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What could you do if your most reckless friend from your teenage years got back in touch? What if you were dying of cancer and felt completely unburdened? What if you were plagued by remorse for landing your friend in the clink 10 years ago? Suppose you were the one she landed in the clink and you were only being released to succumb to illness in her custody? If you used to be a almost unstoppable pair of scam artists who still had a stash of disguises left over from your glory days and a deep desire for one last thrill?

All this and more are the questions that Frauds, an original series starring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker, flings at us on a exhilarating, intense season-long journey that follows two conwomen determined to pulling off one last job. Similar to a recent project, Jones developed this series with her collaborator, and it retains similar qualities. Much like a suspense-driven structure was used as background to the psychodramas gradually unveiled, here the elaborate theft Jones’ character Roberta (Bert) has meticulously arranged while incarcerated since her diagnosis is a means to explore a deep dive into friendship, betrayal and love in every variation.

Bert is released into the care of Sam (Whittaker), who resides close by in the Andalucían hills. Remorse prevented her from ever visiting Bert, but she remained nearby and avoided scams without her – “Bit crass with you in prison for a job I messed up.” And to prepare for Bert’s, albeit short, freedom, she has purchased numerous undergarments, because there are many ways for women companions to offer contrition and one is the purchase of “a big lady-bra” after a decade of underwire-free prison-issue rubbish.

Sam aims to continue maintaining her peaceful existence and look after Bert till the end. Bert has other ideas. And when your daftest friend devises alternative schemes – well, you often find yourself going along. Their old dynamic slowly resurfaces and Bert’s plans are underway by the time she reveals the complete plan for the robbery. 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 watch the pair slipping jewellery and watches from affluent attendees at a memorial service – and acquiring a gilded religious artifact because why wouldn’t you if you could? – before removing their hairpieces and turning their mourning clothes inside out to transform into vibrant outfits as they stride out and down the church steps, filled with excitement and assets.

They require the stolen goods to fund the plan. This entails hiring a document expert (with, unbeknown to them, a gambling problem that is due to attract unwanted attention) in the form of magician’s assistant 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 art enthusiast Celine (Kate Fleetwood), who focuses on works by artists depicting female subjects. She is as ruthless as all the criminals their accomplice and the funeral theft are drawing towards them, including – most dangerously – their old boss Miss Take (Talisa Garcia), a contemporary crime lord who employed them in frauds for her since their youth. She reacted poorly to the pair’s assertion of themselves as self-reliant tricksters so there’s ground to make up in that area.

Unexpected developments are interspersed with deepening revelations about the duo’s past, so you get all the satisfactions of a Thomas Crown Affair-ish caper – executed with no shortage of brio and praiseworthy readiness to overlook obvious implausibilities – alongside a captivatingly detailed portrait of a bond that is possibly as toxic as Bert’s cancer but equally difficult to eradicate. Jones gives perhaps her finest and most complex performance yet, as the damaged, resentful Bert with her lifetime pursuit of excitement to distract from her internal anguish that has nothing to do with metastasising cells. Whittaker stands with her, delivering excellent acting in a slightly less interesting part, and alongside the writers they create a incredibly chic, deeply moving and highly insightful work of art that is feminist to its bones without preaching and in every way a triumph. More again, soon, please.