John Davidson Says BBC Failed to Filter Audio After BAFTA Slur and Has Asked to Apologize to Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo

It turns out the story didn’t end on the BAFTA stage. It followed everyone home.

Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson has given his first interview since shouting multiple offensive slurs, including the N-word, during the ceremony. In an exclusive with Variety, he describes what happened in his own words. And frankly, his account raises far more questions about BAFTA and the BBC than about him.

Davidson says he experienced around ten separate offensive vocal tics that night. “I am often triggered by what I see and/or what I hear, and this part of the condition is called echolalia,” he explained. When the BAFTA chair began speaking, he shouted “Boring.” When Alan Cumming made a joke referencing Paddington Bear, Davidson says he had a homophobic tic and also shouted “pedophile,” triggered by the association with a children’s character.

“The N-word was one of these,” he said. “I completely understand its significance in history and in the modern world, but most articles are giving the impression I shouted one single slur on Sunday.”

He didn’t.

He Believed the BBC Would Control the Sound

Davidson says he expected the broadcaster to manage the audio. “I had an expectation that the BBC would physically control the sound at the awards,” he told Variety. He was seated about 40 rows from the stage. No one turned around. No presenter reacted at first. He assumed he could not be heard.

He only realized the sound had carried when Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan looked up while presenting. “Please don’t judge me. Please understand this isn’t who I am,” he remembers thinking. He left the auditorium shortly after.

Davidson also revealed he had undergone heart surgery just five weeks earlier and spent that recovery period preparing himself, both mentally and physically, for what he knew would be a stressful night. He says he attended the ceremony believing proper safeguards were in place and that the organizers would protect him.

And then there’s this detail: “As I reflect on the auditorium, I remember there was a microphone just in front of me.”

Forty rows back. BAFTA previously said swearing would be edited out of the delayed broadcast. Yet the slur remained. Political remarks, including “Free Palestine,” were reportedly cut. Davidson says he made multiple documentaries with the BBC and trusted them to manage the situation responsibly. Instead, a microphone captured his vocal tics, and they aired them.

BAFTA and the BBC Must Answer for What Happened

Davidson and his team have reached out to offer a direct apology to Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan and Hannah Beachler. That is appropriate. He does not owe the public a performance of shame. He describes feeling “a wave of shame” already.

The institutions, however, owe answers. Why position a microphone directly in front of a man known to experience corprolalia tics? In a delayed broadcast, why didn’t producers filter the audio before it aired? If organizers promised edits, why did they fail to make them, and why did they seat a disabled guest in a position that amplified the very condition they claim to understand?

Davidson says he felt betrayed. He trusted BAFTA and the BBC to handle his condition with care. He trusted that they valued his work and the film he represented. His interview suggests that trust was broken.

Now, users across social media platforms push racist and ableist commentary to chase engagement, while the broadcast blindsided two Black artists on stage in real time. And a disabled campaigner who thought he was attending a celebration of art became the night’s controversy.

BAFTA and the BBC had multiple points where this could have been handled differently. They chose not to act. That decision shaped everything that followed.

Davidson says he attended the ceremony expecting producers to manage the sound and remove any swearing from the delayed broadcast, trusting organizers to handle his condition with care. He now suggests they failed to do so. Based on his account, the BBC and BAFTA appear to have failed in their responsibility to protect Davidson, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo.

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