The Baby Reindeer Real Identities Debate Went All the Way to UK Parliament
Senior public policy director Benjamin King said the show said “it’s obviously very difficult to control what viewers do.”
The uproar around Baby Reindeer and the real-life counterparts of the Netflix show made its way to UK Parliament this week. Netflix policy chief Benjamin King told lawmakers that the show took “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story.”
Based on Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Fringe show, Baby Reindeer takes elements of Gadd’s real life and dramatizes them. King said Netflix didn’t want to totally anonymize the characters because that would undermine the “veracity and authenticity” of the show. “Ultimately, it’s obviously very difficult to control what viewers do, particularly in a world where everything is amplified by social media,” he said, according to Deadline. “I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with a world in which we decided it was better that Richard was silenced and not allowed to tell the story.”
The “real” Martha (who stalks Gadd’s character Donny) will appear on Piers Morgan Uncensored Thursday. Actor Sean Foley informed police that he has been wrongly identified as the “real” Darrien (who assaults Donny). Gadd has asked fans not to play guessing games with the identities of these people, as it’s “not the point of our show.”
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