Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd has urged people to stop trying to work out the real-life identity of his stalker portrayed in his new Netflix series.
Gadd plays the lead role of Donny in the show, which portrays his experience of being stalked by a woman.
The show has gone viral since airing and has topped Netflix’s viewing chart since its release. On social media, however, the show has sparked a wealth of internet sleuths who are claiming to have worked out the identity of the stalker.
Gadd had previously made it clear that he’s changed names and specific details of the story to protect the identities of those involved and claimed ‘Martha’, as his stalker is named in the show, “would not even recognise herself” if watching.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, many users have speculated on the woman’s identity to the point where Gadd has now intervened.
The overwhelming message of Baby Reindeer is about the danger of stalking and the damage it can do yet all I’m seeing online are TikTok detectives trying to get the actual stalker to accept their follow request on Instagram
— Ronan (@RonanCantSee) April 22, 2024
people online finding the real stalker in baby reindeer and tweeting them / quote tweeting them have really missed the whole fucking point of that show
— emily pilbeam (@empilbeam) April 22, 2024
I don’t think we should be collectively stalking the baby reindeer stalker pic.twitter.com/2hi3amugtw
— edie! edi! edié! (@ediemullen) April 22, 2024
The fact that everyone is now stalking the stalker from Baby Reindeer is straight out of a Black Mirror episode.
— Duaine Carma Roberts (@CarmaChords) April 22, 2024
Gadd wrote on his Instagram Story about how “people I love, have worked with, and admire” were being targeted unfairly online.
He added: ”’Please don’t speculate on who any of the real life people could be. That’s not the point of the show.”
Gadd previously told GQ: ‘We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself.’
He also told The Independent: ‘I can’t emphasise enough how much of a victim she is in all this…Stalking and harassment is a form of mental illness. It would have been wrong to paint her as a monster, because she’s unwell, and the system’s failed her.”
The synopsis explained that the show focuses “on struggling comedian Donny Dunn’s (Gadd) strange and layered relationship with a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning), whose initially friendly demeanour unravels as she begins to stalk Donny relentlessly”.
“Their first interaction is innocent enough: While working his shift as a bartender, Donny shows an act of kindness to Martha, a customer whose vulnerability is readily apparent,” the synopsis adds.
“But, as the saying goes, ‘no good deed goes unpunished,’ and this casual encounter sparks a suffocating obsession that threatens to wreck both their lives and forces Donny to face his deeply buried trauma.”
The show’s soundtrack features a number of classic rock and pop songs, including tracks from Roxy Music, Dusty Springfield, David Byrne, Peggy Lee, Brian Eno and George Harrison. Read a breakdown of the full soundtrack here.
Some viewers of the show also believe they have spotted a hidden code hidden in Martha’s emails on the show, which appear to reference the show Lost.
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