Stacie Monroe

Stacie Monroe is a character in the British television series Hustle played by Jaime Murray. Until the introduction of Emma Kennedy in season five, Stacie is the only female member of a team-come-family of "long con" artists.

Background & personality

She was married to a short-con artist, Jake Henry (Max Beesley). Stacie became a grifter through him. They both worked together playing the short con 'The Badger' which involves Stacie playing the working girl who would pick up a mark, and then Jake would burst in as the irate pimp or boyfriend and threaten to tell the mark's wives. Stacie and Jake were married for several years but the marriage ended after he left her, taking their house and money, leaving her with nothing more than a mouldy piece of cheese, a Phil Collins CD and a plant (her ex appears as the subject of a con during the second series). It is suggested that she once had a romantic relationship with the group's leader, Michael Stone. Michael helped her after Jake left her. One first season episode also suggested a possible attraction to the newest member of the group, Danny Blue (this theme continued in the second season episode "Confessions" in which the two pretend to be engaged). The third episode of the third season reveals that she has a high level of mathematical ability, as she is shown calculating a high square root value in her head.

In creating the series, Tony Jordan realised that the principal characters could not have any friends or family outside the crew and therefore sought to create a nominal family with Stacie providing the role of substitute mother/wife. However, in the second series, the crew help Danny's grandmother, and in the third series they con a newspaper editor because he inadvertently caused a friend of Stacie's to attempt suicide by implying that she had embezzled money from the charity she worked for. She is sometimes demonstrated as the most compassionate member of the crew, twice leaving some of the money acquired in the latest con to people she had befriended during the con itself, and showing genuine relief when she learned that Eddie- the owner of the bar where the team regularly drink- was safe after they had been led to believe that he had been taken hostage as part of a revenge action against them (Although Eddie, unaware that he had ever been believed to be in danger, assumed that this was part of another con).

Position in the crew

Her official role is the banker and she has sole control and responsibility for the crew's finances. During the cons themselves, she usually takes on a variety of roles depending on need, ranging from a sultry vamp to a nerdy museum keeper, in order to help weave the web of deception. Her sex appeal is often brought into play as a distraction, though she is often hesitant to rely upon it.

Departure

In the first episode of the fifth series of Hustle, Mickey returned to the UK after losing the money he had made 'selling' the Sydney Opera House. He then returned to London and tried to get his old crew together, yet Albert was locked in prison and Ash had gone solo doing small cons and bets in bars. When Mickey rejoined Ash, he informed him that Danny and Stacie had decided to stay on in the states to pull off some more cons following their success in the fourth series.

Return

Stacie returned for the final episode of the 2012 series, which was also the final episode of the show. She became accidentally caught up in Micky's con whilst conning the same mark herself- working as the mark's broker while he was looking for investments with the intention of taking a few thousand from him when he made his deposit-, but joined forces with Micky's gang by enlisting the help of the also-returning Danny Blue to help pull the con off, recruiting Danny as a fake hitman to help the gang fake their deaths. Stacie then drove off with the other six members of the cast at the show's conclusion.

External links

• BBC - Hustle