Richard Gadd’s friend recalls meeting his Baby Reindeer stalker in ‘disturbing’ encounter

‘It felt overwhelming’

5 months ago

During Baby Reindeer, there is one scene where we see Martha heckling Donny at his comedy show, but in real life one of Richard Gadd’s best friend actually met his stalker one night at the show, describing the encounter as “overwhelming” and “disturbing.”

Speaking to The Express, his best friend Martin spoke about how his stalker turned up at the show, what she was like and how she differed from her depiction in Baby Reindeer.

Via Netflix

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he recalled how she showed up at a gig leaving Richard riddled with anxiety. He explained: “I saw the trailer for Baby Reindeer and was struck by how much the actress resembled the stalker. Richard was booked for a gig with me in 2016 and she showed up.

“I didn’t know about anything going on and Richard was there and he was looking forward to the show. It was a great lineup. The show is in All About Eve now but it used to be over in the Holiday Inn so that’s where he was. He was with his girlfriend and she was a smasher. Absolutely stunning.

“A woman came in, I didn’t know her and she established that I’m the host of the show and she started to act a little bit over-familiar with me, over-friendly. She said, ‘Let me buy you a drink.’ And I know from experience, it was a little bit too friendly and you’ve got to exercise a bit of caution because I didn’t know her at all. Maybe I checked her ticket on the way in.

“But then Richard said, ‘I need to speak to you.’ His face had dropped from being happy and I thought, ‘Oh, my God. Something is seriously wrong.’ He took me to a quiet spot and he said, ‘My stalkers in here’ and I asked him who it was, but in my mind, I already kind of knew it might be the woman who bought me the drinks and it turned out that it was. He asked me for advice and I think I recall saying to him, that it’s probably best if you can ignore her.

“I also said regarding your girlfriend it’s probably best that you show no affection towards her whatsoever. You could argue that if he did show affection it might make her (the stalker) understand that he’s moved on. On the other hand, it’s probably best not to take the risk. So I think he actually appreciated that advice.”

Via Netflix

In the Baby Reindeer series, Martha is seen heckling Donny at his show but Martin recalls that Richard’s stalker behaved herself in real life. He explained: “It was very overwhelming for him but the evening did go without incident, fortunately. She would have just sat back and enjoyed his performance. I don’t know if she made any contact if she attempted on that evening to communicate with him. You’d have to ask Richard about that.”

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