Overview
- Cumming, in interviews published Thursday and Friday, said he will not return as BAFTA host and accused organizers of “bad, bad, bad, bad leadership.”
- During the February 22 ceremony, Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage, and the BBC aired it and initially left it on iPlayer before apologizing.
- Cumming said an earpiece kept him from hearing the outburst and that he read a teleprompter apology without realizing the gravity of what had happened.
- Reports say another homophobic slur was edited out, and Davidson later said he was deeply mortified and explained that his tics are involuntary, a symptom some people with Tourette’s experience called coprolalia.
- The BAFTA TV Awards on Sunday, hosted by Greg Davies, now loom as a practical test of how BAFTA and the BBC manage sensitive moments in real time.