Baby Reindeer was already a creepy and gripping miniseries, but viewers were shocked when they discovered that the plot was based on Scottish comedian Richard Gadd's real-life stalker. This added an extra layer of eeriness to the show.
The plot revolves around a fictionalised version of Gadd named Donny Dunn, who is forced to confront buried trauma when a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) starts stalking him.
The True Story Behind Baby Reindeer
Similar to the show, the stalking first began when Gadd offered an unnamed woman a complimentary cup of tea when she visited the London pub where he was employed in 2015.
For four and a half years, Gadd endured the torment of being stalked by this 'fan' who, like Martha, referred to him as Baby Reindeer. The series delves deeper into the many years of stalking and harassment while trying to make it as a stand-up comedian and writer in London.
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Despite Martha's unsettling actions, Gadd doesn't shy away from acknowledging the complexities of the situation. Martha’s character had more layers. Many factors contributed to the stalking, and to paint her as a downright awful character was unfair.
“It would be unfair to say she was an awful person, and I was a victim, That didn’t feel true,” Gadd shared in an interview with The Guardian in 2019 during the run of his one-man play of the same name.
Netflix Confirms They Used Real Emails from the Stalker
Netflix has confirmed that the show also presents the exact emails sent by the woman to Gadd. But it wasn't mountains of emails that both Gadd and his character Donny received. The unnamed woman sent 41,071 emails, 35 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 106 pages of letters, and 46 Facebook messages to the aspiring comedian.
Gadd also received strange gifts from the woman, including a reindeer toy, underwear, sleeping pills, a woolly hat, and boxer shorts.
In the show, Martha ultimately receives a nine-month prison sentence and a five-year restraining order for stalking Donny. In real life, Gadd didn’t disclose how the situation was resolved.
Gadd Reveals Another Traumatic Experience
Stalking isn’t the sole aspect of Baby Reindeer derived from Gadd’s life. The show also talked about how an older male TV industry mentor sexually assaulted Gadd. This ordeal left him emotionally shattered, grappling with questions about his sexuality and battling intense self-loathing, made worse by the relentless harassment from Martha.
All the unsettling details Gadd divulged about his life in the Netflix series Baby Reindeer were initially showcased on stage during a stand-up comedy performance titled Monkey See Monkey Do at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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