Baby Reindeer

Baby Reindeer
Genre	Drama Thriller
Created by	Richard Gadd
Based on	Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd
Directed by	Weronika Tofilska Josephine Bornebusch
Starring	Richard Gadd Jessica Gunning Nava Mau
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producers	Richard Gadd Wim De Greef Petra Fried Ed Macdonald Matt Jarvis
Producer	Matthew Mulot
Production locations	Edinburgh London
Production company	Clerkenwell Films
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	11 April 2024 (2024-04-11)

Baby Reindeer is a British drama-thriller miniseries created by and starring Richard Gadd. An adaptation of Gadd's autobiographical one-man show of the same name, the series is based on Gadd's real life experience of being stalked and sexually assaulted in his 20s. The series consists of seven episodes, which all simultaneously premiered on Netflix on 11 April 2024.

Cast and characters

• Richard Gadd as Donny Dunn, a fictionalised version of Gadd
• Jessica Gunning as Martha
• Nava Mau as Teri
• Tom Goodman-Hill as Darrien
• Hugh Coles as Francis
• Danny Kirrane as Gino
• Shalom Brune-Franklin as Keeley
• Nina Sosanya as Liz

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Episode 1"	Weronika Tofilska	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
The show begins in 2015 in London. While working at a pub, struggling comedian Donny Dunn notices a woman sitting at the bar, visibly upset, claiming she cannot afford a drink. Donny gives her a tea on the house. The woman, Martha, becomes a regular, claiming she is a wealthy lawyer and entertaining Donny with stories. Donny's coworkers joke that Martha is Donny's girlfriend and Martha becomes increasingly flirtatious, and begins calling Donny "Baby Reindeer" among other nicknames. Martha begins emailing Donny hundreds of times a day, getting his email from his website, and he rapidly becomes uncomfortable. He reluctantly takes her for a cup of coffee to avoid a more romantic encounter he had jokingly agreed to, but is disturbed when Martha has an outburst in a restaurant. He follows her home, discovering she lives in a cluttered one-bedroom apartment on a council estate, and flees after she realizes he is watching her. Martha views this as a further development in their relationship and the rate of her emails increase. Martha shows up uninvited to Donny's performance at a local comedy competition, and her interruptions help him secure a position in the semi-finals. She confesses her love to Donny, has another outburst when he tries to let her down politely, and later sends him a friend request on Facebook. Donny Googles her name and discovers she is a convicted stalker. He nevertheless accepts her friend request.
2	"Episode 2"	Weronika Tofilska	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
Donny has secretly been dating Teri, an American therapist who is trans. Despite specifically seeking out a trans partner, Donny is ashamed of his feelings and has told Teri he is a builder named Tony. Martha's stalking intensifies. She leaves comments on every photo on Donny's facebook, and grows jealous that there might be another woman in Donny's life. She begins sending harassing messages to his ex-girlfriend Keeley, who's mother, Liz, is also his landlady, and begins to follow Donny home after his shifts at the pub. He shows Teri some of Martha's messages and she encourages him to go to the police. Donny refuses, believing that Martha is ultimately harmless. He attempts to get his coworkers to ban Martha from the pub, showing them her emails, but one of them sends Martha a reply from Donny's account asking for anal sex as a joke, leading her to believe he returns her feelings. Donny, high on cocaine, has a successful date with Teri where he accidentally alludes to his real name, but Teri mistakes this for a flirtatious game. However, when Teri asks him to kiss her in public, Donny panics and abandons Teri on the train. As he walks home, Martha corners him, follows him, pushes him against a wall and gropes his crotch.
3	"Episode 3"	Weronika Tofilska	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
Donny confesses his actions and his real name to Teri, who angrily asks him to leave her flat. Martha shows up at Donny's house, befriending Liz under a false name and leaving a scantily-clad photo of herself in Donny's bedroom. Donny threatens Martha with the police, and to his surprise she disappears from his home and work only to appear as a permanent fixture at a bus stop across the street from his home. Though initially terrified, Donny becomes sympathetic to Martha as she lapses into a fugue state, and drives her home one night. While there he asks her to leave him alone, framing it as a breakup in an attempt to give Martha some closure. Martha's contact with Donny briefly ceases. Donny is surprised when Teri shows up at the comedy semi-finals, tentatively interested in giving him a second chance. His performance begins well, but is interrupted when Martha begins heckling him from the audience, escalating to a violent fit of rage when he mocks her from the stage. She is thrown out, but later tries to break into Donny's dressing room, forcing him and Teri to leave the theater through a back exit. Stopping at a pub after fleeing from a pursuing Martha, Teri and Donny agree to resume their relationship on more equal footing. Their date is interrupted when an enraged Martha follows them to the pub and assaults Teri, pulling out a chunk of her hair.
4	"Episode 4"	Weronika Tofilska	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
After 6 months Donny finally attempts to report Martha to the police. When the officer asks him why it took him so long to report her, he flashes back to a few years earlier. As a young comedian he took his show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. After bombing out, he has a chance encounter with Darrien, the writer of a succesful television show, who has worked with many of Donny's comedy idols. Darrien helps improve his show and encourages him to move to London, before suddenly disappearing from his life. Donny moves to London and attends drama school, where he meets and moves in with Keeley. He gets a call from Darrien, and begins writing a television pilot under his guidance. Darrien begins to encourage Donny to experiment with drugs, and sexually assaults him while he is high. Not realizing Darrien is grooming him, Donny spends regular weekend-long drug-fueled "working sessions" at Darrien's apartment, impacting his relationship with Keeley. During many of these drug binges Donny blacks out and is groped or assaulted by Darrien, culminating in an encounter where Darrien rapes him while he is on Acid and GHB. After coming down from a multi-day binge, he finally leaves Darrien but his relationship with Keeley breaks down and he blames himself for his own assault. He realizes that he is attracted to men, but associates his feelings for men with his assault and feels intense shame and self-loathing. He begins a period of unsafe sex with a variety of partners and heavy drug use. In the present, due to his shame over not reporting Darrien and his feelings of guilt over the responsibility he bears in both Darrien's assault and Martha's harassment, Donny fails to give the police an accurate reporting of Martha's stalking.
5	"Episode 5"	Josephine Bornebusch	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
Martha is banned from Donny's pub after causing a scene while he is working. After Martha assaults Donny's ex, Keeley on the street, Liz asks him to move out. He moves into a new flat with some friends from drama school, but is dismayed to learn that they spend every night throwing loud, drug-fueled parties. He spends increasing time with Teri, hiding in her flat and coming out to her as bisexual for the first time. Their relationship begins to suffer due to her trauma over Martha's attack and his inability to maintain an erection, caused by his trauma from Martha and Darrien. During a fight, Teri realizing Donny did not tell the police about Martha's attack on her and convinces him to report her again. While at the station, he finally gets an officer to look up Martha; after realizing she has prior convictions, the police take the case seriously and begin to help Donny. To his surprise, Martha complies with the police. For the first time in 6 months Donny is no longer contacted by Martha, however he finds himself obsessing over her and even masturbating to her image. This helps him successfully have sex with Teri, and their relationship improves. They go out to dinner, and he ignores a call from his mother. She leaves a frantic voicemail, having been told, by Martha, that he is in the hospital after an accident.
6	"Episode 6"	Josephine Bornebusch	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
Donny is horrified to realize Martha has begun harassing his parents and has accused his father of being a pedophile, getting him in trouble at work. After the police are unhelpful, Donny tries to entrap Martha into violating no-contact. However Martha has been recording all their interactions and he is cautioned by the police. As a result, Teri breaks up with him. The day before Donny is set to perform in the comedy competition finals, Martha returns to Donny's pub to harass him. When he brings up her previous stalking charges she attacks him, smashing a glass into his face. His coworkers convinces Donny not to press charges, which would reveal their mismanagement of the pub, and he complies. At the competition, Donny gives up on his act after a joke doesn't land, and instead breaks down onstage, confessing in frank detail his guilt, shame and self-hatred after his rape, stalking, and his poor management of his relationship with Teri to the audience before walking out of the theater. NOTE: The episode is dedicated in memory of Llewellyn Harrison, a key grip who worked on Baby Reindeer.
7	"Episode 7"	Josephine Bornebusch	Richard Gadd	April 11, 2024 (2024-04-11)
A video of Donny's confession goes viral, earning him a significant boost in his career. He thoughtlessly sets an out of office message on his email that includes his phone number, leading to Martha gaining access to his phone for the first time. She calls him, furious at the things he said about her in the video, and threatens to tell Donny's parents about his rape and sexuality. Hoping to pre-empt her, he travels to Scotland and comes out to his parents, tearfully confessing that he was raped. His father gently confesses that he too was sexually abused, having grown up in the catholic church, and he spends a comforting week with his family. Martha begins calling Donny obsessively, leaving him hundreds of voicemails. The police suggest Donny listen to the voicemails and report any threats. Over several months, Donny's habit of listening to Martha's voicemails becomes an obsession as he once again begins to pity Martha. He begins obsessively listening to and cataloging her messages. However, after she threatens to stab his parents, he finally reports her and she is arrested. Martha pleads guilty to three counts of stalking and is sentenced to nine months in prison and five years of probation. He never sees her again. Donny struggles to adjust in a world without Martha's constant presence, shuts himself in his bedroom and continues building a sequence of events of his relationship with Martha. His roommates call Keeley, who, worried for his mental health, asks him to move back in to Liz's house. As he moves back in, he finds the screenplay he was writing for Darrien. In an attempt at closure, he goes to Darrien's apartment, but instead of confronting him, Darrien politely chats with him. Acknowledging he has seen Donny's viral confession, Darrien offers Donny a writing job, saying that things will be different this time. Donny accepts, but has a panic attack after leaving Darrien's apartment. Upset, he begins to listen to Martha's voicemails as he walks home. Stopping at a pub, he listens to a voicemail where Martha finally explains why she calls him "Baby Reindeer": it is because he reminds her of a stuffed animal she would hug when her parents would fight, the only positive memory from her childhood. Donny begins to cry, and when a concerned barman brings him his drink, he realizes he has forgotten his wallet. The barman, feeling sorry for Donny, gives him the drink on the house, in a mirror of his first encounter with Martha.

Production

Development

The series was announced in December 2020, with Richard Gadd set to write the series and star. Clerkenwell Films was set to produce. Weronika Tofilska was added as the director in August 2022. In March 2023, Josephine Bornebusch was announced as an additional director.

Casting

Richard Gadd was cast alongside the series announcement. Jessica Gunning was cast on 26 August 2022. Nava Mau was cast in March 2023.

Filming

Filming began in mid-August 2022 in Edinburgh at the Grassmarket. Filming also occurred in London. Filming wrapped by early March 2023.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 16 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 8.3/10. On Metacritic, the series holds a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on eight critics.

External links

• Baby Reindeer at IMDb