“'But tell me the truth, did you do it?'”
Why it's great
It is the question the defence is not meant to ask, put in the plainest words.
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Informal
Use it yourself
Tell me the truth, did you finish the milk?
00:00 / 04:11
00:00 / 04:11
Sophie Walks the Tightrope, Explained
National Theatre Live: Prima Facie · 2022
Chapter 6 of 22 · 4'11"
Over sandwiches, a barrister laughs about a pupil who asked a client pleading not guilty whether he "did it." The warning that follows is not about manners. "You're walking an ethical tightrope, Sophie" draws the line: take the instructions, run the case, and never decide the truth yourself. Under the joke sits the whole defence creed.
Key moments
Start here, then watch the full scene- 1:02–1:54
Don't Ask If He Did It
52s - 2:41–3:16
❝ Monologue · 11 lines Due process, stated plain
She lines up who the law protects, then calls due process the whole job.
35s - 3:22–4:09
❝ Monologue · 11 lines The Job Is Not to Know
47s
Sophie Walks the Tightrope, explained
What happens
In a Pret queue, a criminal barrister tells a colleague about a pupil named Sophie. During a client conference the pupil asked a man pleading not guilty if he had done it. The barrister pulled her aside, spelled out the ethical limit, and then, still over lunch, laid out the larger rule: defence does not know, each side tells a story, and the jury chooses.
What's really going on
The lunch story is a joke with a rule inside it. A pupil hears a not guilty plea and asks whether the client did it. The answer is absolute: "You don't play God! You don't decide or judge." Corporate lawyers in silk shirts are dismissed as "a different breed," people who live in contracts. This speaker's world is two stories and a jury that must choose. Polite cross-examination follows the same logic. Sympathy comes first, then the analysis, because those accounts are "usually so uncorroborated, and the law is the law." The dinner-party question, how you act for someone you know did it, gets no grand reply. The job "is not to know, it's to not know." A good lawyer is "a voice piece," telling only "the best version" of a client's story. Decide, and "you are lost."
Key lines & what they mean
- “'But tell me the truth, did you do it?'”
- The question a pupil puts to a client who wants to plead not guilty, and the question defence counsel is not allowed to ask.
- “'You're walking an ethical tightrope, Sophie.”
- Asked of Sophie after she demands the truth: one answer from the client could limit what she is allowed to say in court.
- “Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know.”
- A flat correction of the idea that a lawyer should discover guilt. The work is to remain unknowing and still defend.
- “We each tell a story and the jury decide which story is the one they believe.”
- The trial is cast as two stories. Counsel speak, and belief, plus the verdict, is left with the jury.
- “A good lawyer just tells the best version of their client's story.”
- The bar set here for good advocacy: not the truest story, only the strongest version the client's instructions allow.
- “You've lost. Well, you are lost.”
- Judging the client is framed as more than a lost case. The lawyer who decides guilt is the one who is lost.
Theme
- Justice — Doubt is treated as something to uncover, and the jury, not the lawyer, chooses which story to believe.
- Duty — Defence is described as a role: take instructions, tell the best version, and refuse to judge.
What this chapter teaches
Teaching points
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Language points
Click a card to jump to its moment in the videoGolden lines
A great line in its own right — why and how to use it“'You're walking an ethical tightrope, Sophie.”
Why it's great
The warning turns one bad question into a picture of falling out of the job.
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Informal
Use it yourself
Backdating that invoice puts you on an ethical tightrope.
“Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know.”
Why it's great
Moving not to the other side of to turns ignorance from a gap into the job.
Register
literary
Use it yourself
On this panel the task is not to pick a winner; it is to not know until both sides finish.
“We each tell a story and the jury decide which story is the one they believe.”
Why it's great
It hands belief to the jury and leaves each lawyer as the teller of one version.
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Neutral
Use it yourself
We each tell a version, and the buyer decides which one they trust.
“A good lawyer just tells the best version of their client's story.”
Why it's great
It drops the glamour and leaves the lawyer as someone who tells one version well.
Register
Neutral
Use it yourself
When you brief them, give the best version of what the team actually shipped.
“You've lost. Well, you are lost.”
Why it's great
The correction turns a lost case into a lost person, and that second blow is the point.
Register
literary
Use it yourself
Keep the account and you are lost, if a fake number was the only route.
Monologue
One character carrying the scene — shadow the whole passage❝ Due process, stated plain
Stand outside it, don't take sides. Test the law. Test it. Test it. And if the story has holes, then point them out. Because it's not just your case, it's the law that is at stake. And the law, it is there to protect everyone. It's to protect those who accuse, protect those who are accused, protect the police that don't cut corners, so the police that do are exposed. We can't just pre-judge someone. OK, OK, if a few guilty people get off, it's because the job was not done well enough by the prosecution and the police. Due process, it's everything.
She lines up who the law protects, then calls due process the whole job.
❝ The job is to not know
But a lawyer's job is not that grand. Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know. The only way the system works is because we all play our roles. My role is defence. The prosecutor prosecutes. We each tell a story and the jury decide which story is the one they believe. They take the responsibility. A good lawyer just tells the best version of their client's story. Nothing more. Nothing else. Just a storyteller, a voice piece. Never judge, never ever judge. Never decide! The minute you do that, you are fucked! You've lost. Well, you are lost.
She shrinks the lawyer to a voice, then makes judging the moment you lose yourself.
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Questions, then the linesWhy is the pupil stopped from asking whether the client did it?
He wants to plead not guilty. The warning is that if he then says he did it, "it limits what you can say in court." She is told to take his instructions and, "If he has a case, you run it." Asking would mean she starts to decide.
What does this account say a lawyer's real job is?
"The job is not to know, it's to not know." Defence and prosecution each tell a story, "the jury decide which story is the one they believe," and "They take the responsibility." A good lawyer is "just a storyteller, a voice piece."
Why is the polite cross-examination not described as an attack?
"He never goes in for the kill." He "lulls them with sympathy and then analyses their answers," because "His view is there is no need to cause pain" when the accounts are "usually so uncorroborated."
How is the dinner-party question answered?
The question quoted is "How do you act for someone who you know did it?" The reply is that the job is not grand: if some guilty people "get off," it is because the prosecution and the police did not do the job well enough. "Due process, it's everything."