BAFTA Best Actress & Rising Star nominee Bukky Bakray is certainly taking centre stage this year.
The project is an adaptation of Imran Mahmood’s bestselling novel of the same name and is written by The Crown and Judy writer Tom Edge. Produced by Snowed-In Production and co-produced with Netflix, the show has now begun filming in Birmingham.
Directed by Sarmad Masud (My Pure Land, Bulletproof), the four-part drama is about a young man named Hero (Samuel Adewunmi) who, with overwhelming evidence against him, stands accused of murder. At his trial, Hero tells an extraordinary story about the woman he loves Kyra (Sophie Wilde), and how he risked everything to save her. Hero swears he is innocent, but can we believe him? In her second major role, since her breakthrough critically performance in the Sarah Gavron directed Rocks, Bakray plays Bless, Hero’s younger sister, who is a guiding force for her older brother and believes fiercely in his innocence.
The series also stars Roger Jean Nsengiyumva (Tomb Raider), Tuwaine Barrett (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Yetunde Oduwole (Carnage) and Nicholas Khan (Transformers: The Last Knight)
The series producers are Jules Hussey (Guilt) and Rienkje Attoh (Noughts + Crosses). Executive producers are Ruth Kenley-Letts, Neil Blair and Jenny Van Der Lande (Mrs Wilson), and Kate Crowe (Taboo). Lucy Richer (Small Axe).
You Don’t Know Me will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the U.K. while Netflix has global rights outside the U.K., Ireland and China.
The production, with support from the BBC, is also running a remote high-end TV training program with Film Birmingham for 10 trainees from underrepresented groups.