Hustle originated from the team behind the spy drama Spooks; executive producer Bharat Nalluri conceived the idea in early 2002 while filming Spooks and pitched it to Kudos managing director Jane Featherstone in the back of a taxi.

Jane Featherstone recruited Tony Jordan, then lead scriptwriter of EastEnders, to develop the concept, and his early script drafts led the BBC to quickly commission a six-part first series.

Writer Tony Jordan drew inspiration from classic con-artist and heist stories like The A-Team, The Sting, The Grifters and Mission: Impossible, while producers cited Ocean's Eleven as an influence on the show's energetic style.

Robert Vaughn, the Oscar-nominated star of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., was cast as Albert Stroller after a lunch meeting and was asked to fly out and begin filming the very next day.

Adrian Lester was cast as lead Michael Stone while playing Henry V at the National Theatre, despite having less than two hours of prior television screen time.

Jaime Murray auditioned for Stacie Monroe wearing platform shoes to match the character's description of having very long legs, since she was only 5 ft 7in tall, and felt terrified acting alongside the more famous Vaughn and Lester.

The lead actors received professional training in sleight-of-hand and pickpocketing, learning tricks like card-shuffling and stealing watches to make their con-artist roles convincing.

During filming of a naked scene for Danny and Mickey running through Trafalgar Square, the crew believed the square was empty, but a tour bus full of phone cameras appeared just as filming began, embarrassing Adrian Lester.

For Ash Morgan's signature 'Flop' con involving stepping in front of moving cars, Robert Glenister used a stunt double for the car-impact shots but performed the rest of the stunt himself.

20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to Hustle in June 2006 and creator Tony Jordan wrote several script drafts, but the planned movie adaptation was never made.