One night only 84 people managed to squeeze into the small venue to see Richard Katz. Fringe play Baby Reindeer ran for almost four weeks in Edinburgh 2019.
But that low-key drama – the basis of the smash-hit TV show Baby Reindeer – cost the TV streaming service Netflix $120 million (£92 million), including legal fees.
In June, lawyers acting for Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha, launched a no-holds-barred legal attack on Netflix, demanding $170m (£130m), claiming she had been defamed on a scale and scale. without precedent'. She also sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and gross negligence.
While Netflix is fighting to have the case thrown out before it goes to trial next May, Ms Harvey appears to be in no mood to capitulate. This week, his legal team filed another amended complaint, pointing out several significant differences between the play and the TV show. The Emmys were last month.
Baby Reindeer – the biggest hit TV show – cost TV streaming service Netflix $120m (£92m), plus legal fees.
According to court documents, the play, starring Richard Cott as his stand-up comedian Tony Dunn, never claimed to be a 'true story' like the TV show, instead saying it was 'based on a true story'. . Additionally, the play reportedly contains no mention of Martha's arrest, conviction, confession, or prison sentence.
Harvey's team is arguing because the Netflix show ends with Martha pleading guilty to stalking Toney. Because she was a convicted predator, she was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for this second offense because of an earlier campaign against a lawyer.
In contrast, in the play Baby Reindeer, she is never arrested, let alone convicted. Instead, the police tell Tony they can't arrest Martha because they don't believe she's committed a crime and he orders her to 'apologise', telling the police to stop 'bothering' and saying 'I'm disappointed but it's not a crime to be reluctant'.
In the play, God's character tells the audience: 'The last experience with the police was so burning, so embarrassing, I refuse to engage them again.'
It ends with him getting a restraining order against her.
Harvey's team proves that Netflix is aware of such inconsistencies, and he's never been punished for stalking once, never mind twice.
According to legal documents filed by his team on Wednesday, 'abandoning the entire arc and premise of the series, where a convicted follower pleads guilty to God and returns to prison, from Play… Netflix's focus on the series is that Harvey's criminal history is more likely to be false.
Not that Harvey is the only one on the warpath. I can reveal some of the experiences that Richard Cott allegedly suffered at the hands of Fiona Harvey, as described in sworn statements filed in court. Make Los Angeles jaw-dropping reading.
Fiona Harvey is the real-life inspiration for stalker Martha in Baby Reindeer
Actress Jessica Gunning, who plays 'Martha' on the show, and Richard Cott, who plays herself, pose with the Emmy Awards in California earlier this year.
These included Harvey telling Kate that her clitoris had fallen off due to excessive masturbation, sending her his 'lucky pants' after she blocked his email, as well as calls and requests for sexual activity.
She complained of itchy pubic hair.
There were racist slurs about immigrants, an observation that she was going to a 'gun shop' and 'if we're free'. [London mayor Sadiq] Khan may all sleep in peace.
Cott said Harvey shoved him in the back of the neck after confronting her for allegedly stalking a lawyer and told him her big mouth was going to get him in trouble. In her statement, she complained about his continued 'handsy' behaviour, touching her bottom while she waited tables at a pub in Camden, north London, where he was trying to make it as a comedian.
In the TV series, which shows Tony working in a pub, this unwanted sexual interaction is portrayed as more sinister – Martha sexually assaults Tony in a passageway, which his team claims never happened in real life. In the TV series, she is seen hitting him with a mirror and gouging his eyes, which Ms Harvey says is defamatory and untrue.
For her part, Gatt says she was issued a first-degree harassment warning letter in 2016, citing the Hawley Arms pub where the 'victim' worked. After months of continued abuse, including Harvey telling Cott: 'I've got you dead, you're dead', Cott says she was issued another first-degree harassment warning letter in 2017. Police evidence. This is the first time Netflix has revealed the precise details of his interaction with the police.
Fiona appeared in a YouTube interview with Piers Morgan in which she denied sending thousands of emails to Richard Godd as depicted in the Netflix show.
Earlier, Netflix executive Benjamin King told a Commons select committee that the show was 'a true story' and that God had been targeted by a 'convicted stalker'.
He later 'clarified' his evidence in an email to former committee chair Dame Caroline Tinenage in July, writing that the 'person based on the show' was actually 'subject to a court order rather than a conviction'.
In his amended complaint against Netflix, Harvey includes his clear DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check to prove he is not guilty of any crime. Television appearances not depicted in the play include a reference to Martha waiting outside Tony's flat for 16 hours a day, including midnight.
There is also no reference in the play to Martha smashing a mirror over his head in the TV series.
In interviews he did to promote the TV show, Godd backed away from his stance that it was a 'true story', a line used in Netflix promotional materials and on screen. They note that he called it 'beautifully true', '100 per cent emotionally true' and 'emotionally true'. In a ruling last week, California judge R. Gary Klausner noted that there were significant differences between what actually happened and what was shown on screen.
He wrote: 'There is a great difference between being pursued in court and being punished.' He added: 'There are big differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, just as there are big differences between poking someone's eyes and gouging them.'
Judge Klausner disagreed with Netflix, arguing that those things should be considered 'substantially true' because he arguably did the same things in real life.
Netflix also argued that because it was filmed in the style of a drama, most viewers would understand that the claims made in the show were 'not true'. The judge disagreed, writing: 'Although the statements were made in a series with the trappings of a black comedy drama, the very first episode unequivocally says 'this is a true story', thereby inviting the audience to accept the statements. Truly.'
Netflix also stated that because the similarities between the real and fictional characters are so broad, the average viewer may not recognize Ms. Harvey as Martha. The judge disagreed. Netflix has appealed the ruling.
The judge sided with Netflix in parts of Ms. Harvey's case, rejecting her negligence and gross negligence claims and her claim for punitive damages.
As the two teams of high-powered lawyers prepare for the next round of hostilities, some viewers think it's time for Netflix to settle with Harvey.
This month a mediator, Gail Title, was assigned to the case. Netflix must submit a mediation questionnaire to him by Tuesday next week. Is the off-screen drama finally coming to a close?
