BBC head offers explanation for how N-word made it to air at BAFTAs

Within ten minutes, there was another similar outburst when Sinners‘ Wunmi Mosaku accepted her award for Best Supporting Actress, which was caught and edited out of the broadcast. “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,” Davie’s letter continues. “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.” 

Despite a two-hour delay and quick backlash on social media, the other time the word was used still made it onto the BBC iPlayer for about 15 hours before it was edited out. “Our current understanding is that the on-site team did not believe that the slur was audible on the broadcast, and the show remained on iPlayer unedited that evening,” he writes. Davidson did confirm in a statement after the ceremony that other outbursts were edited out of the ceremony before making it to the iPlayer, writing in an email that he “ticked perhaps 10 different offensive words on the night of the awards.” 

Yesterday, Lindo also shared his reaction to the incident. “You have to understand, we had jobs to do. We were the first presenters of the evening, and we had to read that teleprompter,” he said on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast (via The Guardian). “There was a nanosecond, a nano of a nano of a nanosecond, when I’m thinking: ‘Wait, did I just hear what I thought I heard?’ But then, and it truly was a nanosecond, one had to read the teleprompter and get on with presenting the award.”