Richard Gadd Shocked ‘Baby Reindeer’ Was Not Just “Little Cult Artistic Gem” As Interview With Real-Life Martha Is Watched By Millions

Richard Gadd has said he has been shocked by the success of Baby Reindeer and his new-found fame amid blurring lines between the Netflix series and reality.

In an interview with The Daily Record newspaper, Gadd said he thought Baby Reindeer would just be “a little cult artistic gem” rather than the monster hit it has become.

“It was, like, crazy. I never expected it to sort of blow up like this,” Gadd said. “I believed it would be successful but I didn’t expect overnight, I don’t even like to use this word, fame.”

He added: “I really believed in this show but it really felt like one day it went on the platform and the next day there were people camping in my garden.”

His thinking might explain why Netflix and Clerkenwell Films did not do more to protect the identities of the characters involved in Gadd’s “true story” of his experience with an alleged stalker.

The show sparked a frenzied internet guessing game and the character of Martha (played by Jessica Gunning) was identified within days, leading to the alleged stalker being thrust into the media spotlight.

Fiona Harvey, a Scottish lawyer, appeared on Piers Morgan’s YouTube channel on Thursday to offer her side of the story. The exchange has been viewed 4.5M times in 17 hours.

Harvey raised questions about Netflix’s duty of care processes and revealed that she had not been contacted by the company before Baby Reindeer premiered last month.

Harvey, who repeatedly denied stalking Gadd and harassing his loved ones, said she had received death threats and phone calls from strangers since the series debuted.

She told Morgan that Baby Reindeer was a “work of fiction” and claimed that she was prepared to test her argument in a court of law if she sues Netflix.

Netflix has not commented on Harvey’s interview, but during an appearance in British Parliament on Wednesday, the streamer’s UK public policy director Benjamin King defended the show and said appropriate steps had been taken to protect identities.

King declined to comment on duty of care standards. “I cannot get into the specifics of what happened around the making of the show because it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment,” he said.

Baby Reindeer launched on Netflix with little fanfare but has exploded on the streamer, amassing nearly 54M views since debuting on April 11. It has been Netflix’s top English-language series for three consecutive weeks.