Piers Morgan Teases Interview With Real-Life ‘Baby Reindeer’ Stalker as Netflix Responds to Hysteria
Once again, for another consecutive day, we have a string of headlines about Baby Reindeer.
The popular limited series produced by Netflix, which was written and acted by Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, has gained immense attention since its release on April 11th. The show is based on Gadd’s own six-year ordeal of being stalked which led to a lot of curiosity amongst people who have been trying to find clues about the real-life entities that inspired the characters. The show has been the most viewed TV series on the streaming platform for three consecutive weeks.
People have been talking a lot about two characters from the show. One is Martha, played by Jessica Gunning, who stalks someone. The other is Darrien, played by Tom Goodman-Hill, who gave drugs to and sexually assaulted Gadd the character. People got really caught up in the story and started imagining things that weren't true. Gadd asked people to stop because it was causing trouble for people who didn't do anything wrong. He wants fans to remember what the show is really about.
Some people did not listen to the request. Piers Morgan announced on Wednesday that he had secured a "world exclusive" interview with a woman named Fiona Harvey who says she is Gadd's stalker. Morgan revealed in a post on X that "Fiona Harvey wants to speak out & 'clear the air'", and shared a photo of himself standing behind Harvey on the set of his show, Piers Morgan Uncensored. The post was widely circulated and has elicited different reactions, with some people questioning the ethical duty of talking to someone who may be struggling with mental health issues.
"Exclusive around the world", the actual Martha from the popular show "Baby Reindeer" unveils her identity and gives an interview on television for the first time. Fiona Harvey wishes to express her opinion and "make things clear". Is she truly a crazy stalker? Tune in tomorrow on @PiersUncensored to discover the truth.
By chance, Morgan's blog post was published a few hours after "Baby Reindeer" was discussed during a U.K. Parliament hearing that was centered around British film and television projects. Benjamin King, who is Netflix's policy chief, stated that the streamer and the producers at Clerkenwell Films did everything they could to conceal the identities of those who inspired Gadd's work, which originated as a stage play with the same title.
The blog section discusses the plot of the film Baby Reindeer. The main character, Gadd’s Donny Dunn, is a comedian who works at a bar. He meets a woman named Martha, and offers her a free cup of tea. However, Martha turns out to be a serial stalker who sends Donny more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemails over a period of several years. Donny describes the experience as overwhelming and disruptive to his life, but he also feels sorry for Martha and sees her as someone who is lost and in need of help. These ideas were discussed during a TV Academy panel in Los Angeles.
At the hearing on Wednesday, King expressed that although they were careful, they didn't want to change the story too much and make it unrecognizable. This was important since it would defeat the purpose of the show. It's hard to stop viewers from doing what they want, especially with social media. King personally believes that it's wrong to silence Richard and not let him tell his story.
The King was part of a group of people who joined the panel, which included Chris Bird, the director of Prime Video in the United Kingdom for Amazon. There were also Gidon Freeman, the senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs at NBCUniversal, and Mitchell Simmons, the vice president of public policy and government affairs for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Paramount. Deadline was the first to report on the hearing.
