Could the real Martha Scott please stand up?
At least one woman has: In an interview with British TV presenter Piers Morgan, posted on his YouTube channel on Thursday, Scot Fiona Harvey, 58, claims to be the basis of Richard's Surprise deranged stalker Gadd on Netflix. She presses “Baby Reindeer.” The series professes in a title card to be “a true story.”
“Believe [Gadd] “I always wanted this to come out, to go after someone,” Harvey said during the 56-minute “Piers Morgan Uncensored” segment, in which he threatened to sue both Netflix and Gadd, the writer, creator and star of the series, for defaming it. in the show. “I think he has extreme psychiatric problems.”
Netflix and Gadd did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment.
The seven-episode miniseries, which quickly joined the streamer's list of top TV shows after premiering last month, stars Gadd as Donny, an aspiring comedian and bartender who meets Martha, played by Jessica Gunning, as a customer at the London Pub where she works. Under his relentless barrage of attention, including the series' title moniker, his life spirals out of control and past traumas are uncovered. In addition to sending emails, voicemails, and Facebook messages, Martha shows up at Donny's place of residence, contacts his parents, and gropes him without consent, among other frightening behaviors.
As evidence to support Harvey's claim to be the “real” Martha, Morgan cited online sleuths who “discovered” Harvey as the supposed basis of the character after cross-referencing her social media posts with those depicted in the program. Morgan read several tweets from 2014 that Harvey sent to Gadd, and Harvey said she knew Gadd for two or three months when he was a bartender about 10 or 12 years ago. She also claimed to have sent him an email and a letter, but denied contacting him the excessive number of times shown in the television series.
“It's a work of fiction,” he said. “It's a work of hyperbole.”
“You're basically accusing both him and Netflix of lying,” Morgan noted at one point in the interview, which largely consisted of a point-by-point breakdown of the Netflix series' accuracy. “I am,” Harvey responded, although she admitted that she herself had not seen the series and said that she found out about it through the press.
According to Harvey, he first learned about the project through a news alert about the one-man show on which the series is based, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. But she said she didn't come forward until the Netflix series exposed her to harassment, including death threats.
He accused Gadd, Gunning and Netflix of “milking for everything he's worth, for the money,” focusing much of his ire on his promotional tour.
“Leave me alone, please,” he said when Morgan asked him to speak directly to Gadd. “Get a life. Get a proper job.”
