Richard Gadd explains why 'Baby Reindeer' aired seven episodes instead of eight

Richard Gadd, creator and star of Baby Reindeer, has revealed the series was originally eight episodes but explained why he let only seven episodes air.

The 36-year-old Scottish actor and comedian spoke at the Future Vision 2025 in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday, July 14, where he admitted that he was the one who decided to remove the eighth episode.

Variety and The Sydney Morning Herald reported that in the episode, his character Donny Dunn visits family in Scotland.

Gadd noted that the episode was recorded after a network executive believed the viewers should have been given “light relief” from Jessica Gunning’s Martha Scott, who always follows Dunn.

“I remember when we were developing it, there was the note [from Netflix] that kept coming in – and probably rightfully so – that the show was just too dark, you need to give the audience a respite from it all,” the Tripped star said.

“And so there was an episode where I escape London to get away from Martha and everything, and I go and visit my parents [in Scotland]. There’s a whole episode where I go to the football with my dad [played by Mark Lewis Jones], I spend a day with my dad, and stuff kind of happens,” he quipped.

Notably, Dunn taking a break from Martha, who used to be a lawyer and met him at a London bar, seemed like a normal part of the story, but Gadd “fought hard” to remove those scenes after he saw the edited versions.

"I felt you miss her every time she’s not on screen, and I felt in a lot of ways, the sooner you get back to her, the better,” he stated regarding the elimination of episode eight.