I wasn't expecting it, but it appears Hustle's fifth season is all wrapped up as of October, airing sometimes in 2009!

Some disappointment for the absence of both Mark Warren and Jamie Murray is tempered by the return of Adrian Lester, and I'm looking forward to guest-stars like Bill Bailey, another of those guys I'd like even if they just read the weather report...

BTW, the new Q.I. season is also starting, and Bill's NOT in it...
Luckily, neither is Jonathan Ross...

Now, that's a brilliant show which could certainly use some more "new blood"... I'm dreaming of a Cleese-Palin-Jones panel, but they would probably skin Stephen Fry alive...

Yup, it was indeed Bill Bailey I was talking about, as stated a bit earlier

And he used to be a regular on Q.I., he'd only missed one season so far, this'll be the second. What he's doing instead, I understand, is still touring with his "Tinselworm" live show, he's been at it for a whole year or nearly, and the recent Albert Hall performance was filmed, so there's bound to be a video out rather sooner than later, I guess.

Unfortunately (from a very selfish point of view ), Bill's very much more a live stage all-round performer than he's an "actor", I'd sure like to see him more often doing things like his priceless Manny in "Black Books", but I guess there's only 24 hours to the clock...

BTW, did you know that, apparently, Stephen Fry was not the first choice as quizmaster in Q.I.? Michael Palin was... well, that's Quite Interesting, methinks...

Getting back to the main topic, Hustle IS back, and it's GOOD!

I couldn't quite imagine how they would deal with the absence of TWO key members of the cast, and the choice was a bit "conservative" perhaps, in that we have two new characters playing basically the same roles, but it seems to work fine so far.

Well, with only one episode it's not very far yet, but I'm optimistic