The first thing to say about Frauds, ITV’s new heist thriller, is that it looks gorgeous. Sweeping shots of Tenerife, the ocean, and people brooding against holiday worthy backdrops? Yes please.
The other is that it’s damn good fun. Turns out, when you stick two excellent British actors in nun outfits and ask them to steal a painting called Face of the Great Masturbator, what you get is a sort of screwball comedy which hits unexpectedly heavy emotional beats too.
Said excellent actors are of course Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker, and when you see them together here it almost feels like a crime they’ve not really starred in much together before. Jones is Bert, a hot-headed criminal who’s spent the last decade in prison but ends up being released due to a diagnosis of terminal cancer (which may or may not be true; Bert lies about everything).
Before she shuffles off this mortal coil, she tracks down her old partner in crime Sam (Whittaker), who’s been lying low and has to be reluctantly coaxed back onto the wagon for the infamous “one last job.”
This isn’t glam. Bert and Sam dress like mums on the school run, when they’re not frolicking around as nuns, dancing with chickens (Bert) or disguised as tourists – and when they’re not engaging in some side splittingly funny set pieces, they’re trying to work out how to steal the above painting.
More accurately, they’ve been hired to replace that painting with a forgery and spirit the original to their mysterious client. A big payday awaits – but we will be waiting for a while, because the first two episodes drag their feet and take their sweet time building to any action worth talking about at all.
Unsurprisingly, both Jones and Whittaker are great, if slightly awkward in their new looks (blonde hair and tats for Jones; brown hair for Whittaker).
We spend the first two episodes excavating the ins and outs of their grievances with each other, but their relationship is kept purposely obfuscated – were the pair best friends, or also lovers? Bert’s aggressive, flirtatious behaviour (“you can’t keep your d**k in your pants!”, Sam accuses at one point) also chafes against Sam, whose sole purpose in life is to find the daughter she gave up for adoption decades ago.
As they quarrel, we slowly meet up with a stellar backing cast. There’s Karan Gill’s Bilal (introduced guzzling a can of beans), and Bert’s old maternal figure Miss Take (Talicia Garcia). Elizabeth Berrington is especially good as the weary Jackie Diamond, a magician’s assistant in her 50s whose husband’s eye has wandered elsewhere. “I always said your vagina could light up a room!”, Sam tells her at one point, but it’s her ability to capitalise on the way society views middle-aged women that makes her valuable to the heist operation.
As their ramshackle team pinballs towards making their dreams a reality, writer Anne Marie O’Connor ramps up the silly. By episode three, the chemistry is there – and though it might come too slowly for some viewers, there’s still more than enough here to entertain.
Streaming now on ITV
