Stars of the recent Netflix series Baby Reindeer have attended the BAFTA Television Awards alongside the threat of legal action from the ‘real Martha’. The show is based on the real-life stalking experience of its creator Richard Gadd, with actress Jessica Gunning portraying the character Martha. Fiona Harvey, who allegedly inspired the character, has denied multiple times stalking Gadd and is threatening legal action against him and Netflix.
Gadd and Gunning, along with co-star Shalom Brune-Franklin, presented an award at the ceremony where Happy Valley and Top Boy dominated the wins. Harvey recently spoke to Piers Morgan Uncensored, revealing she has not watched the show and counter-claimed the stalking allegations, blaming Gadd instead. Morgan, however, believes that Harvey lied “quite a lot” during the interview, saying it would quickly emerge that she did stalk Gadd if legal action goes ahead.
The backlash from the interview was swift, with viewers labeling it “exploitative”, “cruel”, “irresponsible” and “ghoulish”. Gadd himself has urged people to refrain from speculating on real identities behind the characters in the series. Writer Russell T. Davies noted that if Baby Reindeer was made by the BBC, much stricter measures would have been in place to protect the identities of the real-life people involved.
Netflix’s policy chief, Benjamin King, has stated the streaming platform and production company took reasonable precautions to disguise the real-life identities of the people involved in the story. Despite the legal threats, Baby Reindeer remains available to stream on Netflix
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