Fresh from his bombshell interview with ‘the real Martha,’ Piers Morgan has slammed “high-profile people in the business” who have said they know the identity of Richard Gadd‘s abuser portrayed in Baby Reindeer.
Along with the furious guessing game to find Gadd’s female stalker sparked by the controversial Netflix series, the internet has been ablaze with sleuths trying to discover the identity of the comedy producer portrayed in episode 4 who grooms, sexually assaults and rapes Gadd. One director has even taken legal action against those targeting him as ‘the real Darrien’. Darrien is played by Tom Goodman-Hill in the show and returns in later episodes.
Some have revealed they are aware of the real abuser’s identity, including Rest is Entertainment host Richard Osman, who claimed recently that “everyone” in the industry is aware and that Gadd has been “very open to people in the industry” about the person who sexually assaulted him.
Morgan said he is unaware of the abuser’s identity and criticized “some very high-profile people in the business saying they know who it is.”
“Well why aren’t you telling the authorities, why aren’t you telling their employers,” Morgan told the BBC’s Media Show in the days after his interview with Fiona Harvey, who has been identified as the real-life Martha from the show and is building a case for legal action against Netflix. “If there is a rapist in our business and they know who it is but aren’t giving any information then that surely should ask some pretty serious questions of them.”
Morgan added: “I think they should stop opining about my interview and start looking at themselves in the mirror and wonder if they are doing the right thing about the rapist allegation.”
The TalkTV host was also responding to claims that his Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube show had exploited Harvey when booking her as a guest.
He reiterated that Harvey was offered duty of care help both before and after the interview, and said there is no evidence that Harvey has mental health issues. Earlier this week, he accused Netflix of “failing” Harvey. Harvey has since criticized TalkTV for not paying her enough money for the interview.
Baby Reindeer has been topping the Netflix charts for weeks and was the talk of last weekend’s BAFTA TV Awards.
This morning, Scottish MP John Nicolson said he will write to Netflix asking the streamer to further substantiate what it told a parliamentary committee last week about Baby Reindeer duty of care. Netflix policy boss Benjamin King had told lawmakers that Netflix and producer Clerkenwell Films took “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story,” but Nicolson believes some of this evidence may have been inaccurate. Over the weekend, the UK government fired a warning shot at Netflix over the debacle and said it will be held to higher standards under the new Media Bill, which will come into effect over the next couple of years.
