Nearly 1,600 Viewers Shared Concerns About N-Word Incident at BAFTA Film Awards
The BBC has reported receiving a record 1,588 complaints related to the recent BAFTA Film Awards, marking the highest number since the Glastonbury crisis involving Bob Vylan’s controversial performance. Viewers expressed their dissatisfaction over the broadcast of a racial slur, which they noted was not edited out.
This incident eclipsed previous complaints regarding BBC broadcasts, including the 3,396 messages received in June 2025 when Bob Vylan’s anti-Israel chant was livestreamed on iPlayer.
During the live broadcast, the BBC and the production team from Penny Lane TV did not detect the racial slur in their external broadcast truck. They were later alerted to a second instance in which actor Wunmi Mosaku, while accepting her Supporting Actress award, also encountered the N-word. A BAFTA representative raised concerns in a WhatsApp group after Mosaku had already left the stage. The BBC team misinterpreted the message, believing it solely referred to Mosaku’s incident rather than an earlier slur directed at Jordan and Lindo.
It was only after the awards aired on BBC One that the oversight was realized, which was further complicated by the delay in removing the BAFTA ceremony from iPlayer. The program remained unavailable for nearly 15 hours following the broadcast.
In response to the mounting criticism, BBC Director-General Tim Davie stated, “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 sooner,” in a letter to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport Committee.
Warner Bros., the studio behind the series Sinners, expressed serious concerns regarding the incident, reportedly confronting BBC executives during a tense meeting. Company representatives inquired why the racial slur was included in the final broadcast, given that the BAFTA ceremony was recorded two hours prior to airing.
