Is Eric based on a true story? Creator unpacks "vivid history" that inspired series

Vincent soon becomes obsessed with a sketch of a blue monster called Eric that his son drew before he vanished - and grows convinced that if he can get Eric onto people's TV screens, his son will return to him.

Alongside the central premise, Eric tackles many huge themes as the series unfolds including homelessness, the '80s AIDS crisis and racism, which has naturally left many viewers wondering whether the show is based on a true story.

Read on for what show creator Abi Morgan (The Split) had to say about the topic.

Is Eric based on a true story?

Eric isn't based on a true story, but it is inspired by a number of missing child cases that Morgan heard about while growing up in 1980s New York.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about whether or not the series is based on real-life events, Morgan said: "Well, I mean, weirdly actually, I think growing up in the UK in the '80s, I remember being haunted by those stories of children who had gone missing, and then when I went to New York, I looked after a young boy in New York in the mid-'80s.

"While I was out there, I saw the milk carton kids and the missing persons. So that has always been very haunting."

The detailed nature of not only Edgar's case but also Marlon Rochelle's plays out in a chilling way the further we get into the series, so were either of their cases based on a real-life case?

Morgan explained: "I don’t think it was ever based on one specific case, but I think in choosing to go back to that time, I wanted to go back to that very vivid period in history where, obviously, there were those cases.

"But in many ways, it was more a kind of shout-out to those cities where kids can go missing. At the heart of the show is Vincent’s belief that 'I want to live in a world where a child goes out into the world and can come home safe'.

"I guess that’s the kind of callout at the centre of the show, is that we all want to live in that world – but unfortunately, there are monsters in the most surprising places.

"I guess that’s what’s at the heart of Eric, this quest for a father to find his son, but also a man who's then having to explore the monsters in himself and the city he’s grown up in."

In the Netflix production notes for the series, Morgan also told the streamer about the research she did around the time period of the '80s, but also the research conducted around things such as AIDS, homelessness and institutional racism.

Morgan said: "It was an extraordinary period. At that time, [American businessman] William Koch was in some ways quite a radical who believed in New York. He did a lot of good but also it was a time where there was a lot of fear and anger within New York itself.

"A lot of the systems were breaking down, and there were a lot of strikes, particularly around garbage collection. There were also examples of corruption within City Hall and within the NYPD system. What I'm asking is, 40 years on, has anything really changed? You can find parallels within the Met Police in the UK, in many ways.

"I displaced it to another time, to another city, but I think it's endemic to any city anywhere. There was a lot of research, and the thing about a show like this is, I do a level of it and I love doing that, so hopefully it becomes the blueprint and point of inspiration, but it's a massive collaboration."

Morgan also spoke of some other cinematic inspirations for the series, saying: "I'm hugely admiring of the kind of films of the '70s and ‘80s, everything from Taxi Driver to Kramer vs Kramer, that are set in New York and are homage to those cities with brilliant characters at the heart. I was very inspired by that."

Meanwhile, speaking further about how the show is based on her experiences growing up in 1980s New York, and working as a nanny, Morgan told Esquire: “I was staying in a weird hostel, working for a wealthy family who owned a big bagel bakery. I was delivering cakes and just across the window from their kitchen there was this kind of TV studio, in a central New York street, and I thought, ‘This is extraordinary, this collision.’

"Also, it felt like a real party town; the clubbing scene was amazing. I missed all that, but it was definitely happening, I hear.”

And while the show isn't based on a specific true story, Gaby Hoffmann, who plays Edgar's mother Cassie in the show, previously told Metro that the story is rooted in very real concerns and anxieties.

She described the series as "deep dive" into a "collective conscious experience of grief, fear, loss", adding this is "kind of the meat and drink of what we do as storytellers".

Is Eric's Ledroit based on a real person?

Ledroit's (McKinley Belcher III) character in particular is one of the focal points of the series, and we follow the detective as he is faced with Edgar's case but is also battling his own suspicions around what is happening at The Lux.

We eventually come to see that his suspicions are correct and he uncovers the tragic truth about what happened to Marlon, but in wanting to speak up, there was also an unspeakable risk of increased attention around his own identity as a gay officer in the NYPD.

Eric's Ledroit is not based on any specific person, but speaking about the truth behind the role, actor McKinley Belcher III told RadioTimes.com: "I think he’s very much living in that world where he is othered in so many ways, and that comes with a kind of weight, this sort of managing of how much of yourself can you reveal at any one moment.

"I think to have found the love that he has in that apartment and to feel so safe in that regard, to step out into a world that feels far more hostile and which you’re constantly being measured and having to sort of bump up against all these ideas of what it is to be queer, the ways in which that’s been weaponised in the '80s because of the AIDS epidemic and people’s fear.

"That’s all delicious as an actor to unpack and hold the mirror up, as we say, and say, 'This is the truth of who we were at that time.' A lot of those things are still at play now. So, I think it’s important to reflect that and unpack what that would feel like, and what it means for the ways in which our world has been layered with all of this stigma."

What was the inspiration behind the puppet in Eric?

Of course, another highlight of the show is the titular blue seven-foot tall character of Eric, the puppet that follows Vincent around like an extension of his psyche. While we know the puppet isn't based on one thing in particular, it is emblematic of the children's TV shows of the '80s.

Filmmaker, theatrical director, designer and puppeteer Raymond Carr served as puppet captain on Eric and said: "For American audiences who grew up with this children's television, Eric is going to have a familiarity that is going to be exciting and fun.

"It's not a carbon copy of anything that you've seen before. It's not a historical recreation, but at the same time, it feels inspired by all that this era is."

Eric is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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