BAFTA arranges separate room for John Davidson at Scottish awards after I Swear receives seven nominations

Accommodations at the Glasgow ceremony

Tourette syndrome campaigner and executive producer John Davidson will watch the upcoming BAFTA Scotland Awards from a dedicated relaxed room inside the Glasgow venue. The decision follows formal consultations between organizers, Davidson, Tourettes Action, and Tourette Scotland ahead of the ceremony on 15 November 2026. BAFTA confirmed the protocol after Davidson requested to follow the proceedings via video link accompanied by his family and close friends. The academy worked alongside safeguarding and inclusion specialists to formulate access plans for the celebration. In a letter distributed to academy members, BAFTA leadership detailed the arrangements and affirmed that involuntary vocal tics stem from neurological conditions rather than personal beliefs.

We have made adjustments to enable John to attend in the way he has suggested to us, which is to watch the ceremony via video link from a separate relaxed space within the venue together with his family and friends.

Safeguarding review after London incident

The precautions follow an occurrence during the BAFTA Film Awards in London in February 2026. While actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the opening award of the evening, Davidson experienced coprolalia and involuntarily shouted a racial slur. The vocalisation appeared on the BBC One broadcast despite a two-hour transmission delay, remaining on BBC iPlayer until the following day. The BBC subsequently apologised for not editing out the language from the broadcast. In March 2026, the BAFTA board initiated an independent review to upgrade event compliance, incident escalation pathways, and presenter briefings across all academy ceremonies.

Nominations for biographical feature I Swear

The film I Swear, inspired by Davidson's life growing up in Galashiels during the 1980s, received seven nominations at the Scottish awards. The tally represents the highest nomination total for a single title in BAFTA Scotland history and includes a nomination for best feature film. In the film actor category, the production secured all three available shortlist places for Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan, and Scott Ellis Watson. The biographical feature previously collected three awards at the London ceremony, where Aramayo received both leading actor and rising star honours. Davidson, who was awarded an MBE in 2019 for raising awareness of Tourette syndrome, serves as an executive producer on the project.

Competing contenders across the shortlist

The wider nomination roster spans 14 competitive categories, featuring several returning winners and multi-nominated titles. The Netflix series Dept. Q and the BBC comedy Dinosaur each collected three nominations. Productions including Disaster at Sea: The Piper Alpha Story, Everybody to Kenmure Street, and Midwinter Break secured two nominations apiece. Lucy Halliday achieved a double nomination across both the film actress category for California Schemin' and the television actress category for The Testaments. In the television actor category, four previous recipients will compete: Dougray Scott for Summerwater, Jack Lowden for Slow Horses, Peter Capaldi for Criminal Record, and Robert Carlyle for The Hack.