Baby Reindeer

Written by Richard Gadd, directed by Weronika Tofilska and Josephine Bornebusch

Note - spoilers ahead!

Richard Gadd had a stalker. She sent him 41,071 emails, 350 hours’ of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, 106 pages of letters, and  many unwanted presents, including a reindeer toy (the stalker called Richard ‘baby reindeer’; she said he reminded her of a stuffed reindeer that had comforted her as a child), sleeping pills,  boxer shorts, and a woolly hat. She appeared at his home and work and harassed him and his family. She even harassed a trans-woman that Richard was dating.

So far, so familiar. We are all familiar with stalkers, and the shadowy danger they present. Richard did a play about his stalker in the Edinburgh fringe in 2019. When Netflix approached him to ask him to write a series based on his play, he leapt at the chance.

This seven part series - by turns shocking, harrowing, and funny - is the result. Donny Dunn - played by Gadd himself -  is a struggling comedian who makes ends meet by working in a pub. He is a little bit of an opportunist - he lives rent-free in a room in the huge house of his ex girlfriend’s mother. His relationship with his ex - played convincingly by the beautiful Shalom Brune-Franklin - falls to pieces because Donny spends increasing amounts of time at the flat of a much older successful comedy writer - acted by Tom Goodman-Hill - who encourages and flatters Donny, tells him they could be writing partners, then plies him with heavy duty drugs and sexually assaults him when he’s unconscious. The trouble is, although Donny knows that he has been sexually assaulted each time he wakes up - the man’s hand is often in Donny’s trousers, or Donny finds saliva around his penis - Donny keeps going back for more. It is this inexorable need for affirmation that is Donny’s undoing. He craves the professional encouragement, promise of fame, attention and affection plied on him, even as he knows he is on a path to self destruction.