THERAPY DIDN'T WORK SO I WROTE BABY REINDEER

Writer turned the torment of rape by a theatre producer into a script for show | He began putting it down after realising no one believed what he had been through

- JOHN DINGWALL

SCOTS comic Richard Gadd has revealed he created hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer because therapy failed to help him overcome the trauma of sexual abuse.

The star, 35, from Fife, tried various forms of counselling to come to terms with being raped by a powerful theatre producer who had promised to make him famous.

He says he hinted at his ordeal as a stand-up comedian at Edinburgh's Festival Fringe but nobody realised or believed what he had been through until he opened up about his ordeal in the Netflix mini-series.

Gadd said: "Those shows still had traces of sexual abuse but they were never done from like a deep, meaningful place.

"But I realised I just wasn't doing it in the right way. It was almost like I was trying to admit to it without admitting to it.

"I remember having a choice where either I join them up and do a comedy show but actually admit what's happened to me, or I step away and try to deal with it on my own time." In deciding to write Baby Reindeer, he added: "I thought, 'Well, that's my only recourse left. I've tried all the therapies. Let's try this."

The muted reaction to his one-man show inspired him to come clean about the abuse at the hands of an older man while writing Baby Reindeer, which has gone on to earn him a trio of Emmy awards.

He admits his previous attempts at comedy had bombed.