Baby Reindeer, titled Szarvasbébi in Hungarian, is not an ordinary TV series, because not only is it based on a true story, but the protagonist, Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, actually experienced what he saw.
Photo: Netflix / Netflix
As an aspiring stand-up comedian, Richard Gadd worked as a barman in a London pub, and on one occasion he took pity on a customer who came in: an overweight woman who sat down at the counter, depressed and sad, claiming that she didn’t have money for a drink.
Gadd graciously invited him to something that ended up being four years of harassment: during this time
the woman sent him more than 40,000 e-mails and left 350 hours of voice messages on his phone,
not to mention the multitude of tweets, Facebook messages and traditional letters.
Based on a true story: Baby Reindeer
It is not by chance that the same story returns in the episodes of Baby Reindeer on Netflix, because Gadd created the series based on his own experience, and even took on the main role – only his character is called Donny, and of course he also gave his bully a different name. By the way, the woman kept calling Gadd Baby Raindeer, as if he were her partner, hence the title of the series.
Photo: Netflix / Netflix
A good part of the story is true, Gadd didn’t even hesitate to show what a sloppy comedian he was at the time: he actually represented a kind of anti-humor, he joked about his mother’s death or even Hitler, but the London audience was hardly receptive to that.
I wasn’t perfect back then, so it wouldn’t have made much sense to say I was.
I was aware that certain gestures would show the audience that I wasn’t a normal person – which made it difficult to play them,” Gadd told The Guardian in an interview.
Photo: Netflix / Netflix
Just like Donny in the series, Richard Gadd always left loopholes for his bully, he never completely closed the case: sometimes he felt sorry for the woman again, he just liked the fandom. In any case, the bully is not only a sexual predator in the story, his obsession appears more like a mental illness – as it actually was.
Netflix’s new series, Baby Reindeer, is becoming increasingly popular
Gadd also had to deal with a previous trauma, as he was a victim of rape as a budding comedian, which made him question his masculinity for a long time. He elaborated on this tragic turn of his life in the stage production Monkey See, Monkey Do, and told his story while sweating on a treadmill at the legendary Edinburgh Fringe festival.
In 2019, Baby Reindeer also debuted at the Fringe festival, but then not only reached London theaters, but also attracted the attention of Netflix. The seven-part miniseries is available here.
