Suranne Jones is renowned for her dark brunette locks, but in her gripping new TV drama, she's almost unrecognisable as she showcases her new honey-blonde bob. The 47-year-old actress, famed for her roles in Vigil, Doctor Foster and Gentleman Jack, shares the screen with the Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker in ITV's new six-part heist thriller, Frauds, about two con-women whose toxic friendship is reignited when they decide to pull off the art heist of the century.
Suranne, who co-created the show with the writer Anne-Marie O'Connor, plays Bert, who, after being released from a Spanish prison for compassionate reasons, lures her estranged friend and former partner in crime, Sam (Whittaker), out of retirement for one last epic job.
Here, Suranne reveals why she wanted to explore toxic female friendships on screen, while Jodie, 43, reveals why her female friends are her "absolute life".
Jodie Whittaker and Suranne Jones play two con-women
Suranne, tell us about your bold new look?
"I'm very visual and physical when it comes to my roles. We didn't want Jodie to be northern, and she didn't want to dye her hair. At first, we assumed she’d be blonde, so I was going to have a buzz cut because I was coming off the back of [Netflix thriller] Hostage. So I was just going to shave my hair all up the back and have a short, dark, punk look. Then I was like, 'Oh, it's fine. You don't have to dye your hair, I'll go blonde'. Once that had got into my head, I knew that I wanted [Bert] to wear board shorts and masculine clothes and very wrong tattoos that she'd had done when she was drunk."
Why did you want to tell a story about toxic female friendships?
Suranne: "When you get married or children come into your life, you feel like you have to grow up or just evolve. But part of you misses that kind of rebellion. How do you balance that in your life as well? If there's someone there that's still the embodiment of that, it’s like a drug. We wanted to understand the Berts of the world. What are they running from? What's the trauma that led them to be in the place they're at? In toxic relationships, there can be a deep love. Sam and Bert absolutely love each, they just don't know how to. They both need to sort their demons out. We want to come up with original concepts because we feel like we need to make female stories that haven't been told, rather than repeat ourselves."
"We want to come up with original concepts because we feel like we need to make female stories that haven't been told."
Suranne Jones
Why are female friendships important to you and how have you managed to maintain yours?
Jodie: "They are my absolute life and have been my lifers since I was little. We all live in ridiculously annoying, not commutable places, but we're all still very close. The most important thing for me is, you don't have to be there all the time, but when the mud hits the fan, we’ve always been there for each other. As you get older, it's only drama and sunshine, and in both those times, you want to be with your sisterhood. I feel really lucky that we would all drop everything for each other."
What was it like working with Suranne?
Jodie: "An absolute joy. I've just got the ultimate respect for her. She’s not only leading the ensemble piece but is also executive producing it and co-creating it, and has about eight other things she's doing. I'd get to work, I'd be like, 'I'm really tired'. I have to say, I had a child who didn't sleep through [the night], so I had that reason to be tired. My alarm would go off ten minutes before I needed to be in the car, and I'd get to work, and be like, 'Oh, sorry mate. I look really tired.' Suranne looks amazing and she's like, 'I've been up for about two hours watching rushes.'"
Jodie: "Yes; I'm not bilingual, I'm horrifically ignorant of all other languages. I took German [in school] and failed. I haven’t got a natural aptitude for languages, so I absolutely bricked it when I read that we would be speaking other languages. But we had an amazing coach who helped, so hopefully I passed the test. It was really hard and also completely necessary for the parts, but the biggest challenge of all."
Frauds airs on Sunday and Monday nights at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX until 20 October.
Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker star as two con women, Bert and Sam, who team up for one last epic job. The six-part series comes to ITV this autumn.
The 79-year-old, who played no-nonsense DI Vera Stanhope in the ITV crime drama, appeared on This Morning on Friday to promote about her new film Dragonfly
© ITV
© ITV
© ITV
