I just love Baby Reindeer ...even if it has gone wild

IF YOU haven’t watched Baby Reindeer, I recommend you enjoy your Sunday roast, get your stuff ready for work tomorrow (make sure any under-18s are in bed) and settle down for a binge.

In my opinion, the hype and accolades around the dark comedy thriller are deserved and since it’s Netflix’s No1 show, millions worldwide agree.

I came across it weeks ago not knowing what it was about. As I was doing my usual endless scrolling. and intrigued by the title, I pressed play, got hooked then stayed up to 3am to finish the series.

Critics have called it “a devastating examination of trauma and abuse” but there are also laughs in there. It has a lot of heart and honesty.

I loved that the protagonist Donny is Scottish and is played by actor Richard Gadd, who is also the writer, and is based on his real-life experience.

Richard is phenomenal, I was captivated by the performance of Jessica Gunning who plays Martha and I fell in love with trans actress Nava Mau, who portrays Terri.

But this isn’t a TV review and I’m not here to give spoilers.

It’s what’s happened since the show’s release that is as

GADD’S SAKE

Star Richard twisted and unexpected as the pages of the script.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know it’s based on an experience of stalking and tells the story of Donny Dunn, a struggling comic who ends up being harassed by a woman named Martha.

I’m slightly ashamed to admit that in the early hours, once I finished watching every episode consecutively, I lay in bed googling “the real Martha” but my research proved fruitless and I left it there.

Not so for those who started their own investigations and inevitably found “Martha” (now known as Fiona Harvey) through her own cyber footprint and real footage of stalking incidents involving Richard which had been posted on X.

It was only a matter of time before she was identified, then she made the unwise decision to unmask herself and started doing press interviews of her own, including a sitdown this week with Piers Morgan.

Here, she claims that she may take legal action against her portrayal on screen.

Personally, I’m interested in how her life has moved on, if she had spent any time in jail and hopefully been rehabilitated.

But for others, there seems to be a vendetta in “giving her a taste of her own medicine”, ironically dishing out their own version of online stalking and bullying.

And although Richard claimed he’d gone to great lengths to protect “Martha’s” identity, it was perhaps naive not to foresee this reaction.

Within the show, the character Donny is also the victim of a sex crime perpetrated by a male TV comedy writer and although the argument that he could still be out there working in the industry and abusing is valid, surely it’s up to Gadd if he wants to name him.

Maybe there’s a web sleuth in all of us, particularly after watching or listening to a true crime series. But it would never cross my mind to contact them, share what I’d learned with others online or try and solve a case – I don’t have the time!

Gadd was forced to take to Instagram and pleaded “please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show”.

But the genie is out of the bottle, the characters in Baby Reindeer have taken on a life of their own and, sadly, the creator of the series has no control over what happens next.