This article contains references to stalking, harrasment and sexual assault.

Summary

• The original stage show was a one-man performance, while the Netflix series features a full cast.
• Martha was not sentenced to prison in reality, and the level of stalking was more severe than portrayed.
• The Netflix series adapted the story with significant changes, including alterations to the names of characters.

Baby Reindeer has quickly become a viral hit on Netflix, but the show actually started life as a stage show in the UK, with a few significant differences between the original and the TV show. Baby Reindeer is an original story by director, writer, and actor, Richard Gadd, who stars in the Netflix series. And while the story is sensational, emotional, and incredibly bingeable, part of the craze surrounding the series stems from the fact that Baby Reindeer is a true story, based on events from Gadd's own life. Gadd began his career as a comedian, with middling success.

However, when he changed course from performing with props and a brand of satirical anti-comedy, to unloading stories and events from his own life, his career took off in a major way. Gadd had suffered through significant trauma and abuse, but through self-examination and introspection, he was able to use those terrible events to set a new course for his life. He adapted his story into a performative show which he debuted at the Fringe Comedy Festival, before taking the show to the West End in London. And finally, the story has now been adapted for Netflix with several alterations.

7 The Original Is A One-Man Show

Baby Reindeer Started As An Edinburgh Fringe Show In 2019

One of the most significant changes from the stage show to the limited series on Netflix is how it was actually put together. Baby Reindeer was initially written and performed as a one-man show, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with only Gadd on stage, delivering the dialogue and performance as he slowly unfolds his story. It debuted 5 years before Netflix's adaptation arrived.

Gadd also used elements like audio recordings which were recorded by various other actors, and images projected on a screen to add context throughout, but he was the sole individual appearing in the show and performing each night. The Netflix series is not a solo show, and Baby Reindeer introduces a full cast of wonderfully talented actors to tackle each role. Gadd returns to play his central role, as he interacts with a full cast and set, and his narration continues to be a part of the limited series.

In addition, there are also many messages which are added in as a way to break up one part of an episode to the next, or to introduce the episode. But while the stage show uses emails, letters, and various other messages, the show uses only emails.

6 Martha Was Not Sentenced To Time In Prison

The Real Martha Was Also A Victim

The show tells the harrowing story of a three-year-long encounter where a woman becomes overwhelmingly obsessed with a man and begins stalking and harassing him. Throughout the years, the woman frequents Gadd's workplace, his comedy shows, his home, and makes contact with several individuals close to him. Due to the intense, occasionally violent, and frequently threatening behavior of this woman, Martha Scott, Gadd reports her to the police, and ultimately has Martha sentenced to nine months in prison for her actions. However, this is not how the story goes in reality, or in the original stage show.

As Richard Gadd has revealed in several interviews, the real "Martha" was not sent to prison, as Gadd recognized she was a victim of trauma in many ways herself. In addition, Gadd had done several things that made him an unfavorable character at times, and so he felt it would be unfair and unkind to have her imprisoned, although he has said the situation had been resolved several years prior, to which he had generally "mixed feelings" (via Time).

5 Baby Reindeer Changed The Level Of Stalking

Netflix's Adaptation Played Down How Much Martha Digitally Harrassed Dunn

In the Netflix series, Martha is shown to send dozens of emails every day, along with stalking Gadd at his workplace, and occasionally at his comedy shows. However, if anything, the series tones down the overall level of stalking which occurred in the four and a half years when he was the object of Martha's obsession. Baby Reindeer reveals many emails, and makes mention of up to 80 emails being received in a day. Also, the final episode reveals that Martha sent hundreds of hours worth of voicemails.

However, as revealed in the stage show, Baby Reindeer changed the truth and Richard was the recipient of 41,071 emails, 350 hours worth of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 messages on Facebook, and 106 pages worth of letters (via Forbes). The series failed to go into any detail around the multitude of methods that Martha employed in an effort to stalk Gadd. The stage show reveals a grander sense of scale behind the stalking, although without visual representations, it could easily be argued that the series delivers the intensity more effectively.

4 Martha Also Gave Richard Gifts

Martha's Love Tokens Included Underwear And Sleeping Pills

The stage show also revealed that Martha gave gifts to Gadd over the course of their interactions. The gifts included a toy reindeer, sleeping pills, underwear, and a wooly hat. However, as bizarre and unusual as these gifts may be, it also adds layers to the relationship that was had by the two, with Gadd accepting such gifts and indulging the concept of their relationship being more than what is expected of a barman and a customer.

By Baby Reindeer's ending, there's no acknowledgment of the fact that Martha provided gifts to Gadd, instead showcasing her level of poverty as she was unable to afford simple things like a glass of diet Coke. Gadd's character, Donny Dunn, offers these drinks for free to Martha each day when she comes in. However, Martha does leave a photograph of herself wearing only underwear in Dunn's room when she manages to come into the house under the guise of joining a cooking class one night. Beyond these, there is no other exchange of gifts in the series.

3 Baby Reindeer Uses Different Names

The True Identities Of Bbay Reindeer's Cast Have Been Widely Speculated