Outgoing BBC Director-General Tim Davie has answered the key questions at the heart of the BAFTA-Tourette controversy, including why the racist slur uttered by campaigner John Davidson during Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo’s introduction was not cut from the final broadcast.
The 2026 BAFTA Film Awards, at which Davidson was starring in his nominated film I swearwhich recounts his experience growing up with Tourette’s in Scotland, was broadcast with a two-hour delay on the BBC and remained on the iPlayer streaming service until the next morning.
The backlash has now entered its second week, with Davidson claiming he was “deeply frightened” if anyone thought the tics were “deliberate”, and BAFTA offering a detailed apology to everyone involved. The incident was a topic of discussion at the recent NAACP Image Awards, as well as a recent event SNL Draw who was Hollywood Reporter Asks: Is there a gap between the US and the UK regarding Tourette’s education?
In a letter to the chair of the UK government’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Davie said on Friday that initial evidence presented by the broadcaster found the incident was a “genuine error”. “No one on the site broadcast truck heard it,” he said [the N-word] When they were watching the live broadcast.”
“Because no one in the broadcast truck was aware of the live broadcast,” he continued, adding: “Therefore no editorial decision was made to leave out the language.”
Davie then explained that was when a second racial slur was shouted SinnersWhen Wonmi Mosaku was accepting the award for Best Supporting Actress, the editorial team discovered Tourette’s outburst and “immediately removed him from the version of the ceremony that would be broadcast later that evening,” Davey said.
That means that when reports of the racial slurs started pouring in, he said, the truck’s editorial team “mistakenly believed they had deleted the incident that was being referenced, on the basis that they had heard and edited the slurs shouted during the Best Supporting Actress award. So, when they were told there were racial slurs, they thought they had removed them.”
The BBC chief was unable to answer why iPlayer continued to play for more than 15 hours. “We are now looking in more detail into why we did not detect two instances of the racial slur being used, and why, after broadcast, no further action was taken to edit the program or remove it from iPlayer,” he said.
“The BBC will learn lessons from this incident and ensure appropriate action is taken to avoid such an incident happening again,” he pledged.
