Baby Reindeer's Richard Gadd urges fans 'not to speculate' over real life identities of characters

Baby Reindeer writer and actor Richard Gaad has issued a warning to viewers of the hit Netflix show who are trying to work out the real life identities of the characters.

The seven-part series, which is based on true events in the Scots comic's life, has got the whole world talking as one act of kindness turned into a stalking campaign.

In the show, Martha Scott is portrayed by Jessica Gunning, who continues to harass Donny, who is played by Richard.

Over three years, Richard's real stalker sent him more than 41,071 emails , 350 hours worth of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and she penned him 106 pages of letters.

She also turned up at his work, his home, and harassed members of his family. 'Martha' would go on to be jailed and served with a lengthy restraining order.

After binging the seven episodes, many fans of Baby Reindeer have been scouring social media in an attempt to figure out who the real Martha is, as well as the person who inspired 'Darrien'.

Gadd's character is groomed and sexually assaulted by Darrien, played by actor Tom Goodman-Hill, who, in the show, is a successful and powerful director, writer, and comedian.

But now, Richard has made a statement to urge fans not to speculate as 'it's not the point of the show' and said friends of his in the industry have been targeted.

He penned: "Hi everyone. People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation. Please don’t speculate on who the real life people could be. That’s not the point of our show. Lots of love."

Baby Reindeer was inspired by Gadd’s 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show of the same name and, speaking on This Morning last week, he said: “I started doing it on the stage, I got a catharsis from going to the Edinburgh Festival and actually performing these plays and exploring the themes and just getting it all out there and achieving some acceptance around them.

"Those shows took off - I went to London and then Netfliix came to me and were like 'do you want to make a series?' And it just snowballed and snowballed."

"You just hope that kind of catharsis keeps going on a bigger scale."

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