Half Man is the new drama from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd — and after his last show blurred the line between truth and fiction, it’s a fair question: is this one based on a true story too?
Baby Reindeer followed Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian being relentlessly stalked.
This story came form Gadd’s real life. Its impact was huge, but so was the fallout, including an ongoing £128 million legal case tied to the show.
That context matters. With Half Man landing on the BBC, expectations are very different this time.
Is Half Man based on a true story?
Unlike Baby Reindeer, Half Man isn’t based on a true story. It’s fully fictional, but still deeply personal.
Writing in the Radio Times, Gadd explained how his work always comes from a personal place, even when the story itself isn’t real.
“Everything I do now, people will assume is based on my life. But Half Man is a fictional series, which I have built from a blank page,” he wrote.
“All they need to do is a bit of Googling to discover that my childhood was very different from that of the central characters, Ruben and Niall, who are brought together when their mothers start living together.”
What is Half Man about?
The show follows Ruben (played by Gadd and Stuart Campbell in younger scenes) and Niall (Jamie Bell and Mitchell Robertson).
They’re not related by blood, but they call themselves brothers — “from another lover”, as the show puts it.
Ruben is impulsive and volatile. Niall is quieter, more withdrawn, and caught between admiration and resentment. Their relationship shifts over decades, shaped by violence, identity, and unresolved tension.
For Gadd, Ruben is far removed from who he is. Niall, however, carries something more familiar — especially when it comes to sexuality.
“When I was going through a sexuality crisis, feeling confused – any identity struggle – what I felt I was missing was something on TV that represented that,” he told Attitude.
“As someone’s who’s struggled in my life with various aspects, I feel it is my duty in my art in a way to show struggle for the people who do feel left behind.”
Why Gadd ‘couldn’t shake’ Half Man
Gadd first wrote an episode of Half Man before finishing Baby Reindeer, then returned to it years later.
“I had the idea quite a long time ago. I wrote one episode pre-Baby Reindeer. [Then] I went off to do that and always hoped it would be there at the end of it, but the genesis of it happened quite a number of years ago,” he said at a screening.
“I always come up with ideas for things and if I can shake them within a day, then I’m like, ‘They weren’t worth thinking about,’ but this one, I couldn’t shake.
“It stayed with me all the way through Baby Reindeer. I would be like, ‘Please can it still be there on the other side,’ because I knew the BBC were interested and I really wanted to do it with the Beeb.”
The timing also feels deliberate. Conversations around masculinity are louder than ever — but Gadd’s focus is more personal than political.
“I knew there was a general male problem that I was interested to explore and dig into and try to contextualise to a certain degree, but that’s about as far as it went. It just sparked an idea which couldn’t leave me.”
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Half Man episode 1 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
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