{"id":485783,"date":"2026-02-23T14:12:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485783\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:12:06","slug":"bbc-apologizes-after-broadcast-of-bafta-awards-captures-slur-from-tourettes-tics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485783\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC apologizes after broadcast of BAFTA awards captures slur from Tourette\u2019s tics"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s film academy and the BBC apologized to viewers after an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted a racial slur during the British Academy Film Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The highly offensive word could be heard as \u201cSinners\u201d<\/a> stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for best visual effects during Sunday\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n

Host Alan Cumming had earlier told the audience that a guest at the ceremony was John Davidson, a Scottish campaigner for people with Tourette\u2019s who inspired the BAFTA-nominated film \u201cI Swear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations, including the uttering of inappropriate words.<\/p>\n

After the outburst, Cumming apologized to the audience at London\u2019s Royal Festival Hall for the \u201cstrong and offensive language.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language,\u201d Cumming said. \u201cWe apologize if you were offended.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts referred to Cumming\u2019s statement when asked for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

The epithet could be heard when the BBC broadcast the ceremony about two hours after the live event. The broadcaster apologized, though the offensive word could still be heard on its iPlayer streaming service on Monday morning. The program was later removed, and the BBC said the slur would be edited out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards,\u201d the BBC said in a statement. \u201cThis arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologize that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI Swear\u201d won two BAFTAs, including best actor for Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson.<\/p>\n

Ed Palmer, vice chairman of the charity Tourettes Action, said the BBC should have considered bleeping out the slur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really one of the most acute examples of where something that is a disability can cause quite understandably huge amounts of offense to someone,\u201d he told Times Radio. \u201cSo, if it\u2019s being prerecorded now, then bleeping it out, for example, might be a reasonable compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s film academy and the BBC apologized to viewers after an audience member with Tourette…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[50325,2224,8827,2692,177166,223478,88,793,97,223400,7046,1150,18924,206,8828,15754,136036,12362,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-485783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-alan-cumming","9":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","10":"tag-bbc","11":"tag-celebrity","12":"tag-delroy-lindo","13":"tag-ed-palmer","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-john-davidson","18":"tag-language","19":"tag-london","20":"tag-michael-b-jordan","21":"tag-movies","22":"tag-public-media","23":"tag-racism","24":"tag-robert-aramayo","25":"tag-theater","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}