Deleted scenes and alternate scripts: The biggest production secrets from Baby Reindeer

There’s a lot of truth being revealed

7 months ago

You know when you watch a show and hope it’s not a true story? Well, you’re in for a shock. Baby Reindeer on Netflix is one of the most insane shows I’ve watched in a while and the production secrets are even more wild.

Richard Gadd plays a comedian called Donny who is being stalked whilst he tries to make it in the industry. Throughout the season Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha constantly sends him texts, emails, voicemails. Just don’t start leaving your texts as “sent from my iPhone” to a crush is all I will say.

Here’s a rundown of all the production secrets from Baby Reindeer, with spoilers kept to a minimum for those of you who still haven’t watched it.

Donny is based on Richard Gadd himself

via Netflix

Richard Gadd was actually stalked for four and half years in real life. I emphasis “based” as some of the events will have been written for TV. One of the nicest truths is that Richard’s real family are actually as supportive as in the show, which I thought was really lovely. But yes, he is playing himself which is INSANE.

Baby Reindeer was originally a stand up show

Most Read

People have spotted a huge I’m A Celeb editing error proving a bushtucker trial was staged

Finally, Adam has actually addressed the rumours he and Amy are dating after MAFS UK

All the mega-famous actors who also auditioned for each Wicked role

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Richard Gadd (@mrrichardgadd)

In 2019, at the Edinburgh Fringe Gadd was performing a show based on the Netflix hit. He used a stool to represent Martha and and it’s clear Netflix had a huge production job to turn a small stand up to a series. As a fellow drama student, getting up on stage is scary enough, let alone a one man show.

Richard wrote an alternate version of the show initially

Ricahred admitted that there was another version of the show originally where he wasn’t as honest about his own part in the story. Speaking to GQ he said” ‘There was a version of the show I was going to do in 2019 that makes me look good, where I offer her a cup of tea and oh woe is me.

“But that felt disingenuous and the second you start to write art from a place where you’re lying, I don’t think the art’s going to be any good.’

There’s a playlist of all the music in the show

From Happy Together by The Turtles to Small Town Boy by Bronski Beat, here is the official soundtrack with some very cool song choices that were used in the show.

All the emails and texts were real

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Netflix UK & Ireland (@netflixuk)

40,000 emails, 740 social media posts and 350 hour’s of voice notes were sent by Richard Gadd’s real life stalker. Re-read those statistics again to let that sink in.

The cast checked in on each other to make sure they were okay

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Richard Gadd (@mrrichardgadd)

Jess Gunning, who plays Martha, told the BBC, that she made sure Ricahrd “was doing OK, especially during the filming of episode four – that was a really tough time.”

Apparently, Jess would make the cast laugh in between takes as well. Nava said to Glamour that Jess “was the most lovely person you could ever meet. [While filming the fight scene] she kept me cracking up. Non stop. Those three days that we filmed that fight, I was cracking up in between takes.”

The audition process took four months

via Netflix

For Jessica Gunning, the audition process took four months and the actual show took six months to film. Speaking to Elle, she said: “That initial script that I read made me feel like I knew her.” She was scarily good at playing the stalker role.

Ricchard has protected the identity of his stalker

Naturally, the internet has gone mad trying to find the actual stalker but Ricahrd has spoken out on Instagram saying: “Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That is not the point of our show.”

When creating the show, Richard made sure that they kept her identity unknown. Speaking to GQ, he said: “We’ve gone to such great lengths to disguise her to the point that I don’t think she would recognise herself.”

They used a intimacy co-ordinator

Elle McAlphine was the intimacy co-ordinator who has worked on Poor Things and One Day – so they were using an expert!

Lots of popular London filming locations

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Stag’s Head Hoxton (@thestagsheadhoxton_)

Probably the main one, is the infamous pub from the show The Stag’s Head in Hoxton, alongside other locations across England and Scotland. Don’t be expecting a free cup of tea though. If you recognise the low light cocktail bar scene that was also in All of Us Strangers with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal.

Nava Mau said how hard it was filming intense scenes

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nava Mau (@navamau)

The racist, homophobic attack on Teri was a tough watch because the acting felt so real. Nava Mau, talked to Glamour recently about having “physical recall in my muscle memory from when I’d been attacked like that” whilst filming the scene. All you can do is applaud the level of work the cast put into the show as that would not have been easy.

There was an alternate ending to the show

Teri left Donny a voicemail five months later which was cut out of the final edit. Apparently, the voicemail gave closure for Teri’s character in that she moved on and was happy after the breakup. I mean, the relationship was a big part of the show so we didn’t really see what happened after but there was an ambiguous ending for sure.

Baby Reindeer is available on Netflix now. For more like this rundown of Baby Reindeer production secrets and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.