Fans of the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer are convinced they have found Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker based on an old clip that surfaced online.
The video shows the comedian, from Fife, on stage 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 roar with laughter.
But viewers were surprised to hear a familiar laugh, almost identical to that of Martha Scott, the name of the hit series’ stalker (played by Jessica Gunning), in the audience.
In the show, Donny (played by Gadd himself) also talks in detail about his infectious and distinctive laugh.
Lovers of the Netflix show Baby Reindeer were surprised to hear a familiar laugh in an old clip from Richard Gadd’s comedy sets. Above: Jessica Gunning as Martha in the series
The 34-year-old comedian has not revealed the real-life woman’s name or identity, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to know where she is now.
But addicts of the series have been on a mission to discover her identity and have been trawling through clips from her old sets to see if they can find her.
The 2012 clip, posted on TikTok by @goggle_tokIt racked up 9.6 million views on the platform, and thousands of lovers of the show commented on their opinions.
One wrote: “The laugh is so accurate,” another agreed and wrote: “It sounds JUST like her.”
A third said: “I want to see the real Martha.”
A fourth also commented, claiming that Gadd makes the “exact same joke” in episode one of the Netflix show and that it’s the “same set.” It is not known who filmed the original video, nor is it confirmed exactly who the laughter is heard from in the audience.
Baby Reindeer takes its title from the nickname given to Donny by his stalker, whose name on the show is Martha Scott.
The real-life ‘Martha’ sent him more than 41,000 emails, 350 hours of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters.
Dressed in a red t-shirt, Richard Gadd joked about having trouble with the microphone stand, which naturally caused the audience to howl with laughter.
The 34-year-old comedian has not revealed the real-life woman’s name or identity, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to know where she is now.
He also gave him items such as sleeping pills, a woolly hat, a new pair of boxers and a stuffed reindeer.
Gadd first met his stalker after offering “a crying stranger a cup of tea” when she walked into the bar where he worked.
But his obsession grew. She began to invade her life by following him, showing up at her concerts, and even waiting outside her house.
Even though the stalker affected her life for years, Gadd admitted that he feels sorry for her, adding that she is the victim of a “failed system.”
The video of the old show, posted on TikTok, racked up 9.6 million views on the platform, with thousands of lovers of the show commenting on their opinions.
He told the Independent at the time: ‘I can’t emphasize enough how much of a victim she is in all of this.
‘Bullying and bullying are a form of mental illness. It would have been a mistake to paint her as a monster, because she is not well and the system has failed her.
In the Netflix series, Martha receives a prison sentence for her crimes, but Gadd has not divulged the fate of her own stalker, except to say that the problem was resolved and that she never wanted to “throw someone who had that level of discomfort.” mental in jail”. prison’.
When asked if the release of the show could increase his obsessive behaviors, Gadd told the outlet, “I have to admit, it doesn’t.” Maybe seeing this in the press has made you think twice about his behavior.’
He also said GQ: “We’ve done everything we can to disguise her to the point where I don’t think she’ll recognize herself.”
The comedian added that the story is based on an “emotional truth” rather than a “fact-by-fact profile of someone.”
Speaking to The Times, he said he still finds it difficult to trust people and has followed “all the therapies.”
In the Netflix series, Martha receives a prison sentence for her crimes, but Gadd has not divulged the fate of her own stalker, except to say that the problem was resolved and that she never wanted to “throw someone who had that level of discomfort.” mental in jail”. prison’. Jessica Gunning and Richard last week
Gadd also said she couldn’t predict how her stalker would react to things, calling her an “idiosyncratic person.”
He said it took “years” before the police finally took his complaints seriously – and six years before they finally intervened – something that prolonged the agony of everyone involved, including his relatives.
Police told her at the time that unless her harasser became physically violent, there was little they could do to resolve the problem.
speaking to The timesHe has said that he still finds it difficult to trust people and that he has followed “all the therapies.”
He added that years of being bullied have left him with something “like post-traumatic stress disorder.” For the Netflix role, he lost weight to match his “neurotic” 25-pound self at the height of his own bullying nightmare.
Gadd says he is currently single and “more cautious” around people because of the campaign of terror Martha inflicted, saying, “It takes me a long time to trust them.” Before I would enter situations with so much abandon and it would burn me out.’
However, acting out a version of what happened to her has allowed her to have “ownership” of the trauma. Gadd won a Fringe Award for his show, also called Baby Reindeer, in 2019.
Talking with him Telegraph In 2019, of the one-woman show she wrote after the ordeal, currently playing at London’s Bush Theatre, she said: “It was debilitating beyond belief.
‘I listened to his voicemails and felt my eyes fill with tears. They were tears of frustration. Proper stress for the brain.