Before joining the Hustle gang Matt Di Angelo was best known as EastEnders’ gormless Deano Wicks. After leaving Albert Square he competed in Strictly Come Dancing, and first appeared as young conman Sean Kennedy, alongside Kelly Adams as his sister Emma, in Hustle during 2009.

What do you like about being in Hustle?
Just working. There’s not a lot of work out there. A lot of my friends haven’t worked for ages and they do jobs that they don’t want to do like working in supermarkets or nightclubs. So it’s just nice to have work every year. Then I can go and get paid £250 a week to do a play and not have to worry about paying the bills.

And it’s really nice to do some continuing work which isn’t a soap because that is seven days a week and a bit draining.

Hustle is now filmed in Birmingham. How do you feel about the city?
I don’t see any of Birmingham. I see Selfridges, Nandos, HMV and that’s it. Rob Jarvis, who plays Eddie, he was kind of like, ‘What do you want to go up there for? There’s no electricity.’ And that’s how I saw Birmingham. I saw it as some ancient old horrible place. It’s not London. But it’s so nice.

You played Deano Wicks in EastEnders. Do you see yourself going back into a soap?
I wouldn’t say I never want to go back but I feel like I’m good for now. I like the drama of Hustle, the six episodes, less quantity and well-written and smaller amounts. Also, I want to do more theatre because I haven’t done much.

Sean’s learning from the gang in Hustle. Do you feel the same as an actor with some of the more experienced Hustle cast like Robert Vaughn, Adrian Lester, and Robert Glenister?
Exactly. It’s like a crash course in acting sitting around them sometimes. I’ve been quite lucky in what I’ve done. I haven’t done masses of work but I always get paired with a really impressive actor. I did a kids’ TV show with Christopher Lloyd – he was the doctor from Back To The Future. Then people like Pam St Clement and Phil Daniels in EastEnders. And then Hustle with Adrian Lester, Robert Glenister and Robert Vaughn.

Robert Vaughn is stupidly famous. He tells anecdotes with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. I threw in Chris from Big Brother once! Robert will quite happily sit there and talk, and Kelly Adams and I just bug him with questions, to the point where he just gave us two autobiographies!

Do you still get recognised as Deano from EastEnders?
I can finally say this, Deano’s very much dead. Occasionally you get just the word, ‘EastEnders!’

A girl came up to me the other day while I was having a drink at the bar and said, ‘You’ve put on a lot of weight!’ I said, ‘Sorry?’ And she said, ‘You’ve put on a lot of weight haven’t you?’ So I replied, ‘Actually, I’ve lost some weight but you’ve found it haven’t you?’ She didn’t like that and got the right hump. People think they can come up to you and pull up a little love handle or something – it’s crazy.

Are you still in contact with anyone from EastEnders?
You change jobs and you lose contact with people. I see Louisa Lytton quite a lot. We go for coffee and walks around London.

Has working on Hustle made it easier for you to spot cons?
I know if someone’s trying to pull a fast one, but I’ve had watches taken off my wrist without realising it before. I’m quite paranoid and I keep my eyes open so I haven’t been done too badly. But it does make you think really horrible things about things you can get away with. You could pretty easily lift wallets and do scams. But I’m far too honest to be a conman.

By Nick Fiaca