NUMBER ONE SHOW
Netflix hit Baby Reindeer has taken the world by storm in its shocking portrayal of both a female stalker and male sexual abuse.
And its creator and star, Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, 34, is still reeling from how the fictionalised dramatisation of his own life experiences has been received.
“It’s clearly struck a chord,” he said this week.
“I really did believe in it, but it’s taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.”
Along with overnight global recognition for Gadd, his story has led victims to have the courage to contact charities for support.
Baby Reindeer, which has been No1 on Netflix, is drawn from Gadd’s experience in 2015 when he fell victim to a female stalker 20 years his senior.
The title is even drawn from her comment about the comedian’s wide-eyed innocence.
In the show the fictionalised character Martha is played with chilling skill by Fortitude actress Jessica Gunning, who takes a terrifying interest in barman and aspiring comic Donny.
Shockingly Gadd’s actual stalking ordeal follows on from him being sexually assaulted by an unnamed older male he met earlier in his career.
Gadd has not revealed the identities of the real abuser or stalker.
But his raw adaptation of his trauma has encouraged victims, especially male victims, to seek help.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust has revealed to the Mirror that the number of male callers has shot up in the wake of the launch of the series.
“Shows like Baby Reindeer do a great job of raising awareness about stalking, particularly for male victims who may not previously have sought support,” says Tallulah Belassiepage, senior policy and campaigns officer.
“One in five women and one in 10 men will be stalked in their lifetime,” she adds.
And this week, which is National Stalking Awareness Week, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust has released shocking research that shows just 1.7% of stalking cases last year resulted conviction.
And that is of those who came forward.
With double the number of women falling victim to the crime, the male victims are far less spoken about.
Yet as Gadd’s tale shows women can be perpetrators too.
In the series, Martha, already a convicted stalker, is seen camping out at Donny’s pub, bombarding him with emails and Facebook messages, and gatecrashing his comedy shows to heckle and loudly announce that she’s his girlfriend.
When he is forced to report her to the police, she switches her campaign of harassment to his parents, accusing his father of
in a being a paedophile. So what makes women like Martha tick? As Donny fears, is it that he gave her a free Diet Coke on the house?
Psychologist and children’s author Dr Pam Spurr explains: “Stalking, generally speaking, can