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How could you do if your most reckless friend from your teenage years reappeared? What if you were dying of cancer and had nothing to lose? What if you were plagued by remorse for getting your friend imprisoned 10 years ago? Suppose you were the one she got sent to prison and you were only being released to die of cancer in her care? 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 longing to feel some excitement again?

All this and more form the core of Frauds, an original series starring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker, flings at us on a exhilarating, intense six-part ride that follows two female fraudsters determined to executing a final scheme. Echoing an earlier work, Jones co-created this with her collaborator, and it has all the same strengths. Much like the mystery-thriller formula served as a backdrop to emotional conflicts gradually unveiled, here the grand heist Jones’ character Roberta (Bert) has carefully planned while incarcerated after learning her prognosis 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 resides close by in the Andalucían hills. Remorse prevented her from seeing Bert during her sentence, but she remained nearby and avoided scams without her – “Bit crass with you in prison for a job I botched.” And to prepare for Bert’s, if brief, life on the outside, she has bought her plenty of new underwear, because various methods exist for female friends to offer contrition and one is the purchase 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, you often find yourself going along. Their former relationship slowly resurfaces and her strategies are underway by the time she lays out the full blueprint for the robbery. This show experiments with chronology – to good rather than eye-rolling effect – to present key scenes initially and then the explanations. So we watch the pair stealing gems and timepieces from affluent attendees at a funeral – and acquiring a gilded religious artifact because what’s to stop you if you could? – before removing their hairpieces and turning their mourning clothes inside out to become colourful suits as they walk confidently down the church steps, awash with adrenaline and assets.

They require the stolen goods to fund the plan. This entails recruiting a forger (with, unknown to the pair, a gambling problem that is likely to draw unwanted attention) in the form of magician’s assistant Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington), who possesses the necessary skills to assist in swapping the intended artwork (a famous surrealist piece at a prominent gallery). They also enlist art enthusiast Celine (Kate Fleetwood), who focuses on works by male artists exploiting women. She is as ruthless as all the criminals the forger and their funeral robbery are drawing towards them, including – most perilously of all – their former leader Miss Take (Talisa Garcia), a contemporary crime lord who employed them in frauds for her from their teens. She reacted poorly to their declaration of independence as independent conwomen so unresolved issues remain in that area.

Unexpected developments are layered between progressively uncovered truths about Bert and Sam’s history, so you get all the satisfactions of a Thomas Crown Affair-ish caper – executed with no shortage of brio and admirable willingness to overlook obvious implausibilities – plus a captivatingly detailed portrait of a bond that is potentially as harmful as her illness but just as impossible to uproot. Jones gives perhaps her finest and multifaceted portrayal yet, as the damaged, resentful Bert with her endless quest for thrills to distract from her internal anguish that has nothing to do with her medical condition. Whittaker supports her, doing brilliant work in a slightly less interesting part, and alongside the creative team they craft a fantastically stylish, deeply moving and profoundly intelligent piece of entertainment that is inherently empowering without preaching and in every way a triumph. More again, soon, please.