Richard Gadd assures fans that intimate scenes in Baby Reindeer will be handled with care

Baby Reindeer has been the biggest television hit of the year. But it has not come without its controversies, particularly its portrayal of sexual assault.

The show’s creator Richard Gadd is seemingly keen not to make the same mistake, and the production team has assured prospective cast members for Gadd’s new project that staging of intimate scenes will be ‘carefully handled’ by hiring an intimacy co-ordinator.

The casting call, obtained by the Mail on Sunday, for his next show reads: ‘These roles include portrayal of scenes of a sexual nature, carefully handled, and with the support of an intimacy coordinator.’

While Baby Reindeer was made by Netflix, the new unnamed project will be a joint production between the BBC and American giant HBO.

Scottish writer Gadd’s first series, which was last week nominated for 11 Emmy awards, was a semi-autobiographical comedy drama which told the story of standup comedian Donny Dunn who is harassed and stalked by Martha, sending him 41,000-plus emails, and bombarding him with texts and calls. It included traumatic scenes of sexual assault and drug taking.

Richard Gadd’s production team have promised that intimate scenes in his new drama series will be ‘carefully handled’ by an intimacy co-ordinator after Baby Reindeer caused controversy 

The Netflix show, which follows Richard’s character Donny as he is stalked by a woman named Martha, played by Jessica Gunning, has become a global hit since its release

His next work, as yet untitled, will begin in the present day with an unhappy and violent reunion of two Scottish stepbrothers, when one makes an appearance at the other’s wedding. 

The series will then flashback to the eighties and what unfolds will explain their tumultuous relationship. 

The TV project, which will be set and filmed in Glasgow, has promised to ‘capture the wild energy of a changing city and a changing world’ and will ask ‘what does it mean to be a man?’

Martha, Gadd’s fictional stalker played by Jessica Gunning, gripped a nation with her frightening intensity, and there has been fevered speculation over what characters the writer next has in store.

The casting call for his latest show gives us a tantalising insight into his new creations: a pair of young Scottish stepbrothers between late teens and early twenties.

One brother ‘Paul’ is ‘a highly intelligent, working class boy and deeply insecure’. Like Baby Reindeer’s Donny he is ‘secretly unsure of his sexuality’, with the character being either gay or bisexual. The call adds: ‘Paul gets to university where he tries but never quite fits in with the richer, more confident students.’

His brother Tommy’s temperament will be the complete opposite. He is described as ‘good looking, charismatic and sometimes violent. He has his own moral code. Do right by him and he’ll do right by you, cross him and he’ll batter you. Tommy is confident and charming, but also has a self-destructive streak.

Filming is expected to begin in early 2025, with Gadd writing and executive producing.

However, it has not come without its controversies, particularly its portrayal of sexual assault

And now, the production team have assured prospective cast members that intimate scenes in Richard’s new drama series will be ‘carefully handled’ after tears were previously shed on set of Baby Reindeer 

The new show comes as Fiona Harvey, 58, the woman who allegedly inspired Baby Reindeer’s Martha, has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Netflix for defamation, negligence and privacy violations.

The assurance from the production team on the new series comes after Richard revealed that tears were shed on the set of Baby Reindeer during the filming of some of the show’s most harrowing scenes. 

He opened up about filming episode four, in which his character is sexually assaulted by a male TV writer who takes struggling comedian Donny under his wing. 

He told Variety: ‘We did close the set, but I was looking over and you’d see the props guys wiping tears from their eyes as they would be putting the props back how they should be.’

‘The show was based in such a trauma that everyone on set felt at times it was a huge, weighty thing. And it’s why I think everyone had such respect for everything. I was blessed with this amazing team who kind of felt it with me in a lot of ways.’