Midweek Mention... I Swear

This week Dan and Reegs review I, Swear — the 2025 BAFTA-winning film about John Davidson, the Scotsman with Tourette's syndrome who became an MBE, an advocate, and one of the most compelling biographical subjects in recent cinema.

It's just the two of them this episode. There was also a hornet.

In this episode:

• The BAFTA ceremony controversy — what actually happened, why the internet got it wrong, and why the BBC's edit decision was indefensible
• John Davidson's story from 1983 Galashiels to an MBE at the Palace, in a film that is simultaneously hilarious and devastating
• Scott Ellis Watson's extraordinary debut performance as young John
• Why this film works when so many "inspirational" biopics don't
• Tommy — the elderly caretaker who becomes the father figure John never had
• Dottie — the woman who simply decided to accept him, no apologies required
• The drug mule scene ("half price heroin for sale")
• The library scene — why a man walking quietly through a library might be the best cinematic climax of the year
• The median nerve stimulation device and what it means for people living with Tourette's
• The real John Davidson footage over the credits — including his dog, who may be the most emotionally intelligent character in the whole film

Verdict: Strong recommend. Both dads in tears. Multiple times. Not ashamed.

Notes: Adult language throughout. This is a film about Tourette's. That should tell you everything you need to know going in.

Films/shows mentioned: I, Swear (2025), Sinners (2025 — Michael B. Jordan's Oscar win referenced)

We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com.
 
Until next time, we remain...
 
Bad Dads

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

You might have to do the intro yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Day.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Like uh program. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

On the Friday with Chris Evans. Yeah, TFI Friday, isn't it? Yeah, that's come back, isn't it? Has it? I think it has come back in some way, shape, or form on YouTube now. Alright. With Chris Evans. With Chris Evans. My wife's a big fan of Chris Evans. Okay, well she should check out that show. Yeah. But But that was TFI Friday, but this is Monday when we're recording this. And we've just dealt with a huge infestation of hornets.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

It was just one hornet, but it was what, at least the size of a small chicken, would you say? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, small small chick chicken. Which is pretty big for a for any kind of flying creature. Yeah. Insects. It actually plagued us for the last couple of pods, but it seemed to chill out once it heard our dulcet tones. But we saw an opportunity, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

It was getting quite aggressive in here.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

It was headbutting that decoration over and over. Yeah, one of the it I think it gets annoyed that there's still Christmas decorations in here. So one of them one of the decorations it was kind of finding making a new nest or home or and we've decided to remove everything and it's gone. Good. And well, I mean, if it has stung us, we we probably would have swore. Yes, we might have done damn. And this film, I swear, yeah, it's been out a little while. It's been October, September, October 2025, I think it came out. Yeah, I know that Chris had seen it, but he's in Batalon tonight, um, getting ready for a Socia game tomorrow. And I had just caught up with this. I'd seen it in the news.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

There was obviously the BAFTA awards recently, where he was We confirmed that we needed this film still, even after it came out, because people got the wrong idea, and there was a big internet pylon, wasn't there? Because at the BAFTAs, he had a tick and said a racial epithet when two black actors were on stage, and then there was a big internet pylon, like really like I say, just proving that people who still don't understand this unfortunate it's not a disability, because he says twice or three times in the movie that it's not a disability, but this unfortunate condition. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

And yeah, the actors and the the BAFTA lot themselves didn't really cover themselves in glory.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I believe the uh they had been told that there was a chance that this could happen. I think the couple of problems was that one, there was a microphone, right, by John Davidson, and he himself pointed out that was a terrible idea. And the second thing was the BBC not removing it from the edit. There was no need to rebroadcast that for I think two or three hours it was up with it in, and that they had people on site editing for exactly with a time delay, and they knew this sort of thing could happen, and they didn't get on top of it. But as for what happened afterwards, people questioning whether this man was actually racist and stuff, you really need to just watch the movie and understand his lived experience to kind of answer the question to that very easily.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And well, it opens up with him going to visit the Queen of all, you know, of places where you would really want to be on your best behaviour, you're collecting an award. He's clearly very nervous about that and shouts out Did he call her a cun?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

No, he says, fuck the Queen as he walks in. He's been given a pep talk by Dottie, as we'll come to know her, and he doesn't want to do it, he's still got his vape in his hand, he wants to stand outside. It's in I don't know where it where they do these things, I've got no idea, but it was 2019. And anyway, he's eventually convinced to go in to the room where there's a very formal ceremony happening and the queen in the background, and he does walk in and shout, fuck the queen straight away before he even heads to his seat. And then we cut to a younger hymn. It's 1983, and it's uh Blue Monday, I think, is the New Order song playing, and we meet him before any of this. And I thought the kid actor here was absolutely terrific. It was his debut performance. I got his name because he was very good. Scott Ellis Watson. He'll be delighted he's got a shout-out on Bad Dads. Yeah. He plays John as a young man in 1983 in Gallashields, right up there in the Scottish. Gallashields, eh?

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Yay. It's up there in Scotland. In Scotland. Aye. And he's he's playing Fit Bear. He is.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

And he's Norbad, goalkeeper. He makes a terrific penalty save, and uh his m his father is there watching and encouraging him, and his coach says, Oh, I'll bring a guy from Berwick Rangers down to watch you, you've really got a chance.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

That's it. He's clearly got promise as as a footballer, as a goalkeeper. And uh very excited. He loves he loves it. He's he's with his mum trying on clothes afterwards, and you can see he's just a nice lad.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah, he's got the world in his po you know, he's really at that age where he's got the world right in front of him. He's got a job, a paper round that he loves doing, so he's got a little bit of money. He's a little bit interested in the ladies already. And on his first day of school, he asks out a girl and she says yes, he can take her to the cinema and all that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

So And yeah, things things are going well, and it quickly though, he is kind of at school when we first see it in in a lesson, and he he's just got a nervous twitch really. He's trying to read, isn't he? Out loud in front of the class. And this seems to yeah, bring about the first we see this this kind of twitch, and it hasn't really developed more than that at the moment, but he's clearly uncomfortable and he needs to go out and he he goes into the bathroom, doesn't he? And he's to settle himself. Settle himself, and he he comes back and he just gets himself more more panicky over it. He's sat at dinner and he's getting starting to get into a little bit of trouble at school. He has this football trial, if you like, the the Berwick W Rangers guy comes down to see him.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

And doesn't he when the teacher comes and sits when the stuff is starting to really kick in because it happens fairly suddenly I think the teacher comes and sits at the table with him and he tells him to fuck off or something. And he gets whipped. And he gets smacked on the hand of leaving a very and I was thinking about this in 1983. I can't remember getting hit at school, but I did. Did you? Yeah. Yeah, because they still talked about the slipper and Mr. Laser giving you the slipper. I don't think I've ever got it. I'm trying to remember if anybody in my year got it. But it was a thing. You could go to school and the teacher could fucking hit you. She whipped us on the hand. It's mad, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, really was. It's fucking mad. It's no wonder we all turned out so fucked up this generation.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, well, I mean, how bad would it have been without those hits? Um no, I don't know. But yeah, I I was given punishment, and so was poor old John here, and really this is handle ash. Really kind of hard. The teachers just don't recognise him as being a good lad who's doing this involuntary. They think that he's playing Well, no one does.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

He doesn't understand what's happening to himself. It's not a thing that really people know about in the 80s.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, you just think this is so out of character, you know, that he was he'd been previously quite a nice lad.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Well it's a new school, though, they didn't know him, the headmaster didn't know him. So anyway, he goes off to this it, you know, the football thing, he's had this trial organised. The scout who turns up, do you remember what he's wearing? He's got this like lilac blue sort of shell suit on, there's a lot of shell suits, and a massive big like mullet.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

A mullet with moustache, yeah, like a curly sort of maradona-esque. Yes, it's like a Kevin Keeg Maradona-esque thing, and he just accuses him of wasting his time because poor old John has an absolute nightmare. He's trying to pat everything down with one hand, his other hand is clearly injured. Yeah. He doesn't feel comfortable enough to have said anything to anyone. And so that's a nightmare, and his dad gets home with him, who's come to watch him, and he says, I'm really embarrassed, I I'm I'm ashamed, and all the rest of it, just furthering his absolute anxiety and turmoil, this poor lad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

And and it very quickly escalates. I mean, you know, you think of the scenes where they're having dinner and John can't help but spit. They're like literally spitting food. You know, it's so unpleasant for everybody involved, he can't stop himself. And he's very distressed by the fact that he can't stop himself. And obviously, the family have no context for this or never heard the word Tourette's.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

It wasn't what was going on, and they're saying sit in front of the fireplace and and he's got to eat in front of the fireplace. Oh, it's awful, it's awful, and it becomes completely conditioned into him, doesn't it? And I must admit, I don't often get emotional in films this movie. It's got me in the fields a few times. I just thought, what a lovely, lovely lad this this kid is. And as you say, a fantastic performance by the lad that was playing a young John.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

He really sells because the sort of vision of who John was before all this happened, and then it you know it transitioning into him. And then it does transition a little bit later, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

We suddenly an older John.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Not quite before. There it is important to know because his parents, the pressure of it gets to his parents, his father, who's heavily implied to be an alcoholic, leaves and never comes back, is literally, I think, never mentioned again in the film. His father just walks and leaves him. His mother, who is a nurse, is very sort of passive, aggressive, and she's just doesn't I think completely overwhelmed by the situation, doesn't know what to do. Well her marriage is broken down, she's got other kids. And and he believes that it's about John believes that his father's left because of him, and he walks into the river to commit suicide.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, and his mother doesn't sort of say anything too much to to make him not feel that. She just goes, it is what it is. I know, you know, like take, you know, take some of that feeling off him because yeah, he's he's absolutely disconsolate and goes to commit suicide.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, because his life has literally fallen apart in in just a matter of weeks. He's been bullied, you know, got into fights, he's getting in constant trouble at school, he's blown this thing with the But some of it is like it's really awful and it's really funny at the same time, like when he goes on that date with the girl and her mum it her mum comes with them and is sitting two rows in front to make sure that they're not doing anything, and just he turns around her and goes, suck my dick! Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Just like the what he says tends to be the worst thing that you can say in any situation.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yes, absolutely, and we'll see that time and time again. So yeah, we do jump forward to 1996 now, and he's actually had at this point a Tourette syndrome diagnosis, but he's being but you know, he's he's not got a job.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

It's not really recognised as we learn out this this as a Well nobody would know what it was, would they? No. And yeah, he's he's just no friends.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

His tics have got a lot worse now as well. Very simple. He's on medication. He's on medication which suppressed them, and it's obviously not very it's halo paradigm. But the ticks are obviously a massive problem to him. And this is some weird stuff like licking lampposts and kissing lamp lampposts and all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, he's just got things that he can't.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Punching out, like striking out almost like violently, and that sort of thing. He meets this guy that he was friends with, Murray, in the shop, and his mum says, Go on, off you go with Murray, and they go off, and it's nice to see him catch up with somebody his own age and things.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

They go round back to Murray's house and he warns him, he says, Look, my mum's only got six months to just want to give Murray a big hug at this point because Murray's come back from Australia and not seen him. He was one of his earlier friends at school, and he's explaining all this to him, and he's going, Oh, you know, that's really terrible. But the fact that he's he's got his own shit going on, he's got his own stuff going on because his mum's just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Murray's mum, and that's why he's come back from Australia and he was sort of, you know, he's doing well out there, had a job and everything, but you know, it is what he is. I'm I'm coming back.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And they go off for dinner and he opens the door, and the first thing he says to her is, Are you gonna die of cancer? Yeah. He says to her She she actually laughs and says, Oh, that's the most honest anybody's been with me for the last like few months.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

But he's he's kind of still just you know, embarrassed by it. He goes upstairs, he smashes a mirror in one of his his bits and his his kind of ticks. He then goes outside and he's just kind of beating himself up sort of John, John, why are you doing this, you know? And she comes out and just says, Come on, we've got dinner for you. Come and come and have it. And she's just a star, she's just like one of those the patients of an angel, and very quickly they connect.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

She worked in a uh yeah facility for five years prior to this, so has some experience of people with conditions like that are not dissimilar.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

And she has this conversation with him and says, because he apologises uh for the ticks. He said, Did you mean you didn't mean it? Look, it's the apologising that just drives me mad. You see, when you're in this house, don't apologize, you don't have to apologize. And he was like, Okay, thanks. Immediately smashes a plate, yeah, and as he's doing the dishes with Murray, and he just kind of hands it to Murray, who's kind of like, They just look at each other, don't they go and he doesn't apologize is the key thing. That that's it, and um So he's finally found somewhere he can be accepted. Feels a little more at home and it's not so uptight, and she with this terminal cancer diagnosis is really looking for meaning for her last months as well, and yeah, she wants him as a project really, see if she can spread a little bit of positivity and and then convinces him, not that he needs much convincing, but the rest of the family as well. Look, we've got a spare room, I want him to move in, and he wants to move in, and it's moving out of his mum's house who who probably needs a a rest as well because it was too much for her.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

There was no concept of support or care or respite or social system in place to help somebody like this. She was, you know, the movie is not massively kind on his mum, I don't think. But it's you know, they do say like there was just nothing to help her.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

You can't at all you can imagine sort of eight, nine years, no support. Yeah, the it must have been so hard. The conditions and things she's got other kids, she's a a marriage that's broken down, she's bringing the kids up on her own.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah. And this condition makes no sense and causes him to say really horrible might call her a cunt loads of times, or you know, spit in her face, or punch her, or you know, and and very difficult to understand if you haven't got the context of knowing about the ill the things we know now. So anyway. But it isn't very sympathetic to to mum uh or anyone else, and he goes through a long period of like, you know, social situations turning really bad, getting beaten up, or coppers like do it filling him in because he's said the wrong thing, basically.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

But yeah, the I mean, as far as the the film goes through these highlights and lowlights of his life, there are lots, and you can certainly understand why they've decided to make a a film out of it, because the the condition itself is obviously just a bizarre one for for anybody. Well the symptoms are strange, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And it feels l you wanna say stop that. Do you know what I mean? Like it with if you have no understanding of it. You want to say what you're doing? Don't don't keep doing that.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

But He he with It's Dottie, isn't it? The Dott the the Murray's mum, and she's just determined to help him, and she ween she encourages him off the the drugs that he's on because she knows that they're really strong, she's familiar with them, the headaches it will give him, the you know all the side effects and everything, and he's worried about the ticks, but less so now that doesn't actually have to apologise all the time at home or he he's uh feeling a little more relaxed. Murray's looking forward to him being off the the drugs for a certain amount of time because they can go out on the piss together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

They go out, he's as you say, straight into chatting up a girl and things, but Well, at first it looks like it's gonna be really good because he's sort of on the dance floor and you can get away with being a bit jiggy and you know, on the dance floor and And he's buying a drink for a girl's but it doesn't take too long before he's things go wrong. He knocks a pint glass out of someone's hand and then apologises for it, but it's too late. It's like a brawl straight away.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yeah, I mean it's a it's a a nightclub in the eighties, they have no idea, and you know, it's all a macho kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Well, he didn't even have a chance, did he? But I mean it basically to that other guy, it looked like he was starting, really, let's be honest, because he might have even called him a cunt and tipped his pint glass out of his hand. Do you know what I mean? Like it's not it's not it's understandable that that kind of thing happened, but what isn't understandable is the police doing him in afterwards as well. And Dottie sees all this and realizes she needs to kind of get him some help. But what she means by help is like A job, a job. A purpose, exactly. A reason and he said a few times he wants a job, but he feels like he's unemployed.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Who's gonna give me a job? Yeah. Who's gonna you know, and quite right, really, you know, who's gonna give somebody who's on the face of it a hell of a lot of trouble? I think he could work for customer service. Yeah, there's uh there's a there's a community service centre, a community centre, and they're looking for an assistant, and there's this this old boy Tommy, who This is an amazing sequence, it's very funny because he's going in for a job interview, and every social situation is obviously like a minefield for him. And but he you can see that it really means a lot to him. He's he's yeah, thanks very much. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't want to blow this, he doesn't want it to to um so we get like a regular job interview scene, but intercut with him going, you wrinkly bastard or something, shouting it at you.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Can you make tea?

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Spunk for milk. Just absolute purlers he's throwing down and he Tommy says, Look, there's a few people interested in it. If you were to get the job, you know, I might have to have some time off from time and time again because he goes, No, I'm always on time. I have to be on time, you know, it's my routine. I I I I'll put out the chairs, I can do that, you know, it's not a problem. And you think back to this 14-year-old lad just before he you can see that in him, and that's why I thought this film really transitions well between those two because you can see, as you say, the the young lad played him so well because again, just around this time, it really got me in the fields where I just thought, oh, just give him a chance. Yeah, very invested in his and you know that he will turn up and he will like do all he can. And but he also will punch your dog as well during the interview from. He punched this guy's dog really hard. Yeah, it's really horrible. And he's he's just I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And he knows then he hasn't got the job and he's kind of heading home and it takes a few days. And oh, we get two whammies for one here, do we? Well, he goes into home and sp speaks to Dot, who's been having the the follow-up appointments for her terminal cancer diagnosis, and it turns out they've got it wrong.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

And she's got She doesn't have six months to live, she's She's it was something else who's benign, and she's gonna be just fine.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

I really felt that they ruined this moment by having her in the first scene of the movie at the at the MBE Award ceremony, though, because I was like, Yeah, I know she doesn't die because you just showed me right at the beginning of the year. Yeah, right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

And I wasn't sure how far along it was though, or anything, so I I didn't really think about that until two afterwards. But what does spoil this a little bit is more good news come, which isn't spoiling it. He's got the job, he's absolutely made up, and she sends him off to the Chinese. Go and get what you want, we're all gonna have a slap-up meal, it's double celebration. So he goes down there, a pretty girl comes out in a leather skirt, and he can't help himself. A tick just kind of comes out, and I think he calls her a slag or a slut or something. Yeah, yeah. But he's saying, Sorry, sorry, I've I've got this condition, like, and she's not having any of it, she's just you know, she's just adding off. And as he's walking home, two guys obviously know her, are waiting for him because she's just on the other side of the bridge under the bridge, and they beat the living shit out of him with a crowbar. Yeah, it's horrible. And he finds himself in prison for that other episode that he's been in for their nightclub. The try he's on trial, isn't he? Yeah, he's he's me it's been mentioned in the in the the job interview, and he said, Look, Tommy said, Did you do it? Is it your it goes?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

He's not even got the job, and he says, Look, if I do get the job, by the way, I've got an assault charge.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

I just I just want to be honest, like you know, as far as yeah, it it sounded for him, it wasn't good, but he's been brilliant in the job. He's been turning up, they're starting to get to know each other.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Uh is it before this as well? That was it before. The job where 'cause he gets a place on his own, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

No, so this is afterwards after it. And he he's kind of building after the the the court case and it gets thrown out the court case because Wells it doesn't go that great for him though, because he's thrown out in contempt of court at the beginning of the case.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

The judge, as he's sort of he's asked to, you know, what is it, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and all that, and he he can't do it. He's gets to I swear and then starts swearing. And he's removed from court, and then there's a whole bunch of character witnesses basically just saying, you know, pointing out just how much the establishment has really failed this guy in all sorts of areas.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Everybody and there are funny moments as as he as Tommy is is kind of saying, Look, he's a great lad, he makes a tea, he shouts out, Spunk for Milk! Yeah, yeah, and he gets hi, Spunk for Milk. And they throw it out, and it's it's a real kind of landmark case, I guess, then that it's been because the the judge says it's not recognised in Scottish law this this condition, but he actually recognises that he's not making this up, and they say, Ask tell me who would make up a condition that gets you thrown out of school, ruins all your relationships, yeah, gets you beaten up. Who would do that? Yeah. Who would repeatedly keep doing it? It's not his fault. It's you know, and and eventually they realise through this court case that it's uh he's not making it up, and he's then able to to continue. And he does build on that with moving into a flat. She says, Look, you need your independence. I love having you around. You've been there five years though, or whatever it is, four or five years in the in the house by this stage, yeah. And says, I've I've set you up with a place. It's a high rise, you think you could live here? And he's looking around and goes, Yeah, yeah, I could live here.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

He sees the place, shit oh, shit oh, yeah, he just say, What do you think of it? He goes, It's a shit hole. I like it, no, no, no. But then the and he has to put bars over the balcony window to stop himself hurling himself off. And it's and it's sort of delivered in a sort of like uh funny kind of way, but it sort of also goes to illustrate like the constant strain of this thing on you all the time. And the movie is really good at showing like the toil and the emotional torment of this thing happening to him. But anyway, he gets like obviously he gets in with the local guy, ends up like party flat, everybody back at him.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Well, this is it, he he meets a few youths, doesn't he? And and they sort of seem to take him in and you know, are you friends, but they're all using him for his his place. They've got somewhere to to smoke and drink and one of them wants to use him as a drug mule. Yeah. And he doesn't know again what he's really getting himself in for. He's a bit naive, isn't he? He is a bit naive. I mean he's a vulnerable kind of adult, I guess, through his ing his anxiety so much and and the the lack of social awareness and everything that he's his condition has has brought uh onto him. And so when he's given a package, he he is kind of going, I'm do you think what the hell is this? And he's just he's got it then and he's got to walk it through town. He's just walking along shouting half-price heroin for sale.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

I've got a lot of heroin, heroin, I've got crack up my jumper. And then he sees police officers from across the street. Of course, the first thing he does is shout, pigs, pigs, pigs, turns, obviously got these drugs like holding up his jump.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

And he turns and walks away, and they say, Oh, stop, stop, what have you got there? And he goes, I've got drugs.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

He goes, Crack cacainea cunt, half price. That's what he says to him.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

And you think, oh no, show his hands, and it's clear he's got something up his jumper, and he's got this kind of you know, brown envelope package. It's like the parcel wrapping, brown parcel wrapping cellotype all around it. It looks just dodgy as fuck. And he's in in the cell when Doc comes and says, Come on, and he goes, What's he done? And he goes, Well, he was you know conspiracy to she says, What's he done?

SPEAKER_01 26:07

He goes, 'I was selling drugs.' And he goes, 'Yeah, that the police officer says.' But it wasn't, it was sugar.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

The first time they'd obviously given him something to move, they'd just done it as a test, and uh just as well for him, because although he thought it was drugs, it wasn't. And Dot says, I think that flat's not the best place for you. And then she gives him a book, and she's been reading about Tourette's and she says, I think it's best you read up on this. And he kind of then goes into it marks his kind of education then of his self and he's you know, he is an expert in this in himself, and he's given this book to try to understand himself a little bit more and maybe put more meaning in into what he's doing and and other people, and eventually he meets some other people with with Tourette's through this journey.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, he does, yeah, he does. Just before that, we get the sad passing of Tommy, who uh has been hinting at dealing with a long illness anyway, and then our hero John goes round to his house and sort of pushes his way in when there's nobody there and finds him in his bedroom dead. So very, very sad. And then he calls the police when the police come in, and that obvious he's like crying on the sofa, absolutely broken, and they walk in and they said, What happened? He said, I killed him. Yeah. And he's like, No, I didn't. I killed him, no, I didn't. Like, and it's obviously in this massive heartbreaking moment of you've seen this really touching friendship and everything that it meant to John, and his tics are kind of ruining it for him as well. And it's like So yeah, interrupting his grief. Awful. But yeah, so afterwards he becomes the caretaker. He replaces Tommy via a very funny scene again.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yeah, it's it's a nice moment again, isn't it? Because they come in and he's he knows f in his mind that they're gonna get someone else, he'd probably be moved on. You know, they're not gonna want him.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

And I think when he walks in there, he goes because he's not expecting to get the job.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

I think this is the third time I start to to tear up.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, because he goes, I'm the best man for the job. Yeah. And the guy goes, Well, actually, yeah, you are. Like And he says, We wouldn't want anyone else.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Just and it comes with accommodation, and so Well, it comes with Tommy's accommodation, yeah. Which is fantastic. It's a nice quiet little place, end of terrace house compared to the sky sort of scraper he was living in, the the the flats and everything that he'd had before, and and living in either Dot's house or mum's house, it you know, it this is just perfect for him.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

And yeah, he's his life is coming together a little bit after a lot of you know, stress to get here. And like you say, then other people start coming to him, he comes to be known in the community a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

The first one is when the doctors sort of say, Well, you should go and speak to this guy.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Yeah, and the first one is they a couple bring their sort of older teenage daughter to see him. She has she suffers very badly from rettes, at least as badly as he does. Yeah. And there's an amazing moment, she doesn't want to meet him, fuck off, she's shouting. Might probably the ticks, but they get in the car and they have like a three-minute tick-off, and she's going, I shag letterboxes, and he's going, Your father fucked a jellyfish or something, like and they're just both of them going at it and laughing.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Yeah, and it's this is it, they're just absolutely as you say, having it having this tick-off, and then they do have a serious conversation, and she just when they're able to relax in front of each other, and the parents are so grateful, and he ends up creating this which he's able to to share the experience and talk to these she's never met a person with Tourette's before.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

So to meet somebody else and hear him say, Yeah, I've had you know, I've I've not got that, but I've got this one, I do this, and yeah, God, it's a pain in the ass, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 30:06

And that sort of thing. Just somebody really understands and the and the parents then the support that they get because he he ends up having like a Tourette's weekend. Yeah. And there's a brilliant line in it where he says, For once you're not the minority. Yeah. And he had all these everybody's ticking away. People who have got all these different ticks and various severity and and everything. And for once they're in a place where actually there's more of them than everyone else, and they can just feel, you know, not out of place as much.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

As ten and eleven-year-old boys and girls call each other cunts across the table and that sort of thing. Yeah. And then there's more community outreach. He ends up doing some stuff with the schools. I think he walks up in the school and shouts, I'm not a paedophile. Oh, I am a paedophile. I think he shouts before he gets on.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

And he he said and one part there he he says, and actually some of them make me laugh. Yeah. You know, some of the tit he says, I actually I'm not meaning them, but you know, sometimes it's really outrageous, terrible, sometimes they're quite funny, and they even make me laugh, but I don't mean them all the same.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

But it's like you said before, it's like literally, what is the one thing you shouldn't say, including at the BAFTAs? What is the one thing you shouldn't say while these are claimed and you can understand that in a way, like anyway. So, yeah, and then also another important part is that the copper, one of the coppers who filled him in and was there on the drugs part, he has been promoted and had a sudden realisation really about just how badly they failed him numerous times as a youth, and so brings him in and says, Look, I want you to talk to my police force about this and help educate him.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

The way he says, Fuck the police, that's the first thing he says, and they all start laughing. And it it's it's nice that you know the community and society through him and his experiences are starting to catch up with his situation and his his condition a little bit. The the weekends that he's got for parents and and for other people with Tourette's is been a huge success and it all points to him, you know, getting this letter through the post from from the Queen, which we know that he he comes in uh and gets as well, and so there's that point. But then it there's another. Well he joined back up with the mi the uh beginning of the movie now, don't we? Because he goes off and gets the MBE.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

And there's another invite afterwards for him to go to Nottingham University to Well, just before that though, he g he there is He has to tell his mum basically that he picked Dottie and his sister and Dottie's p husband to go. There were only three tickets. He didn't choose his mum. And this is the moment where they do have a bit of a It's not a reconciliation because they've seen each other a few times, but I think she basically, in her very understated, dower way, says it was too much for me, and he says, Yeah, I know. Yeah. And and and and he not in a judgmental way, he's like, Yeah, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

It's quite you know, that's basic and they do have a little hug, but that's how just how it's left. She's yeah, very sad.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, it's it's it's a a really difficult situation because his sister comes along to the the ceremony as well, and they've obviously not seen each other in a little while. Just yeah, you know, he's ripped the family apart, really.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

And it does make you think like even knowing what you know now, it would be a very triggering condition to have to manage and accept in your child, wouldn't it? I mean, obviously you'd find ways, but it would be really take reserves of patience that you can only wish that you you've gone.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

That you have to find somewhere, I guess. And and that dot who hadn't had, you know, the responsibility or you know, but but just uh assumed it really and just wanted to help, you know, angels really that, you know, just have come into his life at the right time. Tommy as well, who had such a great sense of humour about it and sort of says, I know I've got to stay on your left side because your right side will just punch me in the balls and punch him in the knackers every now and then.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Well, because he's the sort of father that he didn't really have when he grew up, isn't he, Tommy? So And yeah, like you say, now we go to an amazing bit at the University of Nottingham. And they've got a kind of wristband that sends us a non-invasive median nerve stimulation device.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yeah. Yeah, they're one of those. And through this it massively reduced the the ticks and he's able to walk through a library. He has I know.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

When the climax of a movie is a man walking quietly in absolute silence through a library and it feeling like a huge triumph. That's really good filmmaking, good effect on stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

That's it, not just for for him, but for us viewers going he's he's made it through.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

And he's talked before about wanting to go into a library, but he wouldn't bother because he doesn't want to put everybody else under like No chance. You just like think some things he he would never do. Because there's that really sad moment at Tommy's funeral where they're all it's a very small funeral and they're mourning him at the front, but John has to stand right at the back so that nobody can hear him shouting fuck off and stuff. Yeah. Because he doesn't want to ruin it. And he's he's got some kind of bit that he bites on as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Help suppress the ticks if you bite it. Yeah, and when he's talking to that young girl around about how, you know, you just gotta get it out. You've just gotta do things. It's sometimes like she's gotta do certain little routines, he has to kiss kiss that lamppost and things like that. He's just got to do it. If he doesn't do it, it just you know it will it will drive him crazy. He just needs to get it out. So the device is very hard.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

It does stop his com compulsions. Absolutely, I think he only has says he only has one whilst wearing the device, but it's it's he can't keep it, he has to keep it for a few days and give some notations and stuff. And it only works for about sixty percent, but still like the idea that there could be something that could alleviate the symptoms, not a cure per se, but something that could really improve the quality of life of the wearer.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

So in you know, uninvasive that it it's kind of it just looks like a watch. Yeah, that's it. And he could wear it and j he he has a conversation with a girl on the train, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_01 36:37

And there's been a big thing a few times. Obviously he's a sexual man is what because the the movie Kate makes it clear that he was into that, you know. Yeah but he's never really had the relationship that he that he wants. So it leaves on a note of maybe that will happen for him. And then over the credit we get the footage of the real John from a documentary I'd seen a long time ago. Some amazing scenes that are actually in the movie, like when he's trying to cross the road with his dog and he's going, cross but he means stay. Then he's telling the dog to stay But the dog seems to know amazingly, like it just ignores the ticks and goes when it's needed, and so and all sorts of other scenes, like a scene where he'd punched Dottie in the face that had been recorded in the documentary and that sort of thing. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

What a brilliant film, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Brilliant film. It was up for all the awards, it won at the BAFTAs, it won Best Actor, I think.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Robert Arameo is absolutely brilliant. Yes, John Davidson, really fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, it's it I know we've just had the Oscar winners yesterday. Michael B. Jordan won for Sinners. I've not seen that film, I have seen this one. It must be some performance by Michael B. Jordan to take the Oscar That's how I feel as well. Actually, I haven't seen Sinners either. It's this was brilliant, absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Got me in the fields multiple times. It's like hilarious and heartbreaking, sometimes at the same time. And it like it really does, yeah, it got me in the fields a few times.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Like you can feel like, oh gosh, that's a bit Yeah, the the humour is dark and the you know, it's obviously an uplifting film in many ways because of the way that he's been able to triumph with his life and bring support and help to to other people. He's really used his his life to shine a light on this this condition and and make changes in legislation and and attitudes and things like that so important.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

You you hope that he is able to find a relationship and and love and all the kind of things that certainly when I look back on the the film at the beginning, you just think this this young lad who was, you know, wanted to be a footballer Well it certainly seems to be the part of his life that needs to be fulfilled, whereas everything else he's managed to kind of he's best it he's bested some of the challenges that life has given him and made his his life really fulfilling, but definitely it hints at like a relationship is the thing that will will put the icing on the cherry on the top or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

But if you haven't seen it, check it out.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

It's really wonderful, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

It is as good as all that, and yeah, I'd be uh recommending it to people whenever they're asking for a film for their next few months, I'm sure. Yeah, it's punk for milk.