Baby Reindeer

@ninalanyon I don't know about the UK, but in the US that equivocation "based on" would give you a lot of wiggle room to introduce fictional elements. Also, if no true names are given, that's another layer of fictionalization that would protect the author. I know nothing about this story however.

I believe the movie "The Social Network" was presented as "based on a true story" but many key details were changed. Might have had the disclaimer about "no resemblance to persons living or dead ..." even though the resemblance was clearly intended.

@ElwoodBlues he didn’t use her name, yet she felt a need to come forward and say “this story is
NOT TRUE about ME” …. Interesting eh?

@ElwoodBlues Baby Reindeer billed itself as "A True Story", not "Based on a true story".

@ninalanyon OK, big difference.

@ninalanyon @ElwoodBlues yep I wonder if someone somewhere is regretting not putting "Inspired by real events" instead. Would have probably been better.

@OldBrit From what the BBC program that I heard was saying even that might have been stretching things. The real life Martha is basically claiming that the bulk of it was simply made up.

Some things seem very odd, the program apparently claimed that the Martha character had been found guilty of stalking (and served time for it I think) which the real person vehemently denies. But surely such things are a matter of public record? So how come no one tried to find a record of the trial? Saying that someone has been convicted of a crime when it isn't true sounds like defamation to me.

See https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240514-the-baby-reindeer-fallout-what-will-happen-next-in-2024s-biggest-tv-controversy