Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Baby Reindeer, TV and Film
Jess Battison
It might have been a good few weeks now since it was released, but Baby Reindeer is still holding the top spot on Netflix.
Based on a harrowing true story, the miniseries has left viewers speechless as they praise both the stars for their portrayal of the characters.
Richard Gadd wrote Baby Reindeer based on his real ‘warped relationship’ with his female stalker.
The comedian also stars in the Netflix series as a fictionalised version of himself, named Donny Dunn.
Gadd was heavily stalked by a woman for six years before the police finally became involved. And over that time, the 34-year-old was completely inundated with emails, phone calls and tweets.
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His stalker is given the fictional name ‘Martha’ in the series and is known for signing off every email with 'Sent from my iPhone' (or sometimes just 'iphon'), despite not emailing from an iPhone.
And Netflix previously confirmed that the mega number of emails it says he receives in the show really is the true number of what he was flooded with in real life.
The streaming giant shared a graphic to Instagram, giving a full breakdown of the contact Gadd had from his stalker.
The star also received a number of Facebook messages, tweets and letters which were left out of Baby Reindeer.
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Netflix wrote in the post: “You’ll never believe the hell one cup of tea can cause.”
The real-life ‘Martha’ (her name was changed to keep things private) used four Facebook accounts to send Gadd 46 messages on there.
She also sent 106 pages of letters, 350 hours of voicemail and 744 tweets to the comedian.
And on top of all of this, she flooded him with a whopping 41,071 emails (Netflix clarified its graphic should state 41,071). The stalker would also show up at Gadd’s work, gigs and his home.
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Baby Reindeer has been praised for offering an alternative narrative of stalking, as Gadd describes it as a ‘mental illness’.
He told Tudum: “I really wanted to show the layers of stalking with a human quality I hadn’t seen on television before.
"It’s a stalker story turned on its head. It takes a trope and turns it on its head.”
Viewers have called it a ‘compelling watch’ and a ‘truly special series’.
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One wrote on X: “Much respect for using his experiences to produce such an authentic, complex & uncomfortable drama.”
Baby Reindeer is available to stream on Netflix.
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