By Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) – “Baby Reindeer” clearly involved dramatisation, Netflix said on Tuesday, in response to concerns over its compliance standards sparked by online speculation about the real-life people behind the characters in its hit mini-series.
“This is a true story” appears on screen after the opening of the show, the chilling story of a bartender stalked by a customer, written by and starring comedian Richard Gadd.
Netflix was sued in June for at least $170 million by a Scottish woman who said she had been defamed by her portrayal as a stalker in the global hit, which won best limited series at the Emmys.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on Tuesday the show was Gadd’s true story, although elements were clearly dramatised.
“I am very proud of Richard and proud of the story he told, and the way he told it, and it is his true story,” he told the Royal Television Society London Convention.
“Baby Reindeer” differed from other shows in the same genre by not claiming to be “based on” a true story but to be an actual one, raising questions about the ethics of portraying real people.
“It is not a documentary, and there are elements of the story that are dramatised, we are watching it performed by actors on television, we think that it’s abundantly clear that there is dramatisation involved,” Sarandos added.
Fiona Harvey has publicly claimed to be the inspiration behind the show’s “Martha”, played by actress Jessica Gunning, who shares a physical resemblance with Harvey, who like the character is a London lawyer.
In a complaint filed in Los Angeles, Harvey said Netflix and Gadd had gone too far by suggesting through the show that she was a twice-convicted stalker who had been sentenced to five years in prison.
Harvey denied having stalked Gadd, who in the show plays a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn, or having been convicted or imprisoned. But she said many people could not tell the difference, and that thousands of Reddit and TikTok users talk about her as the “real” Martha.
Netflix said in response to the lawsuit that it intended to defend the matter “vigorously”.
Sarandos said on Tuesday the debate stirred by the series was “fairly unique” to Britain, adding it was “not happening anywhere else in the world”.
He also announced a new multi-year scripted series deal with Gadd and said “Baby Reindeer” would be one of Netflix’s top four global shows — all produced in Britain — when the company publishes its audience engagement report later this week.
“Number one, two, three and four shows were all produced here in the UK: “Fool Me Once”, “Baby Reindeer”, “Bridgerton” and “The Gentlemen”,” he added.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Alexander Smith)
