Baby Reindeer creator shares theory behind why he thinks Martha was crying when she first entered pub
Gazing across the bar and finding a sobbing woman sat at the end of it is surely going to evoke a reaction from even the most deadpan of pint pullers.
I doubt that even those who are a great judge of character would have foreseen that they might end up with an obsessive stalker by offering a sad-looking stranger a bit of human kindness, like Richard Gadd did.
Things started to spiral out of control almost immediately after he offered 'Martha' a cup of tea on the house to console her in Baby Reindeer, which really goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.
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The opening scene of Baby Reindeer informs viewers about how Gadd ended up with a woman tracking his every move for numerous years and is arguably one of the most thought-provoking parts of the series.
The comedian - who plays a fictional version of himself named Donny Dunn - simply offered Martha a free beverage after taking pity on her as he watched her burst into the pub looking dishevelled.
Somehow, that resulted in him getting stuck with a stalker who bombarded him with 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters over four and a half years.
Although the internet already has plenty of ideas already floating around, Gadd has now shared his own theory about why his tormentor was upset on that fateful day she entered his workplace.
At the beginning of Baby Reindeer, the actor watches the woman sheepishly enter the pub with teary-eyes and he informs viewers: "I felt sorry for her. That's the first feeling I felt.
"It's a patronising, arrogant feeling, feeling sorry for someone you've just laid eyes on, but I did. I felt sorry for her."
As we all probably know by now, Donny heads over towards the sniffling Martha to see if she would like to order something, only for her to inform him she can't afford it - so he sweetly offers her a cup of tea for free.
The moment the words come out of his mouth, you can see the cogs start turning inside Martha's head as she finds a new object for her obsession.
As we all know, the hit series which follows Gadd's 'warped relationship' with his female stalker is based on a true story and this scene is exactly how the pair first met in real life.
The comedian said everyone at the pub 'thought it was funny that he had an admirer' at first, before 'Martha' began invading each and every aspect of his life.
And those who have watched Baby Reindeer will know that Gadd's kind gesture towards the distressed punter triggered a catastrophic chain of events in his life.
But what happened before that which ultimately led Martha into the pub that day and subsequently into every inch of Gadd's existence?
Well, the Scotsman himself has a theory about it - although he admits that he has never been 100 percent sure about how his future-stalker ended up sat in front of him that day.
Speaking to The Independent, Gadd said he 'questioned it all of the time'.
He explained: "I wondered if it was the end of her stalking relationship with someone else and the start of it with me."
Seen as though the series ends with some kind of full circle moment as Donny gets a free drink from a bar man after his stalking saga finally comes to an end, I suppose it adds up.
Baby Reindeer fact vs fiction
While Baby Reindeer is based on a true story, many viewers have been left questioning which parts were fabricated for the Netflix show.
We've separated the facts from the fiction.
How Donny and Martha met
In Baby Reindeer, Gadd's character Donny offers Martha a free drink after feeling sorry for her when she said she couldn't afford one.
This is true as Gadd's seemingly harmless act of kindness quickly snowballed into a shocking turn of events.
The amount of emails
Gadd's stalker sent him 41,071 emails, 350 hours of voicemail, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages and 106 pages of letters over four-and-a-half years.
In real life, she also sent him a variety of strange gifts, including a reindeer toy, sleeping pills, a woolly hat and boxers.
Sent from my iPhone
Netflix confirmed that every email Donny receives in the show is real, all of which end with 'sent from my iPhone' - despite the fact she didn't have an iPhone and wasn't emailing from one.
When the police intervened
In the series, Donny wasn't taken seriously when he initially reported Martha to the police.
According to Gadd, it was six years before they finally intervened.
Which details were fiction?
Gadd has spoken about how some details of the show have been changed to protect identities of those involved.
He explained that 'Martha' had been disguised to such an extent that he doesn't think she'd 'recognise herself'.
It's also unclear whether the real-life Martha went to prison.
In Baby Reindeer, she was sentenced to nine months in prison and given a five-year restraining order.
Though Gadd told The Times the stalking issue has been 'resolved', adding that he 'mixed feelings about it' because he 'didn't want to throw someone who was that level of mentally unwell in prison'.
Topics: Baby Reindeer, Netflix, TV, Food And Drink, Crime
Olivia Burke