Suranne Jones & Jodie Whittaker to Star in 'Frauds'

The first three months of the year are when British networks start revealing the shows they've been working on internally, which will hopefully head our way in 2025. While none of these shows have American distributors when first announced, some are easily recognizable as the sort of show that will be headed to American streaming services. For example, I knew I was looking at a future PBS show from the first moment I read about Toby Jones and Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Now, ITV has announced another show that will absolutely find its way over here, either on PBS or BritBox: Frauds.

Frauds is a brand new crime-comedy caper-thriller starring Suranne Jones (Vigil) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who) as what the British call a pair of "Skilled Confidence Tricksters," which is the fanciest way to say "Con Artists" ever invented. Whittaker stars as Sam, and Jones is Bert, the partner-in-crime she hasn't seen in a decade, as she's been doing time inside. But when Bert finally gets out, the two discover they're going in very different directions.

That may not sound like a PBS series, but though public broadcasting pulls from all the different U.K. networks, Masterpiece has a special relationship with ITV. Some of its shows that ran (or are still running) on PBS via Masterpiece include Downton Abbey, Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Sanditon, Unforgotten, Grantchester, The Marlow Murder Club, and Van der Valk. Moreover, Frauds is being produced by Monumental, which is the company Masterpiece is using to produce The Forsyte Saga, and Jones is co-producing via TeamAkers; TeamAkers' first series, MaryLand, aired on Masterpiece in 2024.