“I Swear”

I have just watched the 2025 award winning film called “I Swear”. It is described as a “biographical black comedy-drama”, and if there is one genre that the British Film Industry excel at, it is this sort of dark comedy, in the same sort of vein as Trainspotting or Four Lions. This film however, is a true story, which accurately depicts many events from John’s life.

I know very little about Tourettes, and was surprised that despite being first described in 1885 by a French physician and neurologist, Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette, it was not recognised as a medical diagnosis in Britain until the 1980s.

“I Swear” is the story of John Davidson, and despite being genuinely “laugh out loud” funny at times, it is also absolutely tragic and had me in tears on numerous occasions. This very much misunderstood condition has much light shone upon it during the 2 hour run time, from when John was 12 and the condition started to manifest, up to his receiving of an MBE by the Queen in 2019. It also shows there is much hope for treatment of the condition with recent technological breakthroughs.

During the end credits they play clips from the original BBC’s 1989 Q.E.D. documentary “John’s Not Mad”, which I remembered watching way back then!

Generally I do not watch films which receive “awards”, but I cannot recommend this film highly enough!