{"id":633288,"date":"2026-10-01T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633288\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:30:10","slug":"tourette-syndrome-campaigner-john-davidson-to-watch-bafta-scotland-awards-in-separate-relaxed-space-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633288\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson to watch Bafta Scotland awards in separate \u2018relaxed\u2019 space | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner whose outburst at the British Academy film awards in February led to a crisis for Bafta (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and the BBC<\/a>, will attend the Bafta Scotland awards and watch the ceremony from a separate \u201crelaxed\u201d space.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to Bafta members on Thursday, the organisation\u2019s chair Sara Putt and CEO Jane Millichip said that, after an independent review<\/a>, Bafta had \u201cstrengthened and centralised our safeguarding, risk assessment and compliance processes\u201d and had made arrangements in consultation with \u201csafeguarding and inclusion experts\u201d for Davidson\u2019s attendance at the awards ceremony organised by Bafta\u2019s Scottish branch, which is due to take place in November.<\/p>\n

For the Bafta Scotland<\/a> awards ceremony, Bafta says that, in accordance with Davidson\u2019s own suggestion, he will \u201cwatch the ceremony via video link from a separate relaxed space within the venue with his family and friends\u201d.<\/p>\n

I Swear<\/a>, the film based on Davidson\u2019s life, is the leading contender with seven nominations at the Bafta Scotland awards, including all three nominations in the best film actor category, for Peter Mullan, Robert Aramayo and Scott Ellis Watson, and best film actress for Shirley Henderson. Aramayo unexpectedly won best actor at the national Bafta film awards in February.<\/p>\n

As executive producer of I Swear<\/a>, Davidson had been in attendance at the Baftas and was heard several times shouting during the ceremony, including using the N-word while actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were on stage presenting the evening\u2019s first prize. In a statement after the show, Davidson said he was \u201cdeeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning\u201d. He added: \u201cI have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette\u2019s community and to teach empathy, kindness and understanding from others and I will continue to do so. I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis became more acute after it emerged that Davidson\u2019s outburst was audible during the BBC\u2019s coverage of the event<\/a>, despite the broadcast starting two hours later. The BBC apologised and suggested that producers overseeing the ceremony for the BBC were doing so from a truck and did not hear the slur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner whose outburst at the British Academy film awards in February led to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-633288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}