With Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd turned a vulnerable, radically confessional story about surviving sexual abuse into the year’s most unlikely TV hit. That, it turns out, was the easy part.
In the beginning, the frenzy was about the show: this nuanced, messy, human story with no clear victim and no clear perpetrator, which explored the complexities and far-reaching radiation zone that is the aftermath of abuse. But the attention soon changed tone. Internet sleuths tracked down a theatre director they believed the show’s sexually abusive TV executive was based on. Fans then turned their attention to finding the real-life Martha, the woman who becomes the stalker of Gadd’s character Donny. They pinpointed 59-year-old Fiona Harvey, who then went on Piers Morgan Uncensored to talk about it, before filing a £130m lawsuit against Netflix for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity.
For all of this, Gadd hopes the series’ legacy won’t be its awards or its pending legal battles, but something else entirely. “A lot of referral rates for abuse charities and stalking charities are up considerably because of Baby Reindeer,” he says, listing the statistics: referrals to We Are Survivors are up 80% in referrals and 53% of that 80% cite Baby Reindeer as the reason why they’re there. “It's done a phenomenal amount of good in the world. I hope that people remember that as well, you know, in amongst everything.”
For #GQHype, we interview him about writing the show in a plastic garden chair in lockdown, the material's evolution from his live play "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and whether he’s got another one in him.
Written by
@hayleycampbelly
Photography by
@keirlaird
Styling by
@kitswann
Hair by
@pauldonovanhair
Grooming by
@piaxmaria
Tailoring by
@fayeeo
Set Design by Dan Wilson and
@joshstovell