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Netflix Baby Reindeer lawsuit forces BBC to make major change to new drama
Are TV dramas erasing real-life figures to avoid legal trouble?
PRODUCERS usually take the name of a character’s real-life counterpart for their “true story” dramas – even if there is lashings of artistic licence added to the tale.
But that was before Baby Reindeer, which last year saw Netflix slapped with a defamation lawsuit by Fiona Harvey who claims she was wrongly used as inspiration for the central stalker in the show.
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Now it seems to have spooked bosses of new drama Dope Girls, which is set between the World Wars in London and airs this month on BBC One.
Their lead character is obviously based on real female “gangster” Kate Meyrick, but execs have called her Kate Galloway and insist any similarities between the two are coincidental.
A TV insider said: “The Beeb hasn’t mentioned Meyrick in any of its publicity, even though it’s pretty obvious that the two Kate’s stories are remarkably similar.
"The fear is that if they state it was based on a true story, people could come forward to criticise their portrayal in a show which is packed with potentially controversial scenes of sex, violence and drugs.
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“Kate died in 1933 so couldn’t take legal action, but executives are reluctant to be seen as playing fast and loose with the truth in dramas based on real-life events.
“The trouble is that they are also effectively erasing high-profile, key individuals.
“It would be disrespectful to make a drama about a grocer’s daughter called Margaret who rose to be Prime Minister then claim that it wasn’t inspired by Thatcher.”
After World War One, Meyrick made the modern equivalent of £17million and became known as “the most dangerous woman in London” and “The Nightclub Queen”.
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She built an illicit empire of clubs around the capital where hedonists indulged in a booming recreational drugs market.
Meanwhile the BBC described its lead character as a woman who after World War One “established herself at the centre of London’s exploding club scene, embracing a life of criminal activities.”
With a secret scandal, dodgy dating history and a million in the bank already - does Baby Reindeer star deserve praise or is he a cynical egotist?
But yesterday a BBC spokesman insisted: “The character is not Kate Meyrick. Dope Girls is inspired by a forgotten time in history and all its events and characters are fictional.”
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Painful trip for Alison
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ACTRESS Alison Steadman injured her leg and hand when she fell over at a dinner in the Dubai desert.
The Gavin & Stacey star, who had to briefly use a wheelchair afterward, told the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature: “There were beautiful seats laid out and a buffet. I went to get some pudding. I was walking along a concrete walkway that was not 100 per cent smooth.
“I tripped and it felt like I went up in the air about 5ft and then just crashed down on concrete. It was absolutely horrible. I landed on this foot and this hand and was in absolute agony.”
Stunned by her fall, she was even more confused when medics arrived and asked her if she’d tumbled off a camel.
Alison recalled: “I said: ‘What camel? I didn’t fall off a camel!’”
Bet she really got the hump after that.
Island's an Ek of a fan hit
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As Love Island’s cast dwindles, ratings are rising - with viewers hooked on the Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Curtis Pritchard drama.
Two All Stars lads, Scott Thomas and Ron Hall, quit the villa in Cape Town at the weekend after failing to find love on the ITV2 dating show.
But more than a million watched Sunday’s episode live as Curtis pulled a U-turn to recouple with Ekin despite days of rows.
These days, most Love Island viewers stream on ITVX, where it averages two million views an episode.
The series is ITVX’s most streamed show, with a total of 47 million views and, so far this year, the biggest share of the 16-34s digital audience.
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