Alan Cumming slams BAFTA’s ‘bad, bad leadership’ after Tourette’s tic aired on BBC

Alan Cumming (Image: Getty)

Alan Cumming has said he refused to speak to BAFTA leadership after the BBC broadcast an incident in which Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting a racial slur, calling the handling of the situation “bad, bad, bad, bad leadership”.

During this year’s BAFTA Film Awards, Davidson could be heard shouting the slur during the BBC broadcast while Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented an award, after it was not edited out. The BBC also initially failed to remove the moment from the iPlayer version of the broadcast, prompting a wider furore and apologies.

Cumming, 61, said he did not hear Davidson’s tics while hosting because he had an earpiece. He told The Times: “I had a thing in my ear and you can’t hear very specifically what’s happening. I haven’t actually asked them, but I don’t imagine that Delroy and Michael B Jordan heard the actual slur either, they were probably just, like, ‘Well, there’s someone shouting in the audience.’ ”

Davidson also reportedly used a homophobic slur, which was edited out.

Cumming said he did not know what had happened, but his teleprompter script included an apology. “I watched myself back. I was very smiley. I didn’t do it with the gravitas and tone I would have used had I known,” Cumming said.

What happened at the BAFTAs

Davidson attended the ceremony to celebrate I Swear, a movie based on his life and awareness-raising work around Tourette’s. After the broadcast, Davidson said he was “deeply mortified”.

Cumming described the fallout as intense. “It was an international scandal. Then poor John gave this interview saying, ‘I’m not a racist. I called Alan Cumming a paedophile too.’” He added: “Oh great! He’s equal opportunities and my name and ‘paedophile’ were in the same sentences all over the world.”

Cumming’s criticism of BAFTA leadership

Cumming said the situation amounted to “bad, bad, bad, bad leadership”, adding: “Bad people who weren’t doing their jobs properly, who really had not prepared and let people down.” He also said he initially refused to talk to BAFTA when the organisation apologised to him.

The BAFTA TV Awards are taking place this weekend and will be hosted by Greg Davies. Netflix’s Adolescence leads nominations with 11, while Disney+ series A Thousand Blows has seven.

Openly bisexual, Cumming is known for Cabaret, The Good Wife and X2, and hosts the US version of The Traitors.

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