The Welsh Baby Reindeer actor everyone is calling the ‘real hero’ of the Netflix series

Baby Reindeer is certainly the TV show of the moment and amid all the traumatic, dark and dazzling performances of the lead stars there's one supporting character that people are calling the "real hero" of the Netflix drama. Gerry Dunn, the dad of central star, Donny Dunn, broke people's hearts as well as had them punching the air at points as the Dunn family dealt with stalker, Martha.

Played by renowned Welsh actor, Mark Lewis Jones, who has also scored roles in viral hits like The Crown, Gangs of London, Outlander and The Reckoning, Gerry appears in just a few scenes across the final three episodes of the tough-going drama, which deals with creator Richard Gadd's true story of stalking, trauma, sexual abuse and mental health.

Gadd's on-screen persona is Donny Dunn, a stand-up comedian who is experiencing a buried trauma from being groomed and raped by an older man, which comes to the fore when he starts being stalked by a woman called Martha (Jessica Gunning). The story sees Donny travel to Scotland to see his parents when the stalking action steps up a notch and Martha targets his family.

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We see Mark as Gerry stand-up to Martha with shocking outbursts over the phone, but it's his confession to Donny over their shared trauma of sexual abuse that really hit many viewers in the heart. Mark spoke about the reaction he's had to the show, and to Gerry. He said: "If someone asks me what this show is ultimately about, boil it down to one constituent part and I would say it's 'trauma', how trauma plays out differently for different people and how it plays out in their actions and interactions with people.

"We did film a bit more but it was cut, but you still get the essence of it. I had a lovely message online about that moment when Gerry accepts Donny and shares his own trauma and this person said 'you've healed a lot of hearts of those who couldn't tell their dads [they were gay], or had a bad response'. It was a lovely message because I was just playing a scene as truthfully as possible, I think it's hit a nerve with a lot of people

"If you watch the story where you get to that moment where Donny really needed that act of unconditional love and he gets that. Because of that abuse, it can really mess up how people perceive love and when they do finally hug it's an identification of love."

Mark, who can also currently be seen on Albii's The Red King, a cold case mystery thriller set on a Welsh island, and the independent film Sweetland, clocked on straight away that Baby Reindeer was something special and would "cause a stir" for its complicated content.

"My first reading I knew immediately this was something unique. Obviously, the story it was telling, but the writer and the actor was the real person this happened to. So I knew this would cause a stir. I didn't have any idea it would cause this much, I had an inkling it was something special and unique."

He went on to say he recognises that the story of the six-parter was "more than about a stalker and a victim." Mark added: "The first meeting I had he [Gadd] said 'this is not a story about a stalker and a victim' and I loved that, I thought it was a much more grown up way of looking at this.

"It's borne out it having now watching it, you really have sympathy for Martha and that she's really a sick person and you see what Donny goes through, the life he's led and the trauma and all the stuff that happens to him makes him open, perhaps to someone like Martha. Some of these things come to life when you start filming but this was buried in my brain from the first reading."

Watchers of Baby Reindeer, which is now streaming on Netflix, were impressed with the character of Gerry. One wrote on X: "The real hero in #BabyReindeer was Donny's father."

A second viewer said: "Baby Reindeer is dark and important but can we also recognise the guy playing Donny's Dad? His scene is what broke me completely. I grew up in the Catholic church..." While another said: "Donny’s Dad is everything tho, love that man."

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