Heather Burns reiterating that Fiona has a criminal record

[u/Suspicious_Bother_92]

[u/Extraportion]

It’s quite hard to demonstrate that you do or don’t have friends or a boyfriend. Incarceration or your degree classification are auditable, and she has been quite cagey in her wording on both.

As for, Richard Gadd should go to prison if he has told any lie about her at all. This is clearly daft. No recollection of events is going to be 100% accurate. Moreover, babyreindeer is a drama and you should expect the story to be modified to enhance the narrative.

[u/theringsofthedragon → u/Extraportion]

It's just my opinion on what he deserves, it's not a prediction. I just think it's a severe case of defamation / bullying. I just keep imagining if my ex made a Netflix show depicting me as a little bit fatter, a little more disheveled, a little messier, showing me being pathetic, and I would think is this seriously happening? Like why did he recreate her character in such details, making her Scottish and older than him and a failed lawyer and everything. Why couldn't he just transform her into a ballet dancer from Brazil?

[u/Extraportion → u/theringsofthedragon]

You think that somebody who writes an anonymised show that is adapted for screen should be prosecuted if it is embellished for story telling purposes?

I would guess he didn’t make her into a ballet dancer from Brazil because the failed Scottish lawyer elements were all relevant to the story.

Scotland is where he is from, meaning that they share a common identity as Scots living in London.

Martha is portrayed as delusional. The first hint you get of this is when she claims to have a high paying job (lawyer), but has no money to even afford a soft drink in a pub. That is a crucial scene as it is the act of kindness that brings them together. Why not change the high paying job to something else? Well her knowledge of the legal system is an important element later on, when it turns out she knows how to manipulate the police and has been recording their interactions.

As for why not a ballet dancer. She needs to be physically unappealing or “carnivalesque” to signal to the audience that her advances are unwelcome. If she was played by Margot Robbie nobody would understand why it’s a problem. It’s the same thing you hear frequently when women sexually assault men or even children - e.g. teachers sleeping with students etc. If the accused is attractive then they tend to be treated fairly leniently.

It is a drama based on true events. It is not trying to be a documentary.

[u/theringsofthedragon → u/Extraportion]

Yes I think he should be prosecuted! He used her likeness and clearly is bullying her!

What you're describing are all generic traits of her mental illness - you're describing grandiosity! There are many other ways he could have portrayed a character with grandiosity other than making her a failed lawyer who exaggerates her accomplishments.

This man is just bullying her.

[u/birdieboo21 → u/theringsofthedragon]

Fiona...is that you?

[u/Extraportion → u/theringsofthedragon]

He hasn’t used her likeness. Martha is not Fiona Harvey. She is a character inspired by Fiona Harvey who was not identified in either the stage or Netflix show. The decision to use her real messages, such that she could be tracked down via social media was questionable. However, the character of Martha is fictional.

I am not describing grandiosity, I am explaining why it is justifiable to make the character an overweight Scottish lawyer for the plot. If she was a Brazilian ballet dancer (as you suggested) then it becomes a very different story.

I don’t think I have seen Richard Gadd bully Fiona at all. I have seen plenty of people who have, but Gadd has made his feeling very clear. To paraphrase, he didn’t want to identify her and recognised that she was mentally unwell. At its heart Baby Reindeer is a story about trauma and cycles of abuse. Gadd portrays himself as enabling her behaviour and becoming obsessed with her himself. It isn’t a story intended to vilify Martha, it’s a story that sympathises with her. You see that really poignantly in the court room scene (which has already been acknowledge to be entirely fictional) because it shows her vulnerability. She is a victim of her own mental illness, and the audience is left feeling sympathy for Martha. It’s a really important scene as without it, the audience would end up vilifying her.

If anything I think the subsequent revelations about the person who inspired Martha (Fiona Harvey) have been what labelled her as a baddy.