Only 84 people a night were allowed into the small venue to see Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Fringe play Baby Reindeer, which ran for almost four weeks in 2019.
But that low-key move, the basis of the hit TV show Baby Reindeer, could end up costing TV streaming service Netflix up to $120m (£92m), plus legal fees.
In June, lawyers for Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha, launched a no-holds-barred legal attack on Netflix, demanding $170m (£130m), claiming she had been defamed “to a magnitude and scale”. unprecedented’. He was also suing for, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and gross negligence.
As Netflix fights to have the case dismissed before it goes to trial next May, Ms. Harvey appears to be in no mood to give up. This week, his legal team filed another amended complaint, pointing out a number of hugely significant differences between the play and the television show, which swept the Emmys last month.
Hit TV show Baby Reindeer could end up costing TV streaming service Netflix up to $120m (£92m), plus legal fees.
According to court documents, the play, performed by Richard Gadd as his alter ego, comedian Donny Dunn, never claimed to be “a true story” as the television show does, but instead claimed it was “based on a true story.” . Furthermore, it is stated that the work does not contain any reference to any arrest, conviction, guilty plea or imprisonment of Martha.
This, Harvey’s team maintains, is key because the Netflix show ends with Martha pleading guilty to harassing Donny. Being a convicted stalker, due to a previous campaign against a lawyer, she is sentenced to four and a half years in prison for this second crime.
By contrast, in the play Baby Reindeer, she is never arrested, much less convicted. Instead, the police tell Donny that Martha cannot be arrested because they do not believe she committed a crime, and order him to “apologize” to her, stop “bothering” the police, and tell him, “I understand the frustration, but the boos.” It’s not a crime.’
In the play, Gadd’s character tells the audience: “The last experience with the police was so hot, so embarrassing that I refuse to involve them again.”
It ends with him getting a restraining order against her.
Harvey’s team says discrepancies like these show that Netflix knew all along that she had never been convicted of harassment once, much less twice.
According to legal documents filed by his team on Wednesday: ‘The omission of the entire arc and premise of the series, a convicted stalker returns to prison after pleading guilty to stalking Gadd, from the play… put Netflix on notice that the details about Harvey’s criminal record in the series are most likely false.
Not that Harvey is the only one up in arms. Because I can reveal some of Richard Gadd’s alleged experiences at the hands of Fiona Harvey, which have been described in affidavits filed in a Los Angeles court, which make for astonishing reading.
Fiona Harvey, the real inspiration for the stalker Martha in Baby Reindeer
Actress Jessica Gunning, who plays ‘Martha’ in the series, and Richard Gadd, who plays himself, pose with their Emmy awards in California earlier this year.
The allegations include that Harvey told Gadd that her clitoris had fallen out due to excessive masturbation, that she sent him her ‘lucky pants’ in the mail after he blocked her email, as well as invitations and demands for him to engage in sexual activities.
He also reportedly complained that his pubic hair was itchy.
There were also allegedly racist rants about immigrants and a remark that she was going to the “armoury” and that “if we get rid of (London mayor Sadiq) Khan, everyone will sleep easy.”
Gadd also said Harvey shoved him in the back of the head after he confronted her about allegedly harassing a lawyer and told him her “big mouth was going to get him in trouble.” In her statement, she complained about his repeated “handyman” behaviour, touching her bottom while he waited tables at a pub in Camden, north London, where she worked while trying to make it as a comedian.
In the television series, which also shows Donny working in a pub, this unwanted sexual contact is described as much more serious: Martha sexually attacks Donny in an alley, something her team says never happened in real life. . In the television series, she is seen attacking him with a glass and gouging out his eyes, which Ms Harvey claims is defamatory and false.
For his part, Gadd says he first received a harassment warning letter in 2016, which cited the Hawley Arms pub where ‘the victim’ worked. After months of new abuse, including Harvey allegedly telling Gadd, “If I want you dead, you’re fucking dead,” Gadd says he received another harassment warning letter in the first instance in 2017. He includes his correspondence with police as evidence . This is the first time Netflix has revealed the precise details of its contact with the police.
Fiona appeared in a YouTube interview with Piers Morgan in which she denied sending thousands of emails to Richard Gadd as depicted in the Netflix show.
Previously, Netflix executive Benjamin King told the House of Commons select committee that the show was “a true story” and that Gadd had been attacked by a “convicted stalker.”
He then “clarified” his evidence in an email to former committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage in July, writing that “the person on whom the program is based” was actually “subject to a court order rather than a conviction”.
In her amended complaint against Netflix, Harvey includes her clear DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check to show that she has not been convicted of any crime. Incidents from the television show that are not described in the play include a reference to Martha waiting outside Donny’s apartment for 16 hours a day, even in the middle of the night.
There is also no reference in the play to Martha breaking a glass over his head, which she does in the television series.
The complaint adds that in interviews he did to publicize the television show, Gadd backed away from the position that it was a “true story,” which is the line Netflix used in promotional material and on screen. They note that he called it “pretty sincere,” “100 percent emotionally true,” and “very emotionally true.” In a ruling last week in California, Judge R. Gary Klausner noted that there were substantial disparities between what actually happened and what was shown on screen.
He wrote: “There is a big difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in a court of law.” He added: “There are big differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between pushing and gouging another person’s eyes.”
Judge Klausner disagreed with Netflix, which argued that those things should be seen as “substantially true” because she could be said to have done similar things in real life.
Netflix also argued that most viewers would understand that claims made in the show are “not objective” because it was filmed in the style of a drama. The judge disagreed, writing: “While the statements were made in a series that largely has the attributes of a black comedy-drama, the first episode unequivocally states that ‘this is a true story,’ thus inviting audience to accept the statements”. as a fact.’
Netflix also said that the similarities between the real and fictional people were so extensive that average viewers would not have been able to identify Harvey as Martha. The judge did not agree. Netflix is appealing the ruling.
The judge sided with Netflix in parts of Ms. Harvey’s case, dismissing her claims for negligence and gross negligence, and her request for punitive damages.
As both high-powered legal teams prepare for the next round of hostilities, some observers believe the time has probably come for Netflix to settle with Harvey.
A mediator, Gail Title, was assigned to the case this month. Netflix has to send you a mediation questionnaire by Tuesday of next week. Could the off-screen drama finally be coming to an end?