top of page

Suranne Jones & Jodie Whittaker to lead new ITV1 heist drama 'Frauds'

They'll be playing skilled confidence tricksters!


ITV1 has today announced a new six-part heist drama, Frauds, which stars Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker as skilled confidence tricksters who’ve been separated by an arduous 10-year prison sentence.


Jodie Whittaker plays Sam, who has been content to live a life of quiet anonymity in the hills of Southern Spain, whilst her grifting partner, Bert, played by Suranne Jones has spent the last decade in a Spanish prison cell with a burning desire to pull off one final job that will prove her worth.


Frauds has been created by Suranne Jones and Anne-Marie O’Connor and is written by Anne-Marie O’Connor.


We pick up the story as Sam anxiously waits for Bert to be released from a maximum-security prison on grounds of compassionate discharge. Frail and facing her final days, following a cancer diagnosis, Bert’s mindset is as it’s always been, to take risks and live life on the edge.


Set in the picturesque mountainous region of Southern Spain, it’s apparent from the outset that Sam and Bert have unresolved issues of the thieving kind.


Locked into a pattern of fierce friendship coupled with deep mistrust, that goes back many years, Bert apparently has no one else to turn to in the final weeks of her life. And we sense this isn’t going to be an easy ride for Sam, who is clearly burying feelings of guilt, and a past she’d rather stay forgotten.


Pricked by those feelings, she reluctantly agrees to give her ailing former friend a bed in the idyllic smallholding she calls a home. Despite trying to keep Bert at a distance, she is immediately pulled back into their complex and addictive relationship.


On the pretext of one final, multi-million-pound art heist, Bert attempts to lure Sam out of retirement, but at what cost? Can Sam stay one step ahead of her former friend, who is clearly capable of treachery? Or will the push and pull of their toxic friendship see them both ruined before they are able to pull off the job and escape one another for good?


Made by Monumental Television in association with ITV Studios, Frauds is a co-production with TeamAkers, the production company founded by Suranne Jones and Laurence Akers. It'll be directed by Giulia Gandini and produced by Pat Tookey-Dickson.


The heist drama will be executive produced by Alison Owen and Katie Kelly on behalf of Monumental Television alongside Debra Hayward, Alison Carpenter, Jill Forbes and Pat Tookey-Dickson for Monumental Television and co-creator Anne-Marie O’Connor and Suranne Jones on behalf of TeamAkers.


Speaking about Frauds, executive producer and co-creator, Suranne Jones said "Working on Frauds with Anne-Marie and Monumental for the last 2 years has been a wild ride. We took the idea of toxic female friendship and turned it on its head to give the heist genre an emotional heartbeat."


"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."


To which Anne-Marie O'Connor added "Suranne and I wanted to take a look at the importance and fierceness of female friendship and to do it using the propulsive heist genre. I am thrilled to be working with Monumental again, and having Jodie joining us alongside Suranne is a dream."


Frauds will air on ITV1

Comments


© I TALK TELLY

bottom of page