John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner whose life inspired the film I Swear, has said that he was told any involuntary expletives would be cut out of the Bafta Film Awards broadcast.Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting a prize at the Royal Albert Hall awards ceremony on Sunday when Davidson began involuntarily shouting out the N-word as a tic.While host Alan Cumming explained to the audience that “a person with Tourette syndrome” was in the crowd and that he had “no control over his language”, the racial slur was not edited out of the show when it was broadcast on a delay later that evening.Speaking in his first interview about the Baftas, Davidson – who saw actor Robert Aramayo take home the award for Best Actor for portraying him in I Swear – spoke about how “upset and distraught” he had been since the Baftas, having allegedly been told that any offensive involuntary tics would be cut from the broadcast.“[Film studio] StudioCanal were working closely with Bafta, and Bafta had made us all aware that any swearing would be edited out of the broadcast,” Davidson told Variety. Sinners’ studio, Warner Bros, has also said that it immediately flagged its concern with Bafta during the ceremony and had been assured the request would be passed on to the BBC and that the racial slur would be removed from the broadcast.Davidson, meanwhile, said that the awards body and broadcaster should have been more prepared for such an incident. “I have made four documentaries with the BBC in the past, and feel that they should have been aware of what to expect from Tourette’s and worked harder to prevent anything that I said... from being included in the broadcast,” he said.Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson explained that he involuntarily shouted ‘perhaps 10 different offensive words’ at the Baftas (Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images)The campaigner claimed that there was a microphone “just in front” of where he was sitting, adding: “With hindsight I have to question whether this was wise, so close to where I was seated, knowing I would tic.”The Independent has contacted Bafta for comment.Following the event, a BBC spokesperson 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 has been removed from BBC iPlayer.”In an internal memo, BBC staff were also told that the slur had aired “in error” as producers had not heard the word, and that another had been cut from the broadcast.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo heard the racial slur while presenting an award at the Baftas (BBC)Bafta also apologised, saying that a “comprehensive review” was underway and that they took “full responsibility for putting our guests in a very difficult situation”. They also apologised to Lindo and Jordan.Davidson suffers from coprolalia, a version of Tourette’s which involves involuntary cursing or making socially inappropriate remarks. During the Baftas, he chose to leave the auditorium shortly after realising that Lindo and Jordan had heard his tic from the stage.After Lindo said on the night that nobody from Bafta had spoken to him or Jordan afterwards, Davidson revealed that he had reached out to the Sinners studio to apologise to Lindo, Jordan, and production designer Hannah Beachler, who he also shouted the slur at.Explaining that he was often triggered by his surroundings, Davidson explained: “I want people to know and understand that my tics have absolutely nothing to do with what I think, feel or believe.”Mr Davidson attended with Robert Aramayo, who won the Best Actor award for portraying him in ‘I Swear’ (Getty)He said that this part of the condition, called echolalia, had led to him shouting “perhaps 10 different offensive words” during the Baftas. He said that he had yelled “boring” at the Bafta chair and said homophobic comments and “paedophile” towards Alan Cumming when he made a joke about himself and Paddington Bear.“Tourette’s can feel spiteful and searches out the most upsetting tic for me personally and for those around me. What you hear me shouting is literally the last thing in the world I believe; it is the opposite of what I believe,” he explained.“The most offensive word that I ticked at the ceremony, for example, is a word I would never use and would completely condemn if I did not have Tourette’s.”Following the backlash over the decision to include the slur in the broadcast, the BBC removed the Baftas from streaming service iPlayer.