Baby Reindeer gave star the same feelings as Pride

Jessica Gunning stars as Martha in the Netflix drama Baby Reindeer

Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning said reading the script for the Netflix series gave her the same feelings as when she first read the script for Pride.

Gunning, who portrays a stalker called Martha in the word-of-mouth hit, previously played Sian James in the 2014 film Pride.

Sian was the wife of a striking miner who went on to become the MP for Swansea East.

“I had a similar reaction I remember when I read [Pride] for the first time, I was in a café and I just absolutely sobbed," Gunning told BBC Radio Wales.

“It was just a beautiful thing to be a part of and, I feel, very similar actually to Baby Reindeer."

Pride portrayed an alliance between gay rights’ campaigners and pit workers during the 1984 miners' strike and was largely set in the Dulais Valley in south Wales.

“I feel like it’s had such an amazing response and affected so many people, and I am just so proud I got to be a part of it all," she said.

Gunning, 38, recalled being at the screening of Pride and sitting next to Imelda Staunton.

“She [Imelda Staunton] said to me, if we never work again, we can say we were in that film.

“What a film - it’s just incredible.”

Jessica Gunning (left) played Sian James MP (right) who was one of many women to join mining support groups in south Wales

Netflix's Baby Reindeer depicts the true story of a stalker, portrayed by Gunning, who harassed the writer and creator of the series, Richard Gadd, over a number of years.

In the series Gunning has a strong Scottish accent, though she actually grew up near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

“I have an amazing accent coach who helped me, and she also helped me with my Welsh accent when I did Pride,” she said.