If you watch one thing this weekend, it has to be Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker's bodacious and very unhinged heist drama Frauds. The new six-part series follows Jones' political thriller Hostage, which captured viewers' attention earlier this year and dominated the Netflix charts, holding the number one spot just days after its release.
Now Jones hopes to impress viewers once more, and ITV's Frauds is sure to be a must-watch for TV fans looking for something thrilling to watch.
The series centres around the "toxic but darkly funny friendship" (via the synopsis) of the con women Bert (Jones) and Sam (Whittaker), whose epic job of a life-time spirals into a messy, dangerous quest.
The fact that their friendship is newly rekindled after a long period of separation will also help pave that bumpy ride they're on. After Bert gets an early parole from jail on compassionate grounds, she calls Sam – to help her carry out (naturally) one last job, putting together a crew to pull off an epic art heist.
The series pulls in the talents of I May Destroy You's Karan Gill, who brings a twitchy, nerdiness to the sketchy character of Bilal, Elizabeth Berrington (Lost Boys and Fairies, Virdee), Abdul Salis (Wheel of Time, Love Actually) and newcomer Thais Martin.
It's a largely female-led cast, which adds a different perspective to the heist genre.
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During an interview for press, Jones – who served as executive producer and co-creator on the show – shared where the inspiration for a female-driven narrative came from.
"For this we [she and co-creator Anne-Marie O'Connor] just wanted to challenge ourselves to do something the opposite [to our drama other Maryland].
"We knew we needed it to be along the same lines, keeping with the discussion of what it is to be a woman. We've done siblings and now we needed female relationships to be part of our theme."
She added: "Then: a heist is something that's typically male. To sell something in this day and age, to poke our way through all of this content we knew we needed to do something that subverts expectations. And so we decided that to use something typically male as a backdrop but put it in a female narrative would be the way to go and that's how it was born."
Whittaker also spoke on why the strong female lens drew her to the role of Sam: "There are no female parts that I've read for a really long time that come anywhere near the dynamic of Bert and Sam.
"Particularly the fact that it crosses into a genre we don't often see on TV. There's the female-led genre, it's a play on a heist and it's not set in the UK. Everything felt really exciting."
Frauds is sharp and witty, and plays with comedy on several levels with the use of dark humour (often derived from the friction between the lead pair) as well as the hilarious ways in which Sam and Bert's subterfuge shows up.
However, beneath the thrilling, pedal-to-the-metal action that propels the story is an exploration of life-long friendship – the expectations, boundaries, love and resentment that can bubble up after festering for a long time.
Jones opened up about her experience of working on the project alongside Frauds' other creator Anne-Marie O'Connor.
"Working on Frauds with Anne-Marie and Monumental for the last two years has been a wild ride," said Jones.
"We took the idea of toxic female friendship and turned it on its head to give the heist genre an emotional heartbeat."
She continued: "I have always wanted to work with Jodie, and now I am. I hope you love Bert and Sam and all they get up to as much as we do."
Frauds premieres tonight on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
