Baby Reindeer is a British black comedy-drama thriller television miniseries created by and starring Richard Gadd, adapted from his autobiographical one-man show. Directed by Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch, it also stars Jessica Gunning, Nava Mau and Tom Goodman-Hill. The miniseries was released on April 11, 2024 on Netflix, where it had a strong viewership and received critical acclaim.
Baby Reindeer was nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six, including: Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Writing for Gadd, Outstanding Lead Actor for Gadd, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Gunning.
Aspiring comedian Donny Dunn works as a bartender in a London pub. He offers a cup of tea to a customer, Martha, to cheer her up. Martha develops an attachment to Donny and begins to stalk him both in person and online. Years earlier, Donny is being mentored by TV writer Darrien O'Connor, who supplies him with drugs. The latter repeatedly sexually assaults and rapes Donny during drug-induced blackouts, until they break off contact. In the present, Donny reports Martha to the police for stalking, violence and threatening his parents. She is arrested and spends nine months in prison. Darrien and Donny meet again. Darrien suggests a renewal of their collaboration. Donny reluctantly agrees.
- Tom Durant Pritchard as Jason, host of a comedy competition
- Laura Smyth as Glenda, M.C. of the comedy competition
- Will Hislop as Billy, a fellow comedian
- Amanda Root as Elle, Donny's mother
- Mark Lewis Jones as Gerry, Donny's father
- Hugh Coles as Francis, Donny's friend from drama school
- Josh Finan as Diggsy, a new employee at the pub
- Alexandria Riley as Detective Culver, the detective assigned to Donny's case
All seven episodes were simultaneously released on Netflix on 11 April 2024.
Development and casting
editThe series was announced in December 2020, with Richard Gadd set to write the series and star. Clerkenwell Films was set to produce. Weronika Tofilska was added as the director in August 2022, with Josephine Bornebusch announced as an additional director in March 2023. Richard Gadd was cast alongside the series announcement. Jessica Gunning was cast on 26 August 2022. Nava Mau was announced as a cast member in March 2023.
Filming began in mid-August 2022 in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, and continued in London in September.
Among the filming locations in London were the Stag's Head pub in Hoxton, which was used for exterior scenes at the Heart pub, the Regent's Canal in Haggerston, and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Donny's stand-up comedy shows were filmed at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley and The Comedy Store in Leicester Square. Darrien's apartment was filmed inside Marsham Court in Victoria. In Edinburgh, the Hoppy pub in Meadowbank, Edinburgh served as the exterior of the Festival Fringe venue for Donny's comedy show (interior scenes were filmed in the Army & Navy pub in Stoke Newington, London). Other exterior locations are the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket, where Donny is shown walking along the street amid festival activities.
Filming wrapped by early March 2023.
The series received critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 58 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A bracing work of autofiction by creator and star Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer can be a punishing watch but richly rewards viewers with its emotional complexity and excellent performances." On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 17 critics.
Baby Reindeer debuted at number five on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 8–14 April 2024, with 10.4 million hours viewed. On the following week, it climbed to number one and garnered 52.8 million viewing hours. The series remained at the same position for its third and fourth weeks, earning 87.4 and 73.6 million viewing hours.
Awards and nominations
editReal-life inspiration
editSpeculation about real-life inspirations for the show's fictional characters began to emerge online, as fans attempted to infer their identities on social media. Gadd asked fans to stop any kind of speculation in an April 2024 statement. After being falsely accused online of being the real-life counterpart to the character Darrien, theatre director Sean Foley reported the false allegations to the police. This led to a police investigation. Gadd confirmed that Foley was not behind the character.
On 9 May 2024, 59-year-old Scottish law graduate Fiona Muir-Harvey claimed to be the real-life inspiration for Martha in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, with previous tweets from an account linked to Muir-Harvey leading to increased suspicion. These included a reference to hanging curtains, a sexually suggestive phrase which was later used in the script of Baby Reindeer. During her Uncensored interview, Harvey admitted she had met Gadd several times at The Hawley Arms, Camden, but denied sending him 41,000 emails or going to his home, and stated she was planning to commence legal action against both Gadd and Netflix. She admitted to sending up to 10 emails and a letter as well as several tweets. She later claimed she was paid £250 to appear, and that the interview left her feeling "a bit used". The interview drew some criticism, questioning the ethics behind the decision. Laura Wray, a lawyer and widow of the Scottish politician Jimmy Wray, stated that she had briefly employed Harvey at her law firm in 1997, and that Harvey had made abusive social media posts after losing her job.
On 6 June, Harvey sued Netflix for $170 million, claiming that the show has "viciously destroyed" her. On September 27, U.S. Judge Gary Klausner dismissed Harvey's negligence and gross negligence claims, along with her request for punitive damages, but allowed her to continue the defamation case against Netflix, noting that Netflix misrepresented the show as a "true story" and failed to verify Gadd's claims.
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