THE BBC’S OUTGOING director-general Tim Davie has said the corporation “profoundly regrets” the events around the Bafta film awards when a racial slur was broadcast on BBC One.

During the award ceremony on 22 February, Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting the racial slur as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects.

Davidson, whose Tourette’s causes him to involuntarily shout out words, has since said he is “deeply mortified” by what happened at the Baftas, where I Swear, a film about his life and struggles, was nominated.

Bafta apologised after the film awards and said it took “full responsibility” for putting its guests in a “difficult situation”.

In a letter to members, Bafta chairwoman Sara Putt and chief executive Jane Millichip said a “comprehensive” review was under way, adding: “Please rest assured how seriously we are taking this.”

Last week, the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee wrote to Tim Davie “seeking an explanation” for how a racial slur ended up in the broadcast “in spite of a two-hour time delay”.

In a response letter to Caroline Dinenage, chair of the CMS Committee, Davie said: “I’d like to make clear: although the racial slur was symptomatic of a disability and an involuntary tic, it should never have been broadcast. It was a genuine mistake, and we take full responsibility for our error.”

Responding to questions about the incident, including why the language was not edited out prior to it being broadcast, Davie said there had been two incidents during which the slur was shouted out.

Regarding the first one, while Jordan and Lindo were on stage, he said: “Although this is the subject of ongoing review, our initial evidence gathering has found that no-one in the on-site broadcast truck heard this when they were watching the live feed.

Because no-one in the broadcast truck was aware it was on the live feed, there was therefore no editorial decision made to leave the language in.

Davie wrote that the slur was shouted out for the second time as Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku accepted her award for best supporting actress.

“In that instance, the edit team did hear the racial slur on the feed and removed it immediately from the version of the ceremony that would be broadcast later that evening,” he said. 

“These two incidents happened within 10 minutes of each other. It appears that soon after the second incident, the edit team in the truck started receiving reports, including from Bafta, that a racial slur had been shouted during the ceremony.

“Our understanding at this point is that the team editing the show in the truck mistakenly believed they had edited out the incident that was being referenced, on the basis that they had heard and edited out the slur shouted out during the best supporting actress award.

“Therefore, when they were told a racial slur had been shouted, they believed they had removed it.”

Davie said that some of the edits made to the ceremony before its broadcast were “made in line with the protocols we had put in place in advance to deal with offensive language”.

He continued: “We are now looking in more detail why the team did not ascertain sooner that there had been two instances of the use of the racial slur, and why post broadcast further action was not taken to edit or remove the programme from iPlayer.”

The BBC previously announced that its Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) will complete a “fast-tracked investigation” after reviewing the Bafta coverage, and called the broadcast of the racial slur a “serious mistake”.

In the letter, Davie also outlined the stipulations that the BBC had agreed with Bafta to “mitigate the risk” of Davidson’s Tourette’s syndrome, including briefing the audience about the possibility of verbal tics, and preparing lines for host Alan Cumming to read in case of any offensive language.

Also among the mitigations, Davie wrote: “If there were any involuntary racial tics or hate speech, this would be edited out.”

In a note sent to staff today, the BBC’s chief content officer Kate Phillips said she had personally been in “regular communication” with Bafta, adding she was “having listening sessions with a number of my teams in BBC Content”.

“I know this incident has caused much upset and hurt. Over the past few days, I’ve been in email contact with many of you and had phone calls and conversations too,” Phillips said.

“I’ve really appreciated your honesty as you’ve detailed the impact this has had. I know there is frustration that my first email didn’t give more detail, but I thought it was more important to reach out to you all at that point, than wait until I had a further update.”

With reporting from Press Association