Jodie Whittaker on forgiving Suranne Jones, keeping Doctor Who secrets and the role she would have loved to play

Co-created by Jones (who plays Bert) and writer Anne-Marie O’Connor, the project appealed to Jodie, 43, because it was so different from anything she had done before. “I think what is amazing about Frauds is having Suranne as one of the creators and she’s telling stories that she doesn’t feel that she’s been a part of before,” Jodie says, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com.

Filmed in Tenerife (doubling for mainland Spain), the series begins with the pair reconnecting when Bert is released from prison after serving time for a crime they were both involved in. While Sam is pleased to see her friend, she is also wary of their relationship (which Jodie describes as “toxic”), especially when Bert uses devious means to convince her to commit a dangerous robbery.

“Sam is such a different kind of role for me to play within this dynamic,” Jodie explains. “It was a wonderful challenge to have that kind of repressed rage that she has, and also there’s such a complicated back story between them, and having the moments where it flashes. It’s like someone trying to contain this, and contain Bert, but also themselves.

"I’m used to playing a lot of different types of roles, but I would say that a lot of the time I play people where their emotions are quite quick to the surface, and Sam is the opposite of that.”

The role of Sam is also quite physical, with Jodie and Suranne’s characters having a play fight in a bull ring in the first episode that involved Suranne wielding a shirt like a bullfighter’s cape close to her co-star’s face. “I think there was many a time we were kicking or accidentally bashing into each other, and there were definitely some close calls, but it’s all fine and I can forgive her instantly,” Jodie laughs.

Read more:

• Jodie Whittaker and Suranne Jones on what makes Frauds "fresh" – and the impact they hope it has
• Jodie Whittaker on showing a 'different side' in Frauds – and why she hasn't worked with Suranne Jones before

Another action scene involved the pair fighting in a swimming pool after Sam discovers that Bert has betrayed her. “That was the scene that made me want to take the job, in a way, because you don’t usually see that. You don’t see women of that age having that kind of response to each other, but that response is as normal as crying and cuddling each other, but we only normally see the crying and cuddling,” she says.

“What I loved about Frauds is it explores fear, the relationship between these two women, and it shows the versions that are within all of us but aren’t necessarily shown on television.”

“So when we got to film that, I was really super excited. Obviously, once you are four hours in, you’re a bit like, ‘oh, god!’ but they are really fun to do. I love the fact that within a stunt scene there’s always a massive amount of choreography so it feels really satisfying, because it becomes this rhythmical dance between you. And once you’ve got that down, then you can add all the elements, the dramatisation, the tension and the humour. That’s one thing I love about every scene in this. There was always something in it that kind of had that tone, where you sit in what you think it is, and then the tone slightly shifts, and it’s something completely different.”

During the making of Frauds, Jodie had to pull off her own secret operation – a quick return to Cardiff to film scenes for the surprise return of her Thirteenth Doctor in the series 15 finale of Doctor Who that was broadcast in May this year and marked Ncuti Gatwa’s final regular appearance as the Fifteenth Doctor.

“Suranne and the production team on Frauds didn’t know I was going to shoot it as it was under a complete pseudonym,” she explains. “They knew it was a pick up [the filming of extra footage after a main production has wrapped] on something. Of course, it wasn’t a pick up, it was a brand new day.

"It had a whole level of secrecy, because Doctor Who has to have its pool so tight. Wonderfully for me, Frauds released me to film it, I got to get there and no one leaked it.”

Jodie admits that her time on Doctor Who has meant she is “brilliant at keeping secrets”.

“I think I loved how secretive it was, because I understood the sadness when you’ve spent six to 10 months working on something, and for someone to not even casually, to intentionally leak a spoiler, and you’ve worked so hard on it.”

“I’m the least affected, it’s the art department, it’s the writers, it’s all the creatives and also the real fans and the Whovians, the most loyal and wonderful group of fans you could ever encounter. They love Doctor Who because it can go in any direction and be a surprise, so to have the spoilers is just frustrating. So I understood the level of secrecy, and I love a rule! If you say, ‘don’t tell me, don’t tell anyone,’ I won’t tell anyone. I am a vault. I was a good Doctor because I never leaked anything.”

Jodie inhabited the role of the Thirteenth Doctor from 2017 until 2022, and it’s clear that playing the Time Lord holds a special place in her heart. “I love Doctor Who more than I can ever describe,” she says. “Our seasons were longer than any other job I’ve ever done and I moved to Wales to film it, so it wasn’t just the job, it was the people, it was the life.”

There are other past roles she is particularly fond of, especially trainee nurse Samantha in writer/director Joe Cornish’s cult sci-fi comedy horror movie Attack The Block, where she starred alongside John Boyega, battling aliens invading a south London council estate.

“Attack The Block was one of my happiest times,” she remembers. “As a kid, I was hugely influenced by all the 80s creature features, and the 90s adventure films. I was in our version of that, and I adored it.”

Fans have been calling for a sequel since the film was released in 2011, and Jodie admits she is one of them. “There’s been talk of a sequel for years and I know no more than last time [it was rumoured]. I would absolutely do it. There’s probably no job I wouldn’t go back to. If someone said ‘do you want to do Black Mirror again?’ I’d say yes. I don’t think I have had an experience I wouldn’t revisit and I think with Attack The Block there is always that chat. So hopefully that continues. Maybe I should be sending a self-tape to Joe Cornish as I could definitely pop up again. I could send him an aggressive email!”

West Yorkshire-born Jodie was 29 when she was cast in Attack The Block, and just 23 when she made her big screen debut in the movie Venus, for which her co-star Peter O’Toole was nominated for his eighth Oscar at the age of 74. Looking back, it’s a role she describes as “such a gift” that has shaped her view on acting in the years since.

“It was one of the last roles he played in his life and he was at the end of what can only be described as a phenomenal, inspiring career,” she says. “He’s one of the great British or Irish acting legends, and he was a wonderful human who was such a joy to be around. I was fresh out of drama school and it was a master class with people like Vanessa Redgrave, Peter O’Toole, Richard Griffiths, Leslie Phillips and director Roger Michell.

"And it goes to show that you can still be doing phenomenal parts in your seventies, and I think what an exciting thing that is.”

With a career that has included the aforementioned Black Mirror (the 2011 episode The Entire History of You), acclaimed drama Broadchurch, medical series Trust Me and the upcoming Dear England, as well as stage performances in Antigone and The Duchess, Jodie Whittaker has already played a rich variety of roles, but admits there is one part that she would have loved to have taken on… though sadly she wasn’t quite the right age for it.

“I would have loved to have been Eleven in Stranger Things,” she reveals. “I would have loved to have been a kid with a shaved head!”

“When I saw the first series I thought, ‘Oh my God, to be Millie Bobby Brown right now, what a part. The first season of that show was incredible. It homages everything I adore, and that part is incredible. If I could have been a child with a skinhead, that would be the role for me, but I don’t think I was in the running. So, no animosity to Millie Bobby Brown,” she laughs.

“Maybe if I had tried a little bit of sellotape to make me look a bit younger?”

Frauds premieres on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Sunday 5th October.

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