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How would you do if that wildest companion from your youth reappeared? Imagine if you were battling a terminal illness and had nothing to lose? Consider if you felt guilty for getting your friend imprisoned 10 years ago? If you were the one she landed in the clink and your release was granted to succumb to illness in her custody? What if you had been a nearly unbeatable pair of scam artists who retained a stash of disguises from your prime and a longing to feel some excitement again?

These questions and beyond form the core of Frauds, a new drama starring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker, presents to viewers on a wild, thrilling season-long journey that traces two conwomen determined to executing a final scheme. Echoing an earlier work, Jones co-created this with her collaborator, and it retains similar qualities. Much like the mystery-thriller formula served as a backdrop to emotional conflicts gradually unveiled, here the elaborate theft Jones’ character Roberta (Bert) has carefully planned while incarcerated since her diagnosis is a means to explore a deep dive into friendship, betrayal and love in all its forms.

Bert is placed under the supervision of Sam (Whittaker), who lives nearby in the Spanish countryside. Guilt stopped her from seeing Bert during her sentence, but she remained nearby and worked no cons without her – “Rather insensitive with you in prison for a job I messed up.” And to prepare for Bert’s, if brief, freedom, she has purchased numerous undergarments, because there are many ways for female friends to show repentance and one is the acquisition of “a big lady-bra” following ten years of uncomfortable institutional clothing.

Sam aims to continue maintaining her peaceful existence and look after Bert till the end. Bert possesses different plans. And when your daftest friend has other ideas – well, those tend to be the ones you follow. Their old dynamic gradually reasserts itself and her strategies are underway by the time she lays out the full blueprint for the heist. The series plays around with the timeline – producing engagement rather than confusion – to give us the set-pieces first and then the explanations. So we observe the duo slipping jewellery and watches off wealthy guests’ wrists at a memorial service – and acquiring a gilded religious artifact because what’s to stop you if you could? – before ripping off their wigs and turning their mourning clothes inside out to become colourful suits as they stride out and down the chapel stairs, awash with adrenaline and assets.

They need the assets to finance the operation. This entails recruiting a forger (with, unbeknown to them, a gambling problem that is likely to draw unwanted attention) in the form of illusionist’s aide Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington), who has the technical know-how to assist in swapping the target painting (a renowned Dali painting at a major museum). Additionally, they recruit feminist art collector Celine (Kate Fleetwood), who focuses on works by artists depicting female subjects. She is equally merciless as any of the gangsters the forger and their funeral robbery are attracting, including – most perilously of all – their former leader Miss Take (Talisa Garcia), a modern-day Fagin who had them running scams for her from their teens. She reacted poorly to the pair’s assertion of themselves as independent conwomen so there’s ground to make up in that area.

Unexpected developments are layered between progressively uncovered truths about the duo’s past, so you get all the satisfactions of a sophisticated heist tale – executed with no shortage of brio and admirable willingness to overlook obvious implausibilities – plus a mesmerisingly intricate portrait of a friendship that is possibly as toxic as her illness but just as impossible to uproot. Jones gives perhaps her finest and most complex performance yet, as the damaged, resentful Bert with her lifetime pursuit of excitement to divert attention from her internal anguish that is unrelated to metastasising cells. Whittaker supports her, delivering excellent acting in a somewhat less flashy role, and alongside the creative team they create a fantastically stylish, emotionally rich and profoundly intelligent piece of entertainment that is inherently empowering devoid of lecturing and an absolute success. Eagerly awaiting future installments.