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You Don’t Know Me is a new four-part series which begins with Hero (Samuel Adewunmi – Angela Black) finding he’s not living up to his name, because he’s up before the beak following apparently shooting and killing a man called Jamil, who walked into Ed’s car showroom – where the lead works – along with his posse, all acting like utter dicks.
As his trial comes to an end and he expects to be found guilty of murder, he’s asked if he wants to give a closing speech. This comes following his refusal to give evidence during the trial itself, on the advice of his lawyer. But why would you do that whilst claiming you’re innocent.
Well, perhaps he should’ve thought about that – especially since this speech isn’t meant to be admissable as evidence?
As he begins, his ‘speech’ comes across more like a bedtime story, telling us about him and girlfriend Kyra (Sophie Wilde), who met two years ago on the bus. He tries to catch her eye, but she’s very standoffish… leading to him trying to follow her on the same bus many times since until they meet again, makes her dinner, they move in together, life is good, yada-yada-yada…
And then… she just disappears without a trace. This is starting to feel like Under The Silver Lake.
As the slow opener plays out, Hero does get his answer, albeit with the situation leading him having to rely on speaking to Jamil, despite the two getting off on the wrong foot, but even though I’m posting this after the episode has aired, I’ll leave out spoilers, so if you want to know, you’ll have to find out for yourself.
You Don’t Know Me started off being quite engaging, but then slowed down the more it went on. I hope the second episode speeds things along a bit.
The series is on iPlayer in full after now that the first episode has been broadcast, although given that there are two episodes tonight and tomorrow this week, and again, Sunday and Monday next week, and given that I’m not in a huge rush for this one, I might just watch them live.
UPDATE Episode 2:
UPDATE Episode 3:
UPDATE Episode 4:
You Don’t Know Me continues tomorrow night on BBC1 at 9pm, and is then on next Sunday and Monday at the same time. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
After broadcast, each episode will be on the BBC iPlayer.
Episode 1: 5/10
Episode 2: 3/10
Episode 3: 2/10
Episode 4: 0/10
Director: Sarmad Masud
Producer: Rienkje Attoh
Writer: Tom Edge
Novel: Imran Mahmood
Music: Adrian Johnston
Cast:
Hero: Samuel Adewunmi
Kyra: Sophie Wilde
Bless: Bukky Bakray
Jamil: Roger Jean Nsengiyumva
Abebi: Yetunde Oduwole
Shilo: Habeeb Ipaye
Binks: Duayne Boachie
Female witness: Jayne Welman
Judge: Michael Gould
Prosecution Barrister: Badria Timimi
Jamil’s mother: Natasha Bain
Car customers: Paul Sangam, Samantha Lawton
Showroom Sam: Nicholas Khan
Giorgio: Nicholas Karimi
Guilty: David Isiguzo
PC Dewan: Leah Walker
Maria: Portia Williams
Pimp: Josef Altin
Man under bridge: Rinkoo Barpaga
Marlo: Juliet Okotie
Jamie: Nathan Betts
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.