Baby Reindeer turns nasty: The extremely graphic messages, explicit gifts, ‘handsy’ behaviour and terrifying threats Richard Gadd claims real-life ‘Martha’ sent him – as $120m court case takes a very surprising twist

Only 84 people per evening were able to enter the small venue to see Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Fringe play Baby Reindeer, which ran for almost four weeks in 2019.

But that low-key game – the basis of the hit television show Baby Reindeer – could ultimately cost the TV streaming service Netflix as much as $120 million, plus legal fees.

In June, lawyers acting for Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha, launched an unqualified legal attack on Netflix, demanding $170 million (£130 million), claiming she had been defamed ‘on a scale and scale ‘. without precedent’. She also sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and gross negligence, among other charges.

As Netflix fights to have the case dismissed before it goes to trial in May, Ms. Harvey appears in no mood to surrender. This week, her legal team filed another amended complaint, pointing out some hugely important differences between the play and the TV show, which turned heads at the Emmys last month.

According to court papers, the play, performed by Richard Gadd as his alter ego stand-up comedian Donny Dunn, never claimed to be “a true story” as the TV show does, but instead states that it was “based based on a true story’. . Furthermore, it is claimed that the piece contains no reference to any arrest, conviction, admission of guilt or imprisonment for Martha.

This, Harvey’s team argues, is crucial because the Netflix show ends with Martha pleading guilty to stalking Donny. Because she is a convicted stalker, she is sentenced to four and a half years in prison for this second crime due to a previous campaign against a lawyer.

In the play Baby Reindeer, on the other hand, she is never arrested, let alone convicted. Instead, Donny is told by the police that Martha cannot be arrested because they do not believe she committed a crime, and he is ordered to ‘apologize’ to her, to stop ‘harassing’ the police and to hear, “I understand the frustration, but the bickering is not a crime.”

In the play, Gadd’s character tells the audience, “The last experience with the police was so searing and so embarrassing that I refuse to involve them again.”

It ends with him getting a restraining order against her.

Harvey’s team says such discrepancies prove that Netflix knew all along that she had never been convicted of stalking once, let alone twice.

According to legal documents filed by her team on Wednesday: “By omitting the entire arc and premise of the series, a convicted stalker returns to prison after pleading guilty to stalking Gadd, from the Play… inform Netflix of details about Harvey’s criminal history in the Series was most likely false.’

Not that Harvey is the only one on the warpath. For I can reveal some of Richard Gadd’s alleged experiences by Fiona Harvey, which are detailed in affidavits filed in court in Los Angeles and which make for breathtaking reading.

Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha in Baby Reindeer

Actress Jessica Gunning, who plays ‘Martha’ in the show, and Richard Gadd, who plays himself, pose with their Emmy Awards in California earlier this year

Allegations include Harvey telling Gadd that her clitoris had fallen off due to excessive masturbation, that she sent him her “lucky pants” in the mail after he blocked her email, as well as invitations and demands for him to engage in sexual activity.

She also reportedly complained about her itchy pubic hair.

There were also allegedly racist rants about immigrants and the observation that she went to the “gun store” and that “if we got rid of [London mayor Sadiq] Khan everyone will sleep peacefully’.

Gadd also said Harvey pushed him in the neck after he confronted her about allegedly stalking a lawyer and told him his “big mouth would get him in trouble.” In his statement he complained about her repeated ‘handsy’ behaviour, touching his bottom while he was waiting in a pub in Camden, north London, where he worked while trying to make it as a comedian.

In the TV series, in which Donny is also working in a pub, this unwanted sexual contact is depicted as much more serious: Martha sexually assaults Donny in an alley, something her team says never happened in real life. In the TV series she attacks him with a glass and stabs him in the eye, which Mrs. Harvey says is defamatory and untrue.

For her part, Gadd says she received a first-degree harassment warning letter in 2016, which named the Hawley Arms pub where “the victim” worked. After months of further abuse, during which Harvey allegedly told Gadd, “If I want you dead, you’re dead,” Gadd says she received another warning letter for first-degree harassment in 2017. He attaches his correspondence with police as evidence. This is the first time Netflix has revealed the precise details of its contact with police.

Fiona appeared in a YouTube interview with Piers Morgan in which she denied sending thousands of emails to Richard Gadd, as depicted in the Netflix show

Previously, Netflix chief executive Benjamin King told the Commons committee that the show was “a true story” and that Gadd was the target of a “convicted stalker”.

He then ‘clarified’ his evidence in an email to the former committee chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage in July, writing that ‘the person on whom the show is based’ was in fact ‘subject to a court order rather than a condemnation’.

In her amended complaint against Netflix, Harvey includes her clear DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check to prove she has not been convicted of any crime. The incidents in the TV program that do not appear in the play include a reference to Martha waiting outside Donny’s flat 16 hours a day, including in the middle of the night.

There is also no reference in the play to Martha smashing a glass over his head, which she does in the TV series.

The complaint adds that in interviews he did to publicize the TV show, Gadd retreated from the position that it was a “true story,” the line Netflix used in publicity materials and on screen. They note that he called it “pretty truthful,” “100 percent emotionally true” and “very emotionally true.” In a ruling last week in California, Judge R. Gary Klausner noted that there were significant discrepancies between what actually happened and what was shown on screen.

He wrote: ‘There is a big difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in court.’ He added: ‘There are big differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between pushing and reaching out in front of someone else.’

Judge Klausner disagreed with Netflix, which stated that these things should be considered “substantially true” because she demonstrably did similar things in real life.

Netflix also argued that most viewers would understand that the claims made in the show were “not factual” because it was shot in the style of a drama. The judge disagreed, writing, “Although the statements are made in a series that largely has the hallmarks of a black comedy-drama, the very first episode unequivocally states that ‘this is a true story,’ inviting the audience to accept statements. as fact.’

Netflix also said that the similarities between the real and fictional people were so broad that average viewers would not have been able to identify Mrs. Harvey as Martha. The judge disagreed. Netflix is ​​appealing the ruling.

The judge sided with Netflix in parts of Ms. Harvey’s case, rejecting her claims for negligence and gross negligence, as well as her request for damages.

As both powerful teams of lawyers prepare for the next round of hostilities, some observers believe the time has likely come for Netflix to settle with Harvey.

This month, a mediator, Gail Title, was assigned to the case. Netflix must submit a mediation questionnaire to her next Tuesday. Could the off-screen drama finally be coming to an end?