For Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, it was inevitable that he'd tell his own personal horror story on stage, when he was ready.
But he couldn't have foreseen that a scripted series inspired by his...
A MUM who thought she’d found her dream man was heartbroken to discover he had been having a sordid affair with his boss for years.
Maisie Lewis, from Woking, Surrey, met her future hubby through a mutual friend and they sparked an eight-year romance.
But tragedy struck when his cruel lies unravelled over a romantic dinner on Maisie’s birthday.
The 43-year-old told The Sun: “I moved to Istanbul as a nanny and found a job in Turkey.
“I moved in with a friend and was moaning about men and she introduced to me to someone.
“The first time I met him I went back and told my friend I thought he was gay. She told me it was just a different culture thing so I gave it a go.
“After that I again told my friend ‘he’s gay he was playing Spice Girls in the car’ but she said he wasn’t.”
After convincing herself to give the relationship a shot, Maisie ended up moving in with him.
But, even from the start of their romance, the mum said there were red flags.
“One thing that was weird is we never went on holiday on our own, there were always friends. When we went to Italy he brought his friend with him third wheeling,” she said.
“Even when we went to Greece he insisted we went to where my parents were. It was just a bit weird.
“He also loved to shop and was always buying me designer bags and shoes.”
A major red flag was the amount of work getaways he went on with his boss – who was also married.
“He would go on business trips with his boss and there was one day he posted a picture of two whiskey glasses in the sunset,” explained Maisie.
“I thought it was a very couple thing to do. They would go on trips together all the time.
“I think they were just holidays because they were always over the weekend, and I would think to myself why would a business trip not be during the week.
“I got on with his boss quite well and he took us all skiing quite a few times but I hated it so I just stayed with the boss’ wife while they went off together.
“I think she knew what her husband was doing but didn’t care. I think she was in it for the money.”
Their sex-life was also disappointing, according to the former nanny, which raised doubts.
She said: “We did have sex but he was really vanilla and really boring.
“I bought us some sex toys and he said it was disgusting, he didn’t like talking about sex, it was very taboo for him.
“We did have sex but it wasn’t often and it wasn’t a lot. He wasn’t very adventurous in the bedroom which was annoying because I am.”
Despite their issues, Maisie insisted they were “bestfriends” and rarely argued.
Eventually Maisie wanted to move back to the UK and settle down, which prompted her boyfriend to propose- with the promise he would return to Britain with her.
The pair got married in Guildford, and he fed her a stream of lies about transferring his work over to The London Clinic.
The newlyweds also had a traditional wedding in Turkey with his family and friends a few months later.
I’ve never been that person to cause a scene in public but I lost it and threw my glass of red wine over his crisp white shirt and stormed out
Maisie
But soon after the lavish ceremony, Maisie started to worry he never had any real intentions of relocating.
Her fears were cemented two years later, when the couple were still making things work long distance.
“He was constantly fobbing me off. I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that was brought on by the stress of constant lies,” she explained.
“He kept trying to convince me he was coming over.
“In May he took me to Portugal for my birthday, and on the night of my birthday he took me to a curry house and I asked him ‘when are you going to come over?’
“He asked me why couldn’t we make it work with him living in Turkey and him sending me money, but I didn’t need him to provide for me.
“He said ‘but my boss needs me’, and I said ‘well it’s not like you’re f***ing your boss is it’.
“And his face just dropped and I said ‘are you actually serious you’re f***ing your boss’ and he just wouldn’t say anything.
“I’ve never been that person to cause a scene in public but I lost it and threw my glass of red wine over his crisp white shirt and stormed out.”
The following day they travelled home and shared an awkward car ride from the airport with Maisie’s mum.
“She asked how our holiday was and I said ‘well it turns out he’s gay and sh***ing his boss and we’re getting divorced’.
“He was so sheepish he wouldn’t say anything to my mum. He packed his things, and flew back to Istanbul the following day. I dropped him to the airport and that’s the last time I ever saw him.
“I sent him the divorce papers, and that all happened quite quickly. He didn’t contact me, didn’t apologise. He just signed the papers and sent them back.
“I blocked him on all social media and his number.
“I think he did it because in Turkey it’s a status thing and there are incentives to get married. I think he did it for his parents to prove he was settled.”
Maisie told how the pair had enjoyed a happy relationship over the years and news of his cruel affair shattered her world.
“We had such a good friendship, we really got on well, we never argued. He was like my best friend,” she said.
“I cried for ages afterwards, I was heartbroken, beside myself. I just couldn’t understand how someone could deceive you in that way.
“He fooled everyone, even my parents. He told them how much he loved me.”
The mum believed he wanted to have a child with Maisie for appearances, while continuing to indulge in his true desires in Turkey.
After the heartbreak Maisie began dating a former friend, and later welcomed a child with him, although the pair later split up.
The mum now works in the adult entertainment industry.
RED Dwarf has been a TV phenomenon for more than three decades.
The series starred Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie and Robert Llewellyn and followed their adventures across the galaxy on a mining space-craft.
Starting in 1988, when fax machines and pagers were state of the art technology, and only a handful of yuppies even had mobile phones, the adventures of slobby Dave Lister, the last living human, a hologram of his incredibly annoying bunkmate Arnold Rimmer, a creature who evolved from a pet cat and a small handful of robots and computers, it is still running today.
Rumours are circulating of a new three-part mini-series coming to U&Dave next year – and the same core cast is still in place.
But how well do you know Red Dwarf? Author Tom Salinsky has revealed 10 top facts about the hit series that may come as a surprise to even die-hard fans.
Before launching Red Dwarf, writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor worked on satirical puppet show Spitting Image where they penned the lyrics to the incredibly annoying spoof novelty single “The Chicken Song”
Famed sitcom writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson (Hancock, Steptoe and Son) impressed upon them the importance of getting really experienced actors for the leads – people who could get viewers to buy into the relationships as well as be funny.
They ended up with a performance poet, an impressionist, a stand-up comedian and a West End dancer.
The show was commissioned only because of a BBC accounting loophole. BBC Manchester allocated funds for a second series of Ben Elton’s Happy Families, which he had no intention of writing.
Producer Paul Jackson took the cash and made Red Dwarf with it instead. Before this, BBC commissioner Gareth Gwenlan had rejected it three times.
Not being able to have the characters swear was a real problem for the writers, so they invented the novel profanity “smeg” as a substitute.
This didn’t stop 19 viewers from calling the BBC complaint line, following a feature about the show on an edition of Points of View, to object to the word on the grounds that it had ‘sexual connotations’.
Other terms of abuse created by for the show include ‘gimboid’, ‘goit’ and, in one episode, ‘gwenlan’.
When they first saw the model for the Red Dwarf spaceship, the writers were delighted – but confused. They had never imagined it was going to be red.
The modelmakers, of course, had never imagined that a ship called “Red Dwarf” would be any other colour.
The vehicle which Lister drives around the ship in the second series is a repurposed Sinclair C5 electric tricycle with added handlebars.
It is made absolutely explicit that Lister is from the mid-21st century in the first series episode “Stasis Leak”.
And equally explicit in the fourth series episode “DNA” that he’s from the 23rd century. Continuity is for smegheads.
When the show was brought back (the first time), series star Chris Barrie was exhausted from working on both Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire and asked to be given time off the science fiction show, on which everything seemed to take twice as long.
Then, when he was only working on Brittas, he became frustrated that nobody seemed to take enough care over anything, and was quickly back full-time in space where he belongs.
When the show was brought back (the second time), the three-part story Back to Earth broke records for digital TV viewership.
The official number for the first episode is 2.35 million, in an environment where anything over a million is seen as really very good.
But with the other two parts and various repeats, the aggregate number is something like 11 million. These are records that stand to this day.
When the show was brought back (the third time), filming was suddenly brought forward to accommodate the actors’ schedules, and Doug Naylor – now sole writer and director – got so behind that shooting started with only four-and-a-half completed scripts.
Desperate for material, he cannibalised ideas from Red Dwarf The Movie, which he had spent most of the previous decade trying and failing to get funding for.
Tom Salinsky is the author of new book Red Dwarf: Discovering the TV Series and is available to order here.
Red Dwarf is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
A BRIT mum feared she was going to be raped after she was allegedly sexually assaulted on a family holiday in Turkey.
Dawn Sellwood, 53, told The Sun a worker allegedly groped her breast and “rubbed himself” on her back after separating her from a group during a quad bike trip.
The terrified woman feared she was going to be raped at the time of the alleged assault.
She alleges that two men managed to isolate her during the holiday excursion as one started asking her for sex on behalf of the second man.
Dawn claims he said his pal wanted to marry her before the man, who she believed was working on behalf of Love Holidays, started to inappropriately touch her.
The mum said she is sure that other women have been targeted by the same sick ploy in Turkey due to the men’s “confidence” and clearly thought out plan.
Dawn was on holiday with her husband and son in Turkey celebrating the teen’s 16th birthday when they signed up for a number of experiences.
The mum claims she was targeted by a group of alleged scammers after being sold tickets to excursions by a man inside their four star hotel – who claimed to be a Love Holidays rep.
I’ve no doubt in my mind, had I not known how to drive a quad bike, this chap would have raped me
Dawn Sellwood
Dawn told The Sun: “We booked this excursion, which was Whitewater Rafting, Jeep Safari, zip lining and finally quad biking.
“On the last part, everything was great, I was on the quad bike and so were my husband and my son.
“Within three minutes of going off on the buggy, the guide cut across me and said I had to get off because I was going too fast.
“He came over to me, he took the key out of the quad bike and told me to get on the back of his quad bike.
“I got on the back and within two or three minutes of this his quad bike ran out of fuel.”
Now separated from the group and her family, Dawn was forced to wait as another man came up with some fuel to refill the bike.
The mum-of-one alleges that one of the men then started to speak to her in a concerning manner.
Dawn said: “The chap that was putting the fuel in the car asked me if I wanted to have sex with his friend.
“I said, ‘what? I don’t understand’ and he just said, ‘you want to have sex with my friend?’.
“He started going backwards and forwards with his hips. And then I said no.”
The whole time, I thought he had an erection against my back, then he stood up and rubbed himself the whole length of my back while he was grabbing me
Dawn Sellwood
Left shocked by the disturbing offer, Dawn said things started to get worse as the other man came and sat behind her on the quad bike.
“He started saying to me, ‘you’re beautiful, I marry you’,” Dawn said.
“He then started groping my right breast and saying, ‘you want sex with me?’
“The whole time, I thought he had an erection against my back, then he stood up and rubbed himself the whole length of my back while he was grabbing me.”
At the time of the alleged assault on July 10, Dawn said all she could think about was making it back to the group and to her husband.
“They sectioned me out. It was a big setup,” she said.
Dawn claims she managed to get the man off the bike before taking off back towards her family who were now far off in the distance.
The brave mum said she was lucky to escape the horror ordeal.
“I’ve no doubt in my mind, had I not known how to drive a quad bike, this chap would have raped me,” she said.
“I’ve heard stories from other people, friends of friends, that similar things have happened in this group.
“So it’s obviously a massive problem with that excursion in Turkey but and I know I wasn’t the first he’d done it to because he was too confident.”
Dawn booked the excursion at the Ramada Resort By Wyndham Side hotel and alleges the family were told about the scheme by staff at reception.
After wanting to find out more they were greeted by a Turkish man inside the hotel who was wearing a Love Holidays lanyard, Dawn said.
How dare you think you can do that to English women? How dare you?
Dawn Sellwood
They were sold tickets and were excited for the activities alongside a group of other holidaymakers.
After the alleged assault took place and Dawn told her furious husband about what happened, they ordered staff at the hotel looked into the matter.
An argument broke out in the hotel between the Sellwood family and the staff and tour guides.
She said: “They all made out that the chap that assaulted me couldn’t speak English.
“And I said, you were speaking English when you asked me if I wanted sex and you wanted to marry me.”
Dawn then reported the incident to Love Holidays but she was told they have no reps in the hotel and don’t offer excursions.
The mum is convinced the excursion was a “scam” designed to target female tourists.
Back home in the UK, a still shaken Dawn sent a message to those involved in the alleged scheme.
She blasted them saying: “How dare you think you can do that to English women? How dare you?
“They come on a holiday and think its going to be nice, but you ruin it. How dare you? What gives you the right?”
I feel c**p. I just think, why did it happen to me? When it was supposed to be a good experience, a good holiday
Dawn Sellwood
Dawn said the whole ordeal has forced her to seek counselling.
She added: “I feel c**p. I just think, why did it happen to me? When it was supposed to be a good experience, a good holiday.
Speaking on Love Holidays, Dawn said: “When they’re told about these assaults, they should investigate it quicker and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
“They need to put things in place so it won’t happen again.”
Messages between Dawn and Love Holidays, which have been seen by The Sun, show a full investigation into the incident was launched.
They went on to tell the distressed mum that the hotel “cannot be held liable for excursions booked outside the accommodation”.
The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Police confirmed they have been in contact with Dawn after she reported the alleged assault on July 24.
A spokesperson told The Sun: “We are currently working with the International Liaison Enquiries Team on transferring the crime report over to the relevant authorities.”
A Love Holidays spokesperson said the representative who sold Dawn the excursion was “not employed by or affiliated with Love Holidays in any way”.
They said: “We were very sorry to hear of Ms Sellwood’s experience on her holiday and remain in touch with her to offer our support.
“We want to reiterate that both the representative who sold Ms Sellwood the excursion, and the excursion provider itself, are not employed by or affiliated with loveholidays in any way.
“We are continuing to investigate who these parties are with the hotel involved so the appropriate action can be taken to stop this from happening again.”
The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line. Free, specialist and confidential support delivered by Rape Crisis England & Wales. Call 0808 500 2222 or visit https://247sexualabusesupport.org.uk to chat online or find out more.
The Survivors Trust. Provides confidential information, advice and support for people who have experienced rape and sexual violence. Visit https://www.survivorsuk.org/ or call 0808 801 0818.
Victim Support. A charity that provides 24-hour free and confidential support to people affected by crime or traumatic events. Visit www.victimsupport.org.uk or call 0808 1689 111.