Frauds; How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)

“A con artist gets back in touch with an old partner in crime, who is trying to go straight, and persuades them to take on one last job with the promise of a bumper payday. How do you make this very familiar set-up feel fresh? By casting Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker in the lead roles, giving them some cracking scenes together and turning out a drama that is rollicking good fun.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Suranne Jones gives perhaps her finest and most complex performance yet, as the damaged, resentful Bert with her lifetime pursuit of excitement to distract from the gnawing pain within that has nothing to do with metastasising cells. Jodie Whittaker stands with her, doing brilliant work in a slightly less interesting part, and together with Anne-Marie O’Connor they create a fantastically stylish, emotionally rich and profoundly intelligent piece of entertainment that is feminist to its bones without preaching and in every way a triumph.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“With its cinematic, spaghetti western swagger, Frauds could have been nothing more than a pastiche of Thelma & Louise, the archetypal outlaw gals movie. But Jones and Whittaker are immersed in their characters up to the hilt — entirely believable, despite the forced wit of the badinage.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Frauds is no pastiche. Sure, it’s another female-led drama big on both gasps and laughs, but it’s also both campy and genuinely shocking. For those who still see Sunday night ITV dramas as tame compared with their BBC counterparts, Frauds is a far less conventional show than expected. You can thank Jones, who co-created the six-part series with Maryland collaborator Anne-Marie O’Connor. It proves once again that this duo know how to create nuanced, meaty roles for women, ones that really allow the actors to push themselves.”
Isobel Lewis, The i

“Bad news: the latest project from Suranne Jones doesn’t always feel like the real deal. Implausible details abound in this six-part heist thriller (that she produced through her company, TeamAkers). And there are weak links in the cast. Still, don’t panic, because the blissful moments outweigh the blah ones. Jones herself as Bert – a tough and sexy ex-con, who enjoys playing mind games – is on blistering form. Her co-stars, Jodie Whittaker and Elizabeth Berrington, are compelling.”
Charlotte O’Sullivan, The Independent

“Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker are both good actresses but even they couldn’t make a silk purse from the sow’s ear that was some of the dialogue in Frauds. I’m not saying the premise — a terminally ill career criminal wanting to do ‘one last job’ with her best friend before she dies — was bad, because it really wasn’t, even though it felt derivative of many things all at once. Perhaps I shouldn’t take things too seriously, this being an upbeat, caperish crime tale that is reasonably entertaining. But not one bit of the first episode rang true.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Whereas This Time pushed Partridge into new territory, How Are You? often retreads it: as well as directly reviving old formats, the whole piece resembles the mockumentaries of the 2010s, Welcome to the Places of My Life and Scissored Isle. And, as Alan’s private life bleeds into his investigations, we’re most strongly reminded of the podcast series From the Oasthouse… These, however, are quibbles in the face of one large, undeniable fact: whatever medium he inhabits, Partridge remains the funniest comic creation in Britain, and even placeholder Partridge has more laughs-out-loud per half-hour than anything else on telly.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“This might be the first time brackets in a programme name have been funny. But is the series funny? Often, yes. But it’s patchy. Or perhaps I’m being picky, because I’m Alan Partridge – the one set in the Linton Travel Tavern – was sitcom perfection, so everything else falls short by comparison.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) is the best Partridge-related project in years. That’s because, as a character, Alan is such a perfect case study for the subject matter. He is the embodiment of all the reasons people struggle with mental health at the moment. Financial worries. Status anxiety. Relationship stress. Directionless political paranoia. Media overload. Technological alienation. If only he knew it, Alan has a full house.”
Phil Harrison, The Independent