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A Netflix boss has defended Baby Reindeer as a “drama, not a documentary”, after the show came under fire for claiming to be a true story.
The show - which follows a struggling comic as he is relentlessly harassed and stalked by a woman for more than four years - instantly captivated viewers from Britain and beyond as viewers praised the show’s unique storyline which is based on the true life events of Richard Gadd.
However, soon after its release, the show became embroiled in controversy over its opening statement: “This is a true story.”
Pressure grew on the streaming platformto prove claims made about the stalker, called Martha, in the show.
The ‘real Martha’ was swiftly identified by fans as Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey, who is now suing Netflix in the US after she alleged the story is inaccurate.
Anne Mensah, its vice-president of UK content, she would be “disappointed” if the controversy had detracted from the show’s positive impact, which saw an increase in men who had been abused seeking support.
“It was important for those reasons, and if you feel [the controversy] detracted from that, I would be absolutely disappointed,” she said at Edinburgh TV Festival. “I absolutely stand by all the show. It’s drama, not a documentary.”
She added that Netflix takes safeguarding “incredibly seriously” as she insisted: “I don’t make shows for publicity’s sake.
““It was about giving [Gadd] the space to tell that story. Chasing publicity is the antithesis of what I believe in.”
Ms Menshah, who was previously the director of Drama and Sky Studios at Sky UK, also denied Netflix’s algorithm was responsible for its success.
“It’s not about trying to manipulate anybody [with] an algorithm,” she said. “The truth is way simpler: the audience is incredibly clever and they spot [what is] good and not boring. A really controversial show that isn’t great goes nowhere.”
Netflix has admitted that Baby Reindeer’s real-life Martha was never convicted of stalking, despite the show depicting her pleading guilty to stalking and being sentenced to prison.
The series is billed as a “true story,” which Harvey argues in her $170m lawsuit is “the biggest lie in television history.”
While Gadd isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit, he filed a response in federal court defending a motion to dismiss Harvey’s claim in a declaration dated 28 July.
“I never intended the Series to identify any real person as Martha Scott, including Harvey,” he wrote in the 21-page document. “Martha Scott is not Fiona Harvey. Like all characters in the Series, Martha is a fictional character with fictional personality traits that are very different than Harvey’s.”
