Latest news with #RichardGadd
The Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Richard Gadd says Baby Reindeer originally had eight episodes
Richard Gadd, creator of the hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer, revealed that an extra episode was cut from the show. Netflix had initially requested the addition of lighter material, as they found the original series 'too dark' and wanted to provide the audience with respite. Gadd wrote an episode where his character Donny retreated to his family home in Scotland to avoid his stalker, Martha. He decided to remove this episode during editing, concluding that moving the story away from Martha lessened the show's impact, and instead restructured the third episode to incorporate key material. The acclaimed series, which has won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes, is currently embroiled in a $170m lawsuit from Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the inspiration for Martha, alleging defamation against Netflix.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The mysterious episode that was cut from Netflix's Baby Reindeer revealed for the first time
Richard Gadd, the star behind the award-winning Netflix series Baby Reindeer, has revealed that an episode was cut from the seven-part streaming hit. Gadd, 36, who also wrote and created the critically-acclaimed drama, which is based on his own experiences with a 'stalker', said he was responsible for dropping the 'missing' eighth part. The series follows comedian Donny Dunn (Gadd), who endures a harrowing ordeal after a woman called Martha, played by Jessica Gunning, becomes obsessed with him. In Australia for an industry conference, Gadd said he 'fought hard' to cut the episode. '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,"' Gadd told the audience at the Future Visions conference in Melbourne on Monday. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. He said the cut episode showed his character 'escaping' the attentions of his stalker Martha by leaving his home in London to visit his 'parents'. 'There's a whole episode where I go to the football with my dad, and I spend a day with my dad [played by actor Mark Lewis Jones],' he continued. '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. '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.' Baby Reindeer soared to global success, racking up a massive 60 million views soon after dropping on Netflix in April 2024. The show went on to score four prizes at the Primetime Emmy Awards in the US last September. Gadd won gongs for Writing for a Limited or Anthology series or Movie and Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Co-star Jessica Gunning won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role as the crazed fan. The show also triumphed in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category. Beating Black Mirror, Fargo, Fellow Travellers, Ripley and True Detective: Night Country to the Writing award, Gadd was visibly emotional as he took to the stage, telling the crowd: 'Oh, wow. Thanks so much. This is the stuff of dreams. Thanks so much to the Academy. Thank you to Netflix for letting me tell the story to the world.' 'Look, ten years ago, I was down and out, right? I never ever thought I would get my life together. I never thought I would be able to rectify myself and get myself back on my feet again. 'Here I am just a decade later picking up one of the biggest awards in television, yeah. Now, I don't mean that - I don't mean that to sound arrogant. I mean that for anyone going through a difficult time right now to persevere. 'I don't know much about this life. But I do know nothing lasts forever. And no matter how bad it gets, it always gets better. If you are struggling, keep going. And I promise you things will be okay. Thank you so much for this award.' Baby Reindeer became one of Netflix's most watched shows ever, and also scored a Golden Globe Award for Gunning for Best Supporting Actress as well as Best Limited or Anthology Series.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The mysterious episode that was cut from Baby Reindeer is revealed for the first time
Richard Gadd, the star behind the award-winning Netflix series Baby Reindeer, has revealed that an episode was cut from the seven-part streaming hit. Gadd, 36, who also wrote and created the critically-acclaimed drama, which is based on his own experiences with a 'stalker', said he was responsible for dropping the 'missing' eighth part. The series follows comedian Donny Dunn (Gadd), who endures a harrowing ordeal after a woman called Martha, played by Jessica Gunning, becomes obsessed with him. In Melbourne, Australia for an industry conference, Gadd said he 'fought hard' to cut the episode. '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,"' Gadd told the audience at the Future Visions conference on Monday. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. He said the cut episode showed his character 'escaping' the attentions of his stalker Martha by leaving his home in London to visit his 'parents'. 'There's a whole episode where I go to the football with my dad, and I spend a day with my dad [played by actor Mark Lewis Jones],' he continued. '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. '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.' Baby Reindeer soared to global success, racking up a massive 60 million views soon after dropping on Netflix in April 2024. The show went on to score four prizes at the Primetime Emmy Awards in the US last September. Gadd won gongs for Writing for a Limited or Anthology series or Movie and Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Co-star Jessica Gunning won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role as the crazed fan. The show also triumphed in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category. Beating Black Mirror, Fargo, Fellow Travellers, Ripley and True Detective: Night Country to the Writing award, Gadd was visibly emotional as he took to the stage, telling the crowd: 'Oh, wow. Thanks so much. This is the stuff of dreams. Thanks so much to the Academy. Thank you to Netflix for letting me tell the story to the world.' 'Look, ten years ago, I was down and out, right? I never ever thought I would get my life together. I never thought I would be able to rectify myself and get myself back on my feet again. 'Here I am just a decade later picking up one of the biggest awards in television, yeah. Now, I don't mean that - I don't mean that to sound arrogant. I mean that for anyone going through a difficult time right now to persevere. 'I don't know much about this life. But I do know nothing lasts forever. And no matter how bad it gets, it always gets better. If you are struggling, keep going. And I promise you things will be okay. Thank you so much for this award.' Baby Reindeer became one of Netflix's most watched shows ever, and also scored a Golden Globe Award for Gunning for Best Supporting Actress as well as Best Limited or Anthology Series.
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The last time Richard Gadd was here he bombed. Now he's a superstar
The last time Richard Gadd was in Australia, it didn't go so well. 'I got absolutely panned,' says the creator of Netflix smash Baby Reindeer. 'It was 2017, I was at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and some of the reviews were savage.' Writing for this masthead, reviewer Craig Platt gave his show Monkey See, Monkey Do two-and-a-half stars, noting it was 'not really a comedy', but rather 'performance as therapy'. Some other reviews were kinder, some a lot more savage. 'We got the full scorecard,' says Gadd, who has just finished shooting his new series, Half Man, for the BBC and HBO (in Australia, it will air on Stan*). 'I actually got five, four, three, two, and one [stars], so we put the full rainbow of reviews on the posters, and said 'come down, make up your own mind'. And we started to actually sell tickets.' Gadd has, of course, gone on to master the art of transforming negative experiences into gold. His series – which was in part based on Monkey See, Monkey Do – was the TV sensation of 2024, won him three Emmys, and sparked enormous controversy. It has also embroiled Netflix in a $US170 million lawsuit about which he can say nothing. Now he's in Australia for the Future Vision television summit at Melbourne's ACMI, alongside fellow international guests Sally Wainwright (creator of Happy Valley) and Soo Hugh (Pachinko) and a vast array of local talent (Harriet Dyer of Colin From Accounts, The Kates of Deadloch, uberproducers Tony Ayres and Bruna Papandrea, and many others). Loading The three-day event is open to the public on Monday, before switching to an industry-only gabfest for the other two days, in which the discussion will focus on how Australia can grab a sustainable piece of the global TV action. The theme is 'Optimism', but Hugh says there's precious little of that among the creatives she knows in the States right now. 'Everyone's so depressed because they realise the market has turned and the industry is changing, and these shows that took so much time and love to make would never sell any more. And there's something a little heartbreaking about knowing that.' Apple commissioned Pachinko, a multi-generational saga set in Korea, Japan and the US, seven years ago. If she tried to pitch it now, she says with absolute conviction, 'It would never sell'. Why? 'I think [TV commissioners] are like, 'Oh, the audience doesn't want anything difficult'.' But the success of shows like Baby Reindeer and Adolescence suggests otherwise. For Wainwright – who has just finished editing her new series, Riot Women, 'about five menopausal women who form a sort of ad-hoc punk rock band' – the problem is simple. 'There's too much content and it's pretty homogenous, and a lot of it is very silly.' The ones that stand out, she says, 'are incredibly well written. There are things that get through that are difficult and challenging.' Her Happy Valley is a crime drama, one of the most tried and tested genres on TV. But it is also exceptionally well-written and acted, with an incredibly strong sense of place. And that's what she loves about Deadloch, the show that is, to some degree, why she has come to Australia (as soon as she's done at the summit, she's off to Tasmania, to visit the town in which the first season was set). 'Police procedurals can be very dark and intense and intelligent, or they can be – in England anyway – very lightweight and a bit silly,' she says. 'What I thought was very clever about Deadloch was the way it mixed the two. 'I think you can be dark and funny at the same time. However dark life is, people try to be funny. So if you can mix the two, that's gold dust.' Gadd's advice to Australians wanting to find an international audience is simple: stay true to yourself and your culture, while tapping into the things that bind us all, no matter where we live. 'If you look at Parasite, nobody would have expected a Korean film about the societal divide to have such international renown,' he says. 'But aside from being a fantastically original piece of art, it also tapped into so much humanity – poverty, desire, struggle, a craving for a better life – and in such a unique way too.' His own show was deemed similarly unique. But 'the themes are still universal: loneliness, shame, the need for connection, coming to terms with the past. 'I think a show can be shot anywhere and be a success,' he adds, 'as long as it taps into the human condition in unique and interesting ways.'
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The last time Richard Gadd was here he bombed. Now he's a superstar
The last time Richard Gadd was in Australia, it didn't go so well. 'I got absolutely panned,' says the creator of Netflix smash Baby Reindeer. 'It was 2017, I was at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and some of the reviews were savage.' Writing for this masthead, reviewer Craig Platt gave his show Monkey See, Monkey Do two-and-a-half stars, noting it was 'not really a comedy', but rather 'performance as therapy'. Some other reviews were kinder, some a lot more savage. 'We got the full scorecard,' says Gadd, who has just finished shooting his new series, Half Man, for the BBC and HBO (in Australia, it will air on Stan*). 'I actually got five, four, three, two, and one [stars], so we put the full rainbow of reviews on the posters, and said 'come down, make up your own mind'. And we started to actually sell tickets.' Gadd has, of course, gone on to master the art of transforming negative experiences into gold. His series – which was in part based on Monkey See, Monkey Do – was the TV sensation of 2024, won him three Emmys, and sparked enormous controversy. It has also embroiled Netflix in a $US170 million lawsuit about which he can say nothing. Now he's in Australia for the Future Vision television summit at Melbourne's ACMI, alongside fellow international guests Sally Wainwright (creator of Happy Valley) and Soo Hugh (Pachinko) and a vast array of local talent (Harriet Dyer of Colin From Accounts, The Kates of Deadloch, uberproducers Tony Ayres and Bruna Papandrea, and many others). Loading The three-day event is open to the public on Monday, before switching to an industry-only gabfest for the other two days, in which the discussion will focus on how Australia can grab a sustainable piece of the global TV action. The theme is 'Optimism', but Hugh says there's precious little of that among the creatives she knows in the States right now. 'Everyone's so depressed because they realise the market has turned and the industry is changing, and these shows that took so much time and love to make would never sell any more. And there's something a little heartbreaking about knowing that.' Apple commissioned Pachinko, a multi-generational saga set in Korea, Japan and the US, seven years ago. If she tried to pitch it now, she says with absolute conviction, 'It would never sell'. Why? 'I think [TV commissioners] are like, 'Oh, the audience doesn't want anything difficult'.' But the success of shows like Baby Reindeer and Adolescence suggests otherwise. For Wainwright – who has just finished editing her new series, Riot Women, 'about five menopausal women who form a sort of ad-hoc punk rock band' – the problem is simple. 'There's too much content and it's pretty homogenous, and a lot of it is very silly.' The ones that stand out, she says, 'are incredibly well written. There are things that get through that are difficult and challenging.' Her Happy Valley is a crime drama, one of the most tried and tested genres on TV. But it is also exceptionally well-written and acted, with an incredibly strong sense of place. And that's what she loves about Deadloch, the show that is, to some degree, why she has come to Australia (as soon as she's done at the summit, she's off to Tasmania, to visit the town in which the first season was set). 'Police procedurals can be very dark and intense and intelligent, or they can be – in England anyway – very lightweight and a bit silly,' she says. 'What I thought was very clever about Deadloch was the way it mixed the two. 'I think you can be dark and funny at the same time. However dark life is, people try to be funny. So if you can mix the two, that's gold dust.' Gadd's advice to Australians wanting to find an international audience is simple: stay true to yourself and your culture, while tapping into the things that bind us all, no matter where we live. 'If you look at Parasite, nobody would have expected a Korean film about the societal divide to have such international renown,' he says. 'But aside from being a fantastically original piece of art, it also tapped into so much humanity – poverty, desire, struggle, a craving for a better life – and in such a unique way too.' His own show was deemed similarly unique. But 'the themes are still universal: loneliness, shame, the need for connection, coming to terms with the past. 'I think a show can be shot anywhere and be a success,' he adds, 'as long as it taps into the human condition in unique and interesting ways.'
