True crime shows 'Baby Reindeer' and 'Until I Kill You' share a strange real-life connection
- "Until I Kill You" is about Delia Balmer, who survived a relationship with serial killer John Sweeney.
- The four-part drama is based on Balmer's book about her ordeal.
True crime dramas "Until I Kill You" and the Netflix megahit "Baby Reindeer" share a surprising connection: they both involve the same London pub.
"Until I Kill You" is about Delia Balmer (Anna Maxwell Martin), a nurse, who survived being attacked by her ex-boyfriend, John Sweeney (Shaun Evans), a serial killer dubbed the "Scalp Hunter."
The four-part drama, released on the weekend by British network ITV, starts with the pair meeting in a pub and ends with Balmer testifying against Sweeney in court several years later. Sweeney was convicted of killing two women, Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields, and was sentenced to life in prison.
ITV also released a documentary to accompany the series called "Until I Kill You: The Real Story," which features the real Balmer sharing the details of her ordeal. At the beginning, she recalls the day she met Sweeney in 1991 at a London pub called the Hawley Arms in the borough of Camden.
She said: "It was a bank holiday Monday, I went to the Hawley Arms pub. They had a good jukebox there."
The Hawley Arms is also the pub where "Baby Reindeer" creator Richard Gadd met Fiona Harvey, the woman the show's stalking character is based on, for the first time.
In court documents Gadd filed in July in response to Harvey's legal case against Netflix, he said: "In 2014, I met Harvey at the pub where I worked at the time, the Hawley Arms. I noticed that Harvey looked distressed and offered her a cup of tea on the house."
In "Baby Reindeer," Donny Dunn (Gadd) works in a fictionalized version of the pub, called The Heart when his stalker, Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning), becomes obsessed with him after he shows her a moment of kindness.
Featuring in these series isn't the pub's only claim to fame. British singer Amy Winehouse frequented it in the 2000s, according to its manager Craig Seymour.
In 2017, he told Vice: "She used to come in and say: 'Craig, babydoll, can I serve some drinks?' I've seen grown men break down in tears after being served by Amy."
Vice reported that other British stars, including Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, The Libertines singer Pete Doherty, and "The Great British Bake Off" host Noel Fielding, also frequently visited the pub.
In February 2008, a fire broke out in Camden Market which spread and damaged the Hawley Arms. Musicians such as UK rock band Razorlight held charity gigs to raise money for its repair, and it eventually reopened in October that same year.