Take note, Netflix and Richard Gadd – as the makers of The Crown and South Park will attest, you can say anything with the right disclaimer. “This is a true story”. This statement, which is shown at the beginning of Netflix’s talking-point drama Baby Reindeer , may have become one of the most expensive own goals in television history.
Fiona Harvey, who claims she is the model for the obsessed stalker Martha in the series, is suing the streaming company for US$170 million ($277m) , citing “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence and violations of her right of publicity”. Ever since she waived any anonymity in the most public of fashions to appear on Piers Morgan’s show to discuss the series, Harvey has denied the character owes anything to reality, instead suggesting it is nothing more than its creator Richard Gadd’s over-active imagination. Gadd, who initially insisted the show was essentially documentary fact – hence the opening statement – has now rowed back slightly, saying in April that events were “tweaked slightly to create dramatic climaxes”.
“It’s very emotionally true, obviously,” he said. “I was severely stalked and severely abused. But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it’s based on.
” Some of these fabrications and embroiderings included the suggestion Harvey, as Martha, had been imprisoned (she was not) and that she viciously attacked Gadd’s.
