John Davidson criticises BBC for not censoring racial slur at the Baftas
I Swear inspiration and Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson has criticised the BBC for not editing out a racial slur that he involuntarily made at the Baftas.
Davidson was in attendance at the film awards on February 22nd due to I Swear being nominated for several awards. Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson, won ‘Best Actor’ for his portrayal of him, as well as being crowned the ‘Rising Star’.
However, during the television broadcast, the BBC did not cut Davidson, the inspiration for I Swear, who suffers from Tourette’s with coprolalia, shouting the N-word in the direction of Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan.
The BBC later removed the recorded broadcast from iPlayer and apologised for airing the incident. Now, Davidson, who has worked with the BBC in the past, has also said the incident should never have made it to the air.
In an interview with Variety, Davidson said, “StudioCanal were working closely with BAFTA, and BAFTA had made us all aware that any swearing would be edited out of the broadcast.”
Davidson added, “I have made four documentaries with the BBC in the past, and feel that they should have been aware of what to expect from Tourette’s and worked harder to prevent anything that I said — which, after all, was some 40 rows back from the stage — from being included in the broadcast.”
He also revealed there was a microphone close to where he was seated in the room, which made his tics audible for viewers at home, sharing, “As I reflect on the auditorium, I remember there was a microphone just in front of me, and with hindsight I have to question whether this was wise, so close to where I was seated, knowing I would tic.”
Davidson went on to say that he “had an expectation that the BBC would physically control the sound at the awards on Sunday” and, due to being placed “so far from the stage”, as well as “the lack of response from the early presenters to my tics”, he believed he “could not be heard on the stage”.
He added, “The only time I became aware that my tic had reached the stage was when Delroy and Michael B Jordan appeared to look up from their role as presenters, and soon after that I decided to leave the auditorium.”
Davidson’s comments come after the BBC’s content chief, Kate Phillips, apologised to staff at the broadcasting corporation on February 24th.
Phillips wrote, “I’m so sorry that a racial slur was not edited out of our broadcast. We understand how distressing this was.”
Her email continued, “Award attendees were pre-warned about the possibility of involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome at the start of the show, and [host] Alan Cumming addressed it during the broadcast. Of course, this doesn’t lessen the impact and upset.”
According to BBC News, it is believed that producers overseeing the television broadcast were operating from a truck and didn’t hear the involuntary remark from Davidson.
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