Eddie is a recurring character throughout the BBC crime drama Hustle. He is portrayed by Rob Jarvis.
Background[]
Eddie is the owner and barman of Eddie's Bar where the group often plan cons. He is fully aware of the group and their dealings, and usually (but not always) adopts a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" attitude. Often a victim of the petty grifts played on him by the crew whenever they want to get out of paying their bar tab, make a point to someone or are just plain bored.
Despite this, Eddie has taken an active role as a bit player in some of their cons- such as posing as a member of a police team to arrest the gang when they were nearly caught out by a mark, or pretending to expose them to a crooked cop as part of a plan to con the cop in question-, and generally appears to be rather fond of them despite their minor schemes.
Throughout the Series[]
Despite such moments as the gang's incredulity at Eddie's sudden success when he appeared to 'inherit' Mickey's good luck after Mickey fell victim to a 'grifter's curse' in Conned Out of Luck, the team seems to be fond of him as well. When crooked property owner Veronica Powell bought out the nursing home that Eddie had moved his father into, the gang retaliated on his behalf by pulling a long con on Powell that cheated her out of £600 000 (This was the only con where the crew have deliberately chosen to reveal their true nature to the mark after the con has been a roaring success when the con didn't require it). Further reinforcing their attachment to Eddie, Stacie showed evident relief in a later episode when Eddie appeared unharmed after the group had been tricked into thinking that he was being held hostage as revenge against them (Although Eddie, unaware that he had ever been thought to be in danger, assumed it was part of another con).
In series 5, Eddie is working in a restaurant after he was forced to close his bar due to the credit crunch. Mickey, however asked Eddie to help with a con which in return he and Ash would provide him with the money to re-open and renovate the bar, so long as they could have a 50% share with Eddie. He agreed and Mickey and Ash invested £30,000 of Emma and Sean's money to re-open the bar.
In Series Seven, the group again demonstrated their affection for Eddie by deliberately complicating a con where they would attempt to perform the same scam on three separate targets to perform the same con on Wendy Stanton, the head of a modelling agency who had conned Eddie's niece Kasey out of her inheritance as part of a fake contract. They not only conned Stanton out of £100 000, but Ash also set up a situation that would allow Kasey to get a contract with an agency owned by Stanton's old business partner Betty Greenacre. In the last episode of the seventh season, Eddie's bar was burnt down by a mafia group looking for a man who'd stolen diamonds from them during a bank theft a decade ago, prompting Mickey to confront the mafia leader and ask for more time on the grounds that they had burned down the bar belonging to a good friend of his.
In the eighth season, Eddie began a relationship with Carol, another grifter who occasionally worked with the gang, when she suffered a heart attack while on the 'Eat Yourself Slender' plan, with the relationship apparently continuing even after Carol's recovery.