I watched Baby Reindeer with everyone else. And, like everyone else, I found it compelling, viscerally upsetting in parts, hard to watch, stunningly original, oddly uplifting and haunting. Naively I thought the final episode would be the end of it.
Such is the speed of new releases on competing streaming sites; I assumed that another hot new show would appear the following week and eclipse it.
The persistence of the Baby Reindeer news cycle has been unusual. Typically, we watch a show that stirs up some discourse which rages online for days or a week, and then it eases and exits the public consciousness almost entirely. Not so in this case.
First, the internet discussed it at length. Media outlets covered it. Then, viewers of the show began to speculate on what real-life figures the characters were based on. Then, they claimed to have tracked down Martha on X and Facebook. They named a man they fervently believed to be the abuser and rapist Darrien.
At this point, Baby Reindeer’s creator, Richard Gadd, put out a statement on his Instagram to clear the man’s name, just an innocent former colleague, he said. He also urged these viewers to stop their searching. “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”
Last night, an interview aired. Piers Morgan sat down to talk to Fiona Harvey, the woman who claims to be who the character of Martha was based on. When announced, Piers’ ‘world exclusive’ was met with anger, glee, concern, and horror – all of which are highly useful responses when your profits come from interaction and outrage.
Yui Mok – PA Images
The interview, aired on the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel, was difficult to watch.
Though Piers never directly accuses her of being a mentally unwell stalker, he labours the point that this is how she’s portrayed in the show and now viewed by millions. He asks about her upbringing, her qualifications, the background of her current boyfriend – all information that, if revealed, could make her even more vulnerable to probing by internet sleuths.