I Swear

UK Release Date. 10 October 2025
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 
Director. Kirk Jones
Cast. Robert Aramayo, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake.

Rating. 77%

Review.

In 1989 the BBC aired a landmark documentary entitled ‘John’s Not Mad’ which featured a teenage John Davidson from Galashiels and his struggles with Tourette’s Syndrome - a little known condition at the time. John was repeatedly labelled as a foul-mouthed, self-destructive reprobate as he had no means to convince his family and the local community that his tics and violent outbursts were, in fact, involuntary rather than controlled.

I, Swear revisits the story of John Davidson, now a real-life activist and campaigner who was awarded an MBE in 2019 for his work educating the nation about the condition.

The cast are uniformly excellent. Robert Aramayo, in particular, delivers an extraordinary performance, achieving not just the technical feat of playing someone with such a specific physical and vocal condition, but also capturing a degree of emotional pathos. John is portrayed as a likeable everyman - a happy-go-lucky individual with a largely optimistic outlook on life.

John’s parents - David (Steven Cree) and Heather (Shirley Henderson) - are immediately dismissive of the condition. His mother simply prescribes, “…a hot bath and an early night.” As the symptoms become more extreme, his long-suffering mother makes the excruciating decision to reject John in an attempt maintain order as family life disintegrates and to preserve her own mental well being. Shirley Henderson’s portrayal of Heather as the austere, cold-blooded, matriarch is brutal. 

There’s an all too brief appearance from the wonderful Peter Mullan as the no-nonsense, straight-talking local community centre caretaker, Tommy. Only Maxine Peake struggles; not with the portrayal of the indefatigable Dottie, a mental health nurse and the mother of one of John’s school friends, but with the Scottish Borders’ accent. Nonetheless, Peake delivers a strong performance as the unflinching force of nature, a woman full of gentle warmth and kindness. 

Kirk Jones’ film offers a combination of compassion and catharsis. Scene after scene plays out in a similar vein with John momentarily empowered before something goes spectacularly wrong. As a consequence, I, Swear makes for stressful viewing, as in many of the situations you’re watching through metaphorically clasped fingers waiting for the inevitable outcome.

The film’s final act marks John’s activism, using real-life Tourette Syndrome sufferers at times. In perhaps the film’s strongest scene, John shares a car with a young girl struggling with the condition. After a minute or so of hurling a barrage of expletives and some of the unholiest insults at each other, the pair smile quietly together, finding a degree of solidarity. Like the film at large, the scene is sweet, funny, and surprisingly moving in an unorthodox manner. 

The life-affirming human drama is a staple of British cinema - Chariots Of Fire, Educating Rita, Billy Elliot, I, Daniel Blake, The Full Monty - and I, Swear doesn’t stray too far from a well-trodden path, but you would need a heart of stone not to be moved by this delightful and elegantly crafted screenplay.

I, Swear, is warm, fierce and full of heart. Most impressively, though, this is an intelligent film which does justice to those living with Tourettes’s Syndrome. Championing them without judgment or condescension. British cinema at its best.