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What could you respond if your most reckless friend from your teenage years reappeared? What if you were battling a terminal illness and felt completely unburdened? What if you were plagued by remorse for landing your friend in the clink a decade back? Suppose you were the one she got sent to prison and you were only being released to die of cancer in her care? What if you had been a nearly unbeatable pair of con artists who still had a stash of disguises from your prime and a longing to feel some excitement again?

These questions and beyond are the questions that Frauds, a new drama featuring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker, flings at us on a exhilarating, intense six-part ride that traces two female fraudsters determined to pulling off one last job. Similar to an earlier work, Jones co-created this with a writing partner, and it has all the same strengths. Much like the mystery-thriller formula was used as background to the psychodramas gradually unveiled, here the elaborate theft Jones’ character Roberta (Bert) has meticulously arranged in prison since her diagnosis is a means to explore an exploration of companionship, deceit, and affection in all its forms.

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 – “Rather insensitive with you in prison for a job I botched.” And for her new, if brief, freedom, she has bought her plenty of new underwear, because there are many ways for women companions to offer contrition and a classic example is the purchase of “a big lady-bra” after a decade of uncomfortable institutional clothing.

Sam wants to carry on leading her quiet life and care for Bert until her passing. Bert has other ideas. And if your most impulsive companion has other ideas – well, you often find yourself going along. Their old dynamic gradually reasserts itself and her strategies are underway by the time she lays out the full blueprint for the heist. This show experiments with chronology – to good rather than eye-rolling effect – to give us the set-pieces first and then the rationale. So we observe the duo stealing gems and timepieces off wealthy guests’ wrists at a memorial service – and bagging a golden crown of thorns because why wouldn’t you if you could? – before ripping off their wigs and reversing their funeral attire to become colourful suits as they stride out and down the church steps, filled with excitement and loot.

They require the stolen goods to fund the plan. This involves recruiting a forger (with, unbeknown to them, a gambling problem that is likely to draw unneeded scrutiny) in the guise of magician’s assistant Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington), who has the technical know-how to assist in swapping the target painting (a famous surrealist piece at a prominent gallery). They also enlist art enthusiast Celine (Kate Fleetwood), who specialises in works by male artists exploiting women. She is equally merciless as all the criminals their accomplice and the funeral theft 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 did not take well to their declaration of independence as self-reliant tricksters so there’s ground to make up there.

Plot twists are layered between progressively uncovered truths about the duo’s past, so you get all the satisfactions of a Thomas Crown Affair-ish caper – carried out with immense energy and admirable willingness to overlook obvious implausibilities – alongside a captivatingly detailed portrait of a friendship that is possibly as toxic as her illness but just as impossible to uproot. Jones gives perhaps her finest and multifaceted portrayal yet, as the wounded, bitter Bert with her lifetime pursuit of excitement to divert attention from the gnawing pain within that has nothing to do with metastasising cells. Whittaker stands with her, doing brilliant work in a slightly less interesting part, and together with the creative team they create a incredibly chic, deeply moving and profoundly intelligent piece of entertainment that is inherently empowering without preaching and an absolute success. Eagerly awaiting future installments.