1 hour ago
3
The BBC is to undertake a fast-track investigation into how a racial slur broadcast during its coverage of the Bafta film awards was not edited out, amid rising anger inside the corporation over the error.
Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has now instructed the corporation’s complaints unit to investigate what the BBC describes as a “serious mistake”.
The Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting the N-word as the Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects on Sunday.
The BBC, Bafta and the independent producers involved have been facing severe criticism over the failure and scrambling to explain it.
Figures inside the BBC remain angry and confused over how the coverage containing the slur remained on iPlayer for 15 hours before it was removed and edited. It remained available despite clips of the racial slur widely circulating on social media.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC has been reviewing what happened at Bafta on Sunday evening. This was a serious mistake and the director general has instructed the executive complaints unit to complete a fast-tracked investigation and provide a full response to complainants.”
The Commons culture, media and sport committee has written to Davie to demand answers about how the mistake was made.
Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chair of the committee, said she understood that the slur was the result of Davidson’s involuntary tics. However, she questioned how it was broadcast despite a two-hour delay.
She said the incident had happened despite MPs on the committee previously raising concerns “about circumstances in which the BBC has allowed deeply offensive language to be aired, notably the broadcasting of antisemitic language during the BBC’s coverage of last year’s Glastonbury festival”.
The reference is to the anti-Israel Defense Forces chant led by the musician Bobby Vylan, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster.
“This latest incident raises questions about the extent to which lessons have been learned and about the controls and systems you have in place to prevent such incidents,” Dinenage wrote.
A critical breakdown of communication between Bafta, broadcasters in the hall and producers editing the coverage from a truck appears to be responsible for the slur being broadcast.
Producers caught some of the tics expressed by Davidson, including one other occurrence of the N-word. However, a difference between what could be heard clearly in the hall compared with in the production truck – as well as a confusion over what had been caught and edited out – appear to be the most likely explanations for the failing.
Inside the BBC there is as much concern over how long the broadcast containing the slur remained on iPlayer. It was removed only late on Monday morning.
Both issues will be examined by the review. Bafta has already announced its own “comprehensive review” of the awards show, which left Jordan and Lindo having to handle the slur while on stage and Davidson saying he felt “deeply mortified”.
Davidson was at the award show because of the success of I Swear, the biopic that recounts his struggles with TS. Sources at the studio behind I Swear said they had been reassured by Bafta before the show that any offensive verbal tics would be edited out.
Davidson has also questioned why he was seated near one of the microphones at the event.
The failure is all the more puzzling given the BBC knew about Davidson’s participation in the show and had been preparing for it. The external producers, Penny Lane Entertainment, are also said to have been involved in the preparations, which had the Glastonbury saga in mind.
Some in the BBC regard it as a very different error from the Glastonbury row. In that case, it was a live event and a decision was made not to edit out the chant. At the Baftas, sources said producers did not hear the slur that was broadcast.
