BBC Apologises For Not Expunging Racial Slur From BAFTAs Coverage

The BBC has faced public outcry for not editing out a racial slur shouted by a Tourette’s campaigner from its BAFTAs broadcast, which was available on its streaming site, BBC iPlayer, for more than 12 hours.

The broadcast Corporation has expressed its regrets.

Despite a two-hour time delay in airing the award show, the n-word was not removed from the coverage.

The racial slur was shouted earlier on in the ceremony by John Davidson MBE, who suffers from the neurological condition Tourette syndrome, and whose moving life story inspired ‘I Swear’, featuring Robert Aramayo, who clinched the Best Actor and Rising Star awards for the role.

Davidson was sitting in the audience at the ceremony. He could be heard shouting the offensive word while two black actors, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, stars of the vampire horror Sinners, were on stage presenting the first award of the evening on Sunday night. Both actors seemed to pause after the insult was heard, then go on with their presentation.

Shortly after the incident, BAFTA host Alan Cumming apologised for the racial slur. “Tourette’s syndrome is a disability, and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary,” he said. “The person who has Tourette’s syndrome has no control over their language,” he remarked.

Following the outrage the incident generated over the BBC’s earlier failure to expunge the offensive word from its coverage, the Corporation has stated through its spokesperson.

“We apologise that this was not edited out before broadcast. It will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.” The spokesperson further mentioned that some viewers may have heard the “strong and offensive language” during the ceremony, which was a result of involuntary verbal tics linked with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony, was not intentional.