Richard Gadd dropped Baby Reindeer episode

Perth Now

14-07-2025

Richard Gadd has revealed an entire episode of Baby Reindeer was dropped.
The 36-year-old comic wrote and starred in the award-winning Netflix series - which is based on his real life experiences with a stalker - had been told when developing the show that it was "too dark" and so he penned an installment in which his character Donny Dunn visited his parents to escape the unwanted attentions of Martha (Jessica Gunning).
Speaking at the Future Visions conference in Melbourne, Australia, he said: "I remember when we were developing it, there was the note that kept coming in, and probably rightfully so, about ''The show is just too dark. You need to give us a respite.'"
The cut episode featured Donny "escaping" Martha by leaving London to visit his family.
He said: "There's a whole episode where I go to the football with my dad, and I spend a day with my dad.
"But I felt like a lot of the note that was coming in was that we needed a break from Martha because she's so relentless."
However, Richard was struck by Martha's absence from the episode so made a decision to drop it entirely.
He said: "But really, when we got to the edit, I thought, 'You miss her every time she's not on screen.'
"And I thought in a lot of ways, the sooner you get back to her, the better."
Richard never expected Baby Reindeer to take off in the way it did.
He previously told the Guardian newspaper: "The biggest surprise was the fact that it blew up in the first place, because nothing about it screamed commercial hit."
The comic has found his new fame a "huge adjustment" and insisted it wasn't something that he was looking for.
He said: "It came out on a Thursday, and by Sunday people were knocking on my door asking for autographs. I was an arthouse comedian, performing to five people every night, so it was a huge adjustment.
"I'm still getting used to it. Going to the supermarket comes with a million caveats now.
"Weirdly, I never wanted fame. I just liked the idea that, one day, I would make a piece of art that was culturally important, because then maybe I would learn to like myself.
"The biggest emotion that comes with fame is a sort of paranoia in public."
Richard has found himself in a number of "awkward" situations as a result of becoming more recognisable.
He said: "There are people who want to ask you stuff in the worst kind of situations – having a meal and someone pulls up a chair. It can be really awkward."