunk of the original crew.

The speed of the whole process from idea to greenlight has been testimony to Kudos's current kudos. Because the seeds of the project were sown only early last year during the filming of the first Spooks series. Sharing their usual cab-ride back to Brixton after a day's filming, director Bharat Nalluri suggested the bare bones of a conman show idea to Featherstone.

By August last year, Featherstone had taken that idea to writer Tony Jordan, an Eastenders veteran and "one of the most talented and under-used writers in Britain," according to Featherstone. "I get an original idea credit on the show," says Nalluri, "but it was Tony Jordan...

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