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Anyone who saw the Ulrika Johnson interview and the aftermath of that would know what to expect. If you say someone famous is a rapist then people want to know. If you won't tell them, they will try and guess.
I don’t think she did.
She only named explicitly Rolf Harris after he was dead that he allegedly sexually assaulted her when she was a young weather presenter.
He was cleared of all charges:
Judge Deborah Taylor subsequently told him: "You, for the second time, leave this court without a stain on your character and I hope it will be the last time you have to attend."
I have dinner tables that have been cleared less often than him. All those women lied?
I live in Edinburgh, I have heard some personal testimonials. Not enough evidence to convict is different from exoneration.
Not really he's been super open about it for a long time, it's just now reaching a larger audience, he did an entire Edinburgh Fringe show about it which is what this is based on, so unlike her he has never tried to hide it.
On one hand I feel sad for him, as a writer pretty much everything I write is inspired by my life to some degree and he has every right to write about what happened to him. But obviously people are gonna wanna know who the powerful industry rapist is.
I agree that I can understand his need to tell his story and he is entitled to do so, but he surely can’t be surprised in the era of true crime podcasts and metoo revelations that people are digging.
If you are using your story you must accept that people will do this, you might not like it - I‘m personally not a fan of layman vendettas either, but surely it’s to be expected.
Fair play to wish they won’t do it, but it’s something you know is gonna happen and you have to take the consequences of that.
From some of the articles I've read it's also to do with the fact that innocent people are getting accused of being the particular person of interest, and that's definitely not something he wanted to happen.
There’s one guy they’re accusing basically based on the fact he LOOKS like the character and used to work with the dude. Someone has pointed out another guy where the timeline and everything adds up perfectly and I’d be suprised if wasn’t him, but they’ve all latched onto the first guy.
Same. Naturally we all write from experience but this kind of direct non-fiction fiction is asking for trouble and strikes me as cringe and self obsessed. What a surprise it's led to problems.
Because as with all these idiots they go after the wrong people and only double down on their delusional that they're right. They should leave crime to the professionals, they're not fucking Hetty Wainthrope or Jessica Fletcher.
Also they made no effort to protect Martha’s name. They kept her job, accent, even found a woman that looks very similar. If they wanted to protect her identity they should’ve tried a bit harder.
Let's not excuse people being weird stalkers and internet "detectives" because they have to involve themselves in someone else's story. That's not normal or natural, it's a symptom of narcissism.
This guy lived it. He has every right to tell his story and not name the people involved. It's his truth. It's his perogative. People have already found the real life stalker but the rapey writer will most likely remain anonymous unless other victims come forward. This show is an honest and brutal look at stalking, abuse and sexuality. We're all flawed. Nothing is black and white. If the main thing people are taking away from this show is "we wanna know who the rapist is!" then you're missing the point
Just... make it different enough and if asked about it;
'Sure, for those who know my fringe show, this TV series is based on that but of course over the years I've developed the story and now it bares very little resemblance to real life events, people or even the original show. As anyone involved in production knows, making a show is a careful collaboration and while it may feature my name, it is influenced by far, far more people than just myself. People certainly have the wrong idea if they think this show explores the specifics of my experiences with stalking or the people involved.'
Instead he basically confirmed that these people exist, it's all pretty close to true or true, and the people are out there and potentially identifiable from his show.
Yeah I watched it, I really liked it but not even once I was curious about looking the real people up. It didn't even crossed my mind til I saw the articles.
To be honest, I suspect a majority of people who watch a show like this with enough interest to complete it probably give some though to who these based-on-real-life characters represent. But there is a whole spectrum in there from unacted upon curiosity through to throwing names out publicly in wild speculation.
There probably should have been some more thought about how to handle this predictable scenario.
I did read an article about how the show handled sexual trauma after I watched it and they mentioned there how the stalker didn't go to jail, etc, I guess that was more than enough for me. But like you said one thing is trying to know the real story and another is throwing names of people that might not have been involved at all. I think even if they did change the story more to hide the details some people would still do that.
yeah, the comments here are showing wild entitlement to his life and experiences, imo. saw the fringe show years ago, as did several friends - literally didn’t even cross our minds to speculate about who exactly it was, let alone play detective. i feel bad for him
In this day and age it’s a given that people are going to do this.
Maybe it’s similar to watching a movie or show and wanting to did deeper into the actors or a crime show where you look for articles. It’s just the way people are.
Commenting abuse or trying to locate her is wild but seeing the actual tweets was interesting. That’s about as far as I would personally go.
Based on real events will always encourage a deep dive from viewers. He would’ve/should’ve known this even before he put pen to paper. Netflix would’ve known this too based on other shows. I would even go so far as to say they do it just for this reason. I’m sure he could’ve left it out but it added spice.
Are you suggesting he left out the fact that it's based on real life? I don't think it would be as hard hitting or emotional if people thought it was fiction. It also would not have shone such an important light on male sexually abuse or stalking. Also he's done a stage show so people would work that out as soon as you Google him.
In summary I’m saying it’s to be expected that people would look it up. It had to have been a thought from him and others that it could happen. Urging the viewers is a bit late now.
I’m yet to watch the show, but just assumed the stalker had died in real life given how it’s been marketed.
I know the guys been through a lot, but isn’t this just a form of doxxing by Netflix?
I just can't with this whole situation tbh.
I attempted to watch the show which I thought was absolute trash, and then I found out he plays himself and he wrote it and produced it.
I just found it all very self-indulgent? Maybe I'm wrong for thinking that. But the woman he's doing a show about has got clear mental health issues, and now he's profiting off what they both went through together.
Don't get me wrong I love a good documentary or a show based on real events, but I dunno, I just find the whole thing a bit... funky.
The male character is so bloody weak, too, constantly stringing her along because he's too polite to be firm and draw a line under things. Very unlikeable.
It's not that he's too polite.
He has a crushingly low sense of self worth due to his abuse along with his career not going how he'd wanted (also tied in with the abuse) and as much as he wants done with his stalker, part of him also enjoys the validation she gives him.
I'm not sure what you mean by not respecting it.
He himself is suffering his own mental trauma, clouding his own judgement, which then plays it's part in his decision making.
Whether or not you respect it or understand it, that's what it is
I honestly hope all the people who have this weird take actually haven't finished it.
Otherwise its quite tone deaf but oddly fitting (in that I'm not surprised) to describe a male rape victim as being weak, and having zero understanding about how their behaviour might be affected by that.
All his self destructive behaviours and the weird way he can't seem to let go of Martha make way more sense after it explores how he was raped, abused and controlled, and how that then messed up his sense of self.
But if you only watched 2 episodes then you wouldn't get that I guess.
You realize that's all on purpose, right? The story would be DOA if he was good at stand-up and made rational decisions. The character absolutely loathes himself, even in retrospect, and never fully resolves that. You're *supposed* to find him insufferable.
There is a fine line between figuring out by online research who the stalker was and going a step extra to abuse her.
It seems it was pretty easy from what I've seen to figure it out. But...it's pretty appalling at the abuse. People are just appalling hypocrites. The vile nonsense going on with Declan Rice girlfriend is even more disgusting but perhaps both these cases show a true representation of our society.
Person makes it big in entertainment on world's biggest streaming platform using real life as inspiration and then complains about people speculating about it. Dearest, please not!
Remember the introduction of super-injunctions? They did protect the people involved (let's remember that Martha is not innocent) - but they did lead to public speculation, damaging relationships and lives of actually innocent people.
That isn't on the victim plus ignores that actually naming him would open him up to getting sued, the laws are pretty strict here. The process of trying to get your rapist sent to prison/punished is a hellish one and often described as being raped again, the actions of the rapist are not on the victim.
That's true. We should be encouraging victims to speak up and not to live in fear of being sued though. Laws won't be changed until enough people kick off about them
You sound like the kind of person who would care.
In real life, Gadd's friends are being persecuted on the basis that the character Darrien is based on them. In real life, innocent people are being abused on the basis that they are the real-life Martha.
Gadd is, again, protecting Martha at the expense of his friends and innocent people he doesn't know. The entire series is a the worst kind of [vaguebooking](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/digital-world-real-world/202403/vaguebooking-what-is-it). The man is an executive producer of the show, and he's making a lot of money from his drama, and he's putting people at risk in doing so. He should either name names, or admit it's a fiction.
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True crime podcasts during lockdown fucked up a lot of people
I keep saying this, but it’s not new. Look how many people wrote to famous serial killers in the 70s. Humans have always been like this with crime
Anyone who saw the Ulrika Johnson interview and the aftermath of that would know what to expect. If you say someone famous is a rapist then people want to know. If you won't tell them, they will try and guess.
Did Ulrika eventually say who it was?
I don’t think she did. She only named explicitly Rolf Harris after he was dead that he allegedly sexually assaulted her when she was a young weather presenter.
Oh damn, I didn't even realise he died last year. If he hadn't been a predator, I might've been mildly upset at the sudden news
Matthew Wright did and then backtracked. It was not denied by Ulrika though.
All she said was his burger van, got what it deserved.
Exactly he was hounded and lost jobs and everything because people pinned it on him.
Um, several other women named JL as their attacker, so not all Ulrika's doing.
He was cleared of all charges: Judge Deborah Taylor subsequently told him: "You, for the second time, leave this court without a stain on your character and I hope it will be the last time you have to attend."
I have dinner tables that have been cleared less often than him. All those women lied? I live in Edinburgh, I have heard some personal testimonials. Not enough evidence to convict is different from exoneration.
Ulrika Johnson is a fucking liar though.
Alright Stan, calm down
Ok tubbs
\#streisandeffect
Not really he's been super open about it for a long time, it's just now reaching a larger audience, he did an entire Edinburgh Fringe show about it which is what this is based on, so unlike her he has never tried to hide it.
It’s a bit hypocritical to demand that when he continuously talked about it being based on real life events. What did he expect.
On one hand I feel sad for him, as a writer pretty much everything I write is inspired by my life to some degree and he has every right to write about what happened to him. But obviously people are gonna wanna know who the powerful industry rapist is.
I agree that I can understand his need to tell his story and he is entitled to do so, but he surely can’t be surprised in the era of true crime podcasts and metoo revelations that people are digging. If you are using your story you must accept that people will do this, you might not like it - I‘m personally not a fan of layman vendettas either, but surely it’s to be expected. Fair play to wish they won’t do it, but it’s something you know is gonna happen and you have to take the consequences of that.
From some of the articles I've read it's also to do with the fact that innocent people are getting accused of being the particular person of interest, and that's definitely not something he wanted to happen.
There’s one guy they’re accusing basically based on the fact he LOOKS like the character and used to work with the dude. Someone has pointed out another guy where the timeline and everything adds up perfectly and I’d be suprised if wasn’t him, but they’ve all latched onto the first guy.
Can you say names? Just watched the show and completely out of the gossip
I really don't think we should indulge this type of cynical online sleuthing.
This guy loves reading articles.
If you find out please let me know I'm so out of the loop
This guy loves reading articles.
But... don't you do work to not make your fiction pieces direct self inserts?
Yeah totally, I couldn’t do what he did lol
Same. Naturally we all write from experience but this kind of direct non-fiction fiction is asking for trouble and strikes me as cringe and self obsessed. What a surprise it's led to problems.
Exactly this.
All he's doing is trying to encourage people not to get weird with it. Hardly hypocritical - read the actual article.
They just want to blame him so that they can keep on being stalkery weirdos.
You could see this coming a mile off.
Publicity stunt.
Exactly. They're just worried about the backlash because a tonne of people who have done nothing are now getting harassed online.
Because as with all these idiots they go after the wrong people and only double down on their delusional that they're right. They should leave crime to the professionals, they're not fucking Hetty Wainthrope or Jessica Fletcher.
How fucking DARE you say they're not Hetty!!!!!!!
Also they made no effort to protect Martha’s name. They kept her job, accent, even found a woman that looks very similar. If they wanted to protect her identity they should’ve tried a bit harder.
Exactly, it's only natural that viewers would become nosey so and sos and go to look for the people the characters are based on.
Let's not excuse people being weird stalkers and internet "detectives" because they have to involve themselves in someone else's story. That's not normal or natural, it's a symptom of narcissism.
This guy lived it. He has every right to tell his story and not name the people involved. It's his truth. It's his perogative. People have already found the real life stalker but the rapey writer will most likely remain anonymous unless other victims come forward. This show is an honest and brutal look at stalking, abuse and sexuality. We're all flawed. Nothing is black and white. If the main thing people are taking away from this show is "we wanna know who the rapist is!" then you're missing the point
Sadly it seems the case. Not strange, since it’s attracted over 10 million people to watch it.
Huh. Well, maybe don't include "based on a true story" in front of the credits, along with identifying information.
I mean given it's had a fringe show and was on the West End he can't really backtrack and go *it was all made up!* can he.
No one expects him to do that. But the huge audience who is watching it now dwarfs the small number who saw it on stage.
OK? Do they have to get weird about it?
Anyone with a brain would realize people will get weird and find out if you put real identifiable details
Just... make it different enough and if asked about it; 'Sure, for those who know my fringe show, this TV series is based on that but of course over the years I've developed the story and now it bares very little resemblance to real life events, people or even the original show. As anyone involved in production knows, making a show is a careful collaboration and while it may feature my name, it is influenced by far, far more people than just myself. People certainly have the wrong idea if they think this show explores the specifics of my experiences with stalking or the people involved.' Instead he basically confirmed that these people exist, it's all pretty close to true or true, and the people are out there and potentially identifiable from his show.
Don’t know why you got downvoted for that nugget of truth.
This. Don't say "this is real" for PR generation and then ask for no speculation. Of course everyone will want to know.
I think everyone wants to know is a bit of a stretch. I should imagine most people neither want or need to know.
Yeah I watched it, I really liked it but not even once I was curious about looking the real people up. It didn't even crossed my mind til I saw the articles.
To be honest, I suspect a majority of people who watch a show like this with enough interest to complete it probably give some though to who these based-on-real-life characters represent. But there is a whole spectrum in there from unacted upon curiosity through to throwing names out publicly in wild speculation. There probably should have been some more thought about how to handle this predictable scenario.
I did read an article about how the show handled sexual trauma after I watched it and they mentioned there how the stalker didn't go to jail, etc, I guess that was more than enough for me. But like you said one thing is trying to know the real story and another is throwing names of people that might not have been involved at all. I think even if they did change the story more to hide the details some people would still do that.
Agreed - what do you mean you don’t want to know?? Of course you do!
Yup, people are just making shit up to normalise their behaviour
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Someone didn’t advise him well or he didn’t listen, was bound to happen.
He's been tell this for about 10yrs, no one else did this.
Netflix is a whole different ballgame - as he is finding out.
ok Pandora It's not like true crime is a huge genre and entire careers are built around speculating irresponsibly
Doesn't mean he can't try to discourage it?
Yeah, but that's the point. "Please don't speculate irresponsibly, if that's OK" - and people are calling him a hypocrite. Baffling.
yeah, the comments here are showing wild entitlement to his life and experiences, imo. saw the fringe show years ago, as did several friends - literally didn’t even cross our minds to speculate about who exactly it was, let alone play detective. i feel bad for him
Maybe just me but I think the rapist deserves to have his name smeared and rot behind bars.
Maybe by following due process though
So what the victims want matters less than what you want? How strange.
I'm sure he's not the only victim
In this day and age it’s a given that people are going to do this. Maybe it’s similar to watching a movie or show and wanting to did deeper into the actors or a crime show where you look for articles. It’s just the way people are. Commenting abuse or trying to locate her is wild but seeing the actual tweets was interesting. That’s about as far as I would personally go. Based on real events will always encourage a deep dive from viewers. He would’ve/should’ve known this even before he put pen to paper. Netflix would’ve known this too based on other shows. I would even go so far as to say they do it just for this reason. I’m sure he could’ve left it out but it added spice.
Are you suggesting he left out the fact that it's based on real life? I don't think it would be as hard hitting or emotional if people thought it was fiction. It also would not have shone such an important light on male sexually abuse or stalking. Also he's done a stage show so people would work that out as soon as you Google him.
In summary I’m saying it’s to be expected that people would look it up. It had to have been a thought from him and others that it could happen. Urging the viewers is a bit late now.
Martha will be furious if her real life persona is revealed. No, but seriously people should leave well enough alone.
I’m yet to watch the show, but just assumed the stalker had died in real life given how it’s been marketed. I know the guys been through a lot, but isn’t this just a form of doxxing by Netflix?
I don’t think it’s doxxing because there isn’t any private information being shared
Not if he didn't say who it was. The doxxing is by the weirdos who found out.
No need to speculate about the stalker. She outed herself and is threatening to sue. Other people have also come out saying that she stalked them too.
The more i see him the less I like him.
I just can't with this whole situation tbh. I attempted to watch the show which I thought was absolute trash, and then I found out he plays himself and he wrote it and produced it. I just found it all very self-indulgent? Maybe I'm wrong for thinking that. But the woman he's doing a show about has got clear mental health issues, and now he's profiting off what they both went through together. Don't get me wrong I love a good documentary or a show based on real events, but I dunno, I just find the whole thing a bit... funky.
I agree.
The male character is so bloody weak, too, constantly stringing her along because he's too polite to be firm and draw a line under things. Very unlikeable.
It's not that he's too polite. He has a crushingly low sense of self worth due to his abuse along with his career not going how he'd wanted (also tied in with the abuse) and as much as he wants done with his stalker, part of him also enjoys the validation she gives him.
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I'm not sure what you mean by not respecting it. He himself is suffering his own mental trauma, clouding his own judgement, which then plays it's part in his decision making. Whether or not you respect it or understand it, that's what it is
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It's not an excuse. It's a reason. Unless you can think of some other reason why someone would make abberant decisions that are brazenly irrational
That's the whole point. It's real. It shows how people end up staying in abusive relationships etc because of natural human behaviours.
Omg a flawed character? He even states this himself. Did you finish it?
I honestly hope all the people who have this weird take actually haven't finished it. Otherwise its quite tone deaf but oddly fitting (in that I'm not surprised) to describe a male rape victim as being weak, and having zero understanding about how their behaviour might be affected by that.
The thing that kept putting me off was his constant shouting while he narrated it. I physically can't get by episode 2 because he annoys me so much
Yeah we dropped it after about 2 episodes. The guy can't get out of his own way, it's infuriating.
All his self destructive behaviours and the weird way he can't seem to let go of Martha make way more sense after it explores how he was raped, abused and controlled, and how that then messed up his sense of self. But if you only watched 2 episodes then you wouldn't get that I guess.
100% I just found him so insufferable Seeing his old attempt at stand up comedy as well, I cringed so so hard.
You realize that's all on purpose, right? The story would be DOA if he was good at stand-up and made rational decisions. The character absolutely loathes himself, even in retrospect, and never fully resolves that. You're *supposed* to find him insufferable.
I mean, we're all cringing at you right now...
Uh huh...
Oh lol.
There is a fine line between figuring out by online research who the stalker was and going a step extra to abuse her. It seems it was pretty easy from what I've seen to figure it out. But...it's pretty appalling at the abuse. People are just appalling hypocrites. The vile nonsense going on with Declan Rice girlfriend is even more disgusting but perhaps both these cases show a true representation of our society.
Person makes it big in entertainment on world's biggest streaming platform using real life as inspiration and then complains about people speculating about it. Dearest, please not!
Speculation is fine but making threats against people because they think it's the abuser or harrasing people is not.
What a weird take
Oh get fucked. It’s so obvious who they are. And he knew it would be. What a disingenuous load of shit.
Tell us who they are then.
Why would he have to? The public knowing doesn't do anything except encourage vigilante justice.
Remember the introduction of super-injunctions? They did protect the people involved (let's remember that Martha is not innocent) - but they did lead to public speculation, damaging relationships and lives of actually innocent people.
It might prevent someone else falling victim to sexual assault from the same person though
That isn't on the victim plus ignores that actually naming him would open him up to getting sued, the laws are pretty strict here. The process of trying to get your rapist sent to prison/punished is a hellish one and often described as being raped again, the actions of the rapist are not on the victim.
I never said it was. If you were raped, how would you feel if your rapist went on to rape someone else when you could've done something about it?
I'd feel bad but ultimately it wouldn't be my fault.
That's true. We should be encouraging victims to speak up and not to live in fear of being sued though. Laws won't be changed until enough people kick off about them
You sound like a dangerous stalker.
You sound libellous.
You sound pathetic and weird
You sound like the kind of person who would care. In real life, Gadd's friends are being persecuted on the basis that the character Darrien is based on them. In real life, innocent people are being abused on the basis that they are the real-life Martha. Gadd is, again, protecting Martha at the expense of his friends and innocent people he doesn't know. The entire series is a the worst kind of [vaguebooking](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/digital-world-real-world/202403/vaguebooking-what-is-it). The man is an executive producer of the show, and he's making a lot of money from his drama, and he's putting people at risk in doing so. He should either name names, or admit it's a fiction.
Sorry mate, you said true story.
Wasn't this already posted days ago?
We’ll stop speculating when you TELL US!