The actress who played Martha Scott in hit new Netflix series Baby Reindeer has urged viewers to stop searching for the real-life person her character is based on.
Yorkshire-born Jessica Gunning, 38, called the search a “real disgrace”, adding that viewers trying to find the real-life Martha missed the point of the show.
The six-part series, created by Richard Gadd, is based on his own experience of harassment and horrific sexual assault, and shows how his ordeal of harassment unfolds as Martha’s character becomes increasingly obsessed with him.
Now, after watching the series, some fans have been thrown into a frenzy as they try to track down Gadd’s real-life stalker, despite him repeatedly emphasizing that his stalker was also a victim and someone in serious need of mental health support, which I never received.
in conversation with GlamorJessica commented: ‘I didn’t know that was happening. I urge people not to do that. “I think if that’s happening, I think it’s a real shame, because it shows that they haven’t seen the show properly.”
The face behind Martha Scott in Baby Reindeer, Jessica Gunning (pictured), has urged viewers to stop searching for the real-life Martha.
The actress, who also appeared in The Outlaws and Back alongside Davis Mitchell and Robert Webb, added that Richard went to great lengths to protect her character’s identity.
He continued: “I think they should try watching the show again and really see what the point was; it definitely wasn’t that.”
Richard first wrote a one-man stage show and then the Netflix series about her ordeal, and previously revealed in an interview with GQ: ‘We’ve gone to great lengths to disguise her to the point where I don’t think she would recognize herself.’
Meanwhile, Jessica explained that her performance on the critically acclaimed show was never intended to be an imitation of the real-life Martha in the first place.
He added: “I deliberately didn’t want to do an impersonation of someone, I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.”
The 38-year-old actress explained that she felt an immense responsibility throughout the filming process to ensure Richard’s mental well-being as he relived traumatic events.
Richard met his stalker in real life after offering “a crying stranger a cup of tea” when she walked into the bar where he worked in 2015.
But the woman’s obsession grew. She began to invade her life by following him and even waiting outside her house, and his harassment lasted four and a half years.
The British actress has said viewers tracking down Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker have missed the point of the show (pictured: Jessica as Martha)
Richard Gadd (pictured) relived a series of traumatic events in the critically acclaimed Netflix show.
She interrupted him at his concerts and abused his parents, even jeopardizing his livelihood by calling him a pedophile among his co-workers.
At first, Richard’s friends saw the funny side of his stalker’s attention, and the actor [previously saying: ‘At first everyone at the pub thought it was funny that I had an admirer.
‘Then she started to invade my life, following me, turning up at my gigs, waiting outside my house, sending thousands of voicemails and emails.’
Netflix said that every single email shown in the series was a real message sent from the stalker to Richard.
However the stalker also gave him items such as sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a pair of brand new boxer shorts and a stuffed reindeer toy – something Martha did not do in the series.
It was ‘years’ before the police eventually took Richard’s complaints seriously and six years before they finally intervened, he previously told The Times – something which prolonged the agony for everyone involved, including his relatives.
The police told him at the time that unless his stalker became physically violent, there was little they could do to resolve the issue.
Gadd has revealed he first encountered ‘Martha’ when he was working in a pub and offered her a cup of tea because she was crying
The show tells the story of how, after the chance pub encounter, ‘Martha’ became obsessed with Richard (who is named Donny in the series)
Richard was forced to prove there was a danger by recording his stalker’s voicemails and combing through them to find instances of her threatening him or those close to him.
But despite her affecting his life for years, he has since said that he feels sorry for her, adding that she is a victim of a ‘failed system’.
He told The Independent at the time: ‘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.’
He told The Guardian that because she was not getting the assistance she needed, ‘her instability would just come down the phone at me every day.’
It comes after fans of the hit Netflix show are convinced they have found Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker based on an old clip that has emerged online.
The Netflix series sees Martha be given a prison sentence for her offences but Gadd hasn’t divulged the fate of his own stalker, except to say the issue has been resolved and he never wanted to ‘throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell in prison’. Jessica Gunning and Richard last week
The video shows the comedian, from Fife, onstage competing in Cambridge for the Chortle Student Comedy Award.
Dressed in a red T-shirt, he joked about having trouble with the microphone stand, making the audience howl with laughter.
But viewers were shocked to hear a familiar giggle, almost identical to that of Martha Scott, the name of the stalker in the hit series (played by Jessica Gunning) in the audience.
In the programme, Donny (played by Gadd himself) also speaks in detail about her infectious, distinctive laugh.
The 34-year-old comedian has not revealed the name and identity of the real life woman – meaning it is incredibly hard to find out where she is now.
But those addicted to the series have been on a mission to uncover her identity and have been trawling through clips of his old sets to see if they can find her.
The clip from 2012, posted on TikTok by @goggle_tok, racked up 9.6million views on the platform, with thousands of lovers of the show commenting their thoughts.
One wrote: ‘The laugh is so accurate,’ Another agreed and penned: ‘It sounds JUST like her.’
A third said: ‘I want to see the real Martha.’
A fourth also commented and claimed that Gadd makes ‘the exact same joke’ in episode one of the Netflix show and that it is the ‘same set’. It is not known who filmed the original video, nor is it confirmed exactly whose laughter can be heard in the audience.
However, Gadd has since been slammed for ‘not doing enough’ to protect the identity of his stalker after internet sleuths claimed to find her online.
He previously made it clear that he’s changed names and specific details of the story to protect the identities of those involved, even claiming that ‘Martha’ ‘would not even recognise herself’ in hit show.
But since the series aired, fans have gone crazy over potential theories on who each of the characters could be in reality, with some claiming to have found the actual real life Martha’s identity.
Taking to X fans of the show criticised the series for not doing enough to protect the stalker’s identity with one person saying: ‘How can he say they went to great lengths to protect her identity?! They literally changed her name and nothing else. Surely they knew this would happen.’
The 34-year-old plays the lead Donny in the Netflix series which is based on his own experiences of being stalked by a woman called Martha Scott, played by Jessica Gunning (pictured) and sexually abused by a high profile comedy agent
Another wrote: ‘I thought he stated that the character profile of Martha was so much removed from the original stalker even she’d not be able to identify herself?’
Referring to a woman fans think is Martha, they continued: ‘If this is her, it doesn’t seem very far removed…either way once I watched I wondered how long it would take for.’
Another agreed saying: ‘Yeah there’s absolutely no chance that they will be shocked at this unraveling so quickly and easily lol.’
Someone else wrote: ‘People actually found the real Martha’s Twitter and engaging with it? A known looney stalker woman is who people want to engage with? Ain’t no way.’
Another said: ‘It bothers me that the show didn’t do enough to conceal her identity in the first instance. If it’s not her, then they’ve implicated the wrong person. And if it is, well who knows how she would take it. So wrong. And like you say, missed the point of the show.’
People have suggested that enough details of the real stalker’s life, and her messages to Gadd were included in the drama that amateur investigators were allegedly able to identify her online.
Similarly, as internet sleuths try to track down Gadd’s TV executive abuser people in the public eye are being hounded by speculation.
Now Gadd has been forced to ask people to stop trying to figure it out, because it is leading to false accusations against his friends.