I Swear: Tourette's campaigner John Davidson hopes biopic 'will end negative narrative' around condition

We cover a lot of movies on What’s on Scotland – it’s a pretty nice perk of the job – but I cannot stress this enough; I Swear is the best film I have seen in years.

Perhaps we should remain impartial on these things, but in this case, I can’t. It’s one I want everyone to see and here’s why…

The film tells the real-life story of John Davidson. You may remember him as the man from Galashiels who lives with Tourette’s syndrome and has starred in documentaries over the years, highlighting what it’s like to have the condition.

It’s a story that has always stuck with me as John was the first person I had ever seen with Tourette’s. His campaigning and raising awareness of the condition has earned him not only an army of fans, but also an MBE.

There’s a hilarious scene in the movie which covers the moment he met the Queen to receive this. As we know, with Tourette’s, the tics don’t discriminate with when they appear – not even for Royalty… Which led to a very interesting outburst!

John was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome at a young age — John was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome at a young age STV News

But that’s the thing with this film. You laugh along with moments like that, as well as cry at how tough things were for John growing up when Tourette’s was rarely understood. We see how John was bullied and kept down throughout his life. But we also see the people who gave him a chance and who helped him along the way – most importantly, his friend’s mum, Dotty, played by the brilliant Maxine Peake, and Tommy, the caretaker who gives him a job, played by Peter Mullan.

You see the man now – someone who has changed the lives of so many living with the condition – and who now has an incredible film made about his story.

I had the pleasure of meeting John, who was executive producer on the movie, to chat about the film’s release and it was a special one for me as John is an absolute hero.

He told me: “It’s very, very surreal. It’s something I’ve always wanted to be able to do but I never thought it would come to fruition and look at it now. So yeah, I’m kind of feeling loved at the moment.

“We decided right from the start it wasn’t to be one of these sad, tear-jerker, ‘feel sorry for me’ films and I think we’ve capture every aspect of what Tourette’s is like to live with – from the symptoms, to the humour, to the bizarre wildness that comes with Tourette’s.”

And how have they done that? With one of the greatest performances by an actor I’ve ever seen.

Step forward Robert Aramayo, who plays John so convincingly in the film, he truly deserves every award going.

“I knew the version that I didn’t want to do of John and I knew that in order to do do the version I wanted to do, I would have to keep the authenticity around John and around Tourette’s at the front of my mind.

“I obviously spend months with John and Dotty in Galashiels. I was staying in Galashiels for quite a while and just diving into his thing.”

And the biggest compliment for Robert? John told me: “In the film it’s like watching myself in the mirror.”

At the helm of the movie is director, writer and producer Kirk Jones. Kirk had also been inspired by John when watching the early documentaries and he had noted down his name as someone whose life would make a great film.

“In John’s story, I felt early on I could see an incredible potent mix of humour, emotion and tragedy and I was really interested to see what would happen if these elements were smashed together,” he said.

Game of Thrones actor Robert Aramayo plays John in I Swear STV News

“About three years ago, I sat down to consider my next project and I had a little book with ideas over the years and one said ‘John Davidson, Tourette’s.’ I rewatched the documentaries and went to see John. I said ‘would you be interested in me making the film?’ and he said ‘okay.’

And thank goodness he did.

Pulling together an amazing cast, including Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan – who said the film is “a lovely reminder to us all not to judge so quickly,” I Swear will really will get you thinking and hopefully change many mindsets for the better.

Indeed, the strapline on the poster says ‘A film that might just change someone’s life’.

John himself hopes that that will be the effect of this compelling piece of work.

“We need to take away the negative narrative about Tourette’s and I think this film is going to take us past just raising awareness; it’s going to create a movement, that’s what I’m hoping for.”

I hope it does just that and that as many people as possible get to see it.