An accused man sacks his lawyer to speak directly to the jury (and us) to try and prove he is not a murderer. But he talks so much it feels like an audiobook – barely TV at all
Another Sunday evening, another courtroom drama in which the audience gets to be the jury. Hot on the heels of Showtrial is You Don’t Know Me (BBC One), based on the 2017 novel by the barrister Imran Mahmood. Here, a young man, Hero, is in the dock, accused of murder. Much circumstantial evidence suggests he is guilty of the crime, and the prosecution seems to have an easy case, summarised neatly in an efficient, damning closing statement. The victim’s blood is on Hero’s fingernails, the murder weapon was in his house, his car was seen in the area right before the shooting. Case closed.
Except that this is a four-parter, so, of course, it’s not closed yet. Instead of hearing a barrister deliver the closing statement for the defence, we learn that Hero has sacked his barrister, so that he can represent himself and tell his own story to the jury. He is as convinced as we are that he’s going down for the crime, so he might as well go for one last roll of the dice.
