This was just like a Roman circus. What sort of society goads a woman to ... trends now
The Baby Reindeer phenomenon gripping Britain has turned into a circus. Not a children's circus with clowns and acrobats — a Roman circus, where the prisoner is savaged as the crowd bays.
'Martha', the mentally fragile 58-year-old woman unmasked by a mob of internet detectives as the real-life stalker from the Netflix megahit, gave a bombshell interview to Piers Morgan on his YouTube show Uncensored last night.
Until now, the Mail has chosen not to identify her. Even after she gave an exclusive interview to us two weeks ago — and then bombarded our reporter Neil Sears with voice messages — we withheld her name and pixelated her face, to protect her privacy.
Now she has placed her real identity in the public domain, we will name her as Fiona Harvey — but with misgivings. She is evidently an emotionally unstable individual with a volatile personality, much more to be pitied than condemned.
Through the interview, she repeatedly appeared to lie and contradict herself, while throwing insults and wallowing in self-pity.
Piers Morgan last night with Fiona Harvey, the inspiration for Martha, where she gave a bombshell interview on his YouTube show Uncensored
The writer and star of Baby Reindeer, comedian Richard Gadd, was 'psychotic' and 'the ultimate misogynist', she said. 'He's got extreme psychiatric problems.' Whether any of these statements about Gadd are accurate is doubtful.
But I ask again what sort of society treats this as entertainment? She calls it a 'bizarre circus' herself. What has this country become, that we goad a woman to justify herself after she has been labelled 'mad' in a TV drama based (without her permission) on an episode in her life?
I'll tell you what sort of society — one that trumpets the sanctimonious catchphrase #BeKind like a national slogan.
Naturally, Harvey's appearance on Uncensored, aired from 8.30pm and instantly viewed by more than half a million people, will not be the final word.
Baby Reindeer, the seven-part comedy drama, currently the most popular series on Netflix with record-breaking audience figures in the UK and the US, is a combination of cringeworthy memoir and horror movie. At the end of every episode, viewers are told that it is based on a true story — one that is thinly fictionalised, it must be said.
In the opening scene, Donny —played by Gadd — is a scrawny, bearded millennial with a desperate need for attention who is working as a barman in a London pub when a tearful woman (played by Jessica Gunning) sits down at the bar.
Jessica Gunning plays Martha in the hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer which is based on a true story
Fiona is evidently an emotionally unstable individual with a volatile personality, much more to be pitied than condemned, writes Chris Stevens
She is based on Harvey, but given the name 'Martha' to disguise her real identity, the writer has said. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to protect Harvey from internet sleuths.
He gives her a cup of tea on the house, flirts a little and makes her laugh. Over the next few weeks, she comes in regularly, and the flirting becomes sexual banter —which Martha takes seriously.
Fiona Harvey admits she used to go to The Hawley Arms in
