BBC producers reveal the ‘ridiculous’ reason BAFTAs racial slur was not bleeped

The debate around John Davidson’s Tourette’s outburst is still raging after the BBC failed to censor the moment from the BAFTAs.

At the award show on Sunday, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for Best Visual Effects when the Tourette’s activist was heard yelling the N-word from the crowd. The moment was initially left unedited, even after the BBC chose to censor “Free Palestine” from director Akinola Davies Jr. 

People are still debating the viral moment all over the internet, and it has unfortunately led to rampant ableism and racism on both sides of the debate.

The BBC has explained why it didn’t bleep John Davidson’s BAFTAs outburst

Credit: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

John Davidson has no control over his outbursts due to his coprolalia, but the BBC failed to cut the moment when it aired on BBC One. Then, it took the broadcasting company hours to remove the N-word from the BBC iPlayer.

Speaking to The Guardian, BBC producers admitted they simply “didn’t hear” him shouting it from the crowd because they were “working in a truck” and not in the building itself.

Similarly, in an official statement, the company said: “Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA film awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony, it was not intentional. We apologise that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”

The reaction to the BBC’s explanation has been mixed, with some stating that it’s simply not good enough.

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“This is the sort of excuse you give when you don’t respect people,” one person wrote on Twitter.

This is the sort of excuse you give when you don’t respect people.

BBC producers say they ‘didn’t hear’ N-word slur as ‘working in a truck’, following second Baftas apology https://t.co/bY344A9Pvu

— En Aitch Ess (@adje__) February 24, 2026

Another said: “This is a bald-faced lie and insulting. Folks who were watching the show live said they heard it. You can also see MBJ and Delroy Lindo react to it. The host also acknowledged it.”

Other people have argued that it couldn’t be helped, as one person said on Reddit: “Having actually worked in a broadcast environment like this – it completely tracks. The director/producers in the truck do not have great audio monitoring and there is a LOT of cross-talk happening. Extremely hard for them to pick things up.”

Another wrote: “Communication between what’s happening on the ground and the OB truck at a live broadcast like this is SO chaotic.”

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Featured image credit: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock and BBC