He's outside Number 10 at night, texting, waiting to go live—chilling in light of what we know.
When a man who read the news to millions is revealed to have committed crimes against children in the shadows of his own home, a society is forced to reckon with the distance between public trust and private truth. Actor Martin Clunes, himself sixty-four, prepares to embody disgraced BBC presenter Huw Edwards on Channel 5 — not to condemn, but to illuminate how a double life can persist, unseen, within the most visible of public figures. The drama, airing March 24, arrives not merely as entertainment but as a cultural attempt to understand how institutions, colleagues, and audiences can fail to see what is happening in plain sight.
- A man who announced the death of a queen to a grieving nation was simultaneously grooming a vulnerable teenager and accessing the most extreme categories of child abuse imagery.
- Clunes found himself unsettled not by any single dramatic moment in the archive footage, but by the ordinary image of Edwards standing in the dark outside Downing Street, texting — the mundane surface concealing something monstrous beneath.
- Channel 5 is pressing forward with a dramatization that a former BBC executive warns is legally precarious, arguing the network is navigating territory a documentary would have handled more safely.
- The production attempts the difficult work of showing how two selves can coexist — the trusted public voice and the private predator — without collapsing into spectacle or evasion.
- At the centre of all of it, largely unseen in the promotional conversation, is a seventeen-year-old who was groomed and exploited by one of the most powerful figures in British broadcasting.
Martin Clunes is sixty-four years old — the same age as Huw Edwards — and in a matter of days he will appear on Channel 5 playing the man who, for decades, was one of Britain's most trusted voices. Not the newsreader behind the desk, but the one who groomed a teenager, solicited explicit images, and accessed child abuse material in the privacy of his own home.
To prepare, Clunes immersed himself in archive footage — not the formal broadcasts, but the smaller, unguarded moments: Edwards at ceremonies, off duty, slightly more Welsh when no script was in front of him. One clip stayed with him above all others: Edwards outside Number 10 at night, waiting to go live, texting on his phone. Nothing sinister in the image itself. But knowing what Clunes now knew, the ordinariness of it was chilling.
In July 2024, Edwards pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children. He had groomed a vulnerable seventeen-year-old over an extended period, repeatedly soliciting explicit photographs. He had also cultivated an online relationship through which he received and accessed child abuse imagery of the most extreme category. His double life eventually collapsed entirely, ending in a public exit from the career that had defined him.
Channel 5's drama, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, airs March 24 and includes Osian Morgan as the teenager at the centre of the case. Clunes also spoke with former BBC colleagues during his research. He was careful not to position himself as judge. 'I don't want to be drawn into slagging Huw Edwards off,' he said. 'But I didn't hear any compliments.'
Before the drama has even reached viewers, former BBC TV News head Roger Mosey has warned it is 'very risky' and likely to encounter legal problems — suggesting a documentary would have been the safer path. The production walks a difficult line: telling a story the public has a genuine need to understand, while resisting the pull toward spectacle. Clunes' preparation — the footage, the conversations, the search for the man beneath the public face — is ultimately an attempt to show how someone can be two people at once, and how the world, watching closely, can still fail to see it.
Martin Clunes is sixty-four years old. So is Huw Edwards. In a few days, Clunes will appear on Channel 5 playing Edwards—not the version millions of Britons knew for decades, reading the news with measured authority, but the man underneath: the one who groomed a teenager online, solicited explicit images, and accessed child abuse material in the privacy of his own home.
Clunes spent weeks preparing for this role by watching archive footage of Edwards in unguarded moments. Not the formal broadcasts from behind the News at Ten desk, where Edwards had announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II and broken countless major stories. Instead, Clunes sought out the smaller clips—Edwards at awards ceremonies, off duty, moving through the world as a private person. He noticed Edwards was slightly more Welsh when he wasn't reading from a script. But one piece of footage stayed with him. It was an outside broadcast from Number 10 at night. Edwards stood in a coat, waiting to go live, texting on his phone. Clunes found it chilling—not because of anything Edwards was doing in that moment, but because of what he now knew Edwards was doing elsewhere, in the dark of his own home.
In July 2024, Edwards pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children. The specifics are brutal. He had groomed a vulnerable seventeen-year-old, repeatedly soliciting explicit sexual photographs. He had also cultivated a separate online relationship with a man who, between December 2020 and August 2021, sent him messages containing child abuse imagery—including the most extreme category—which Edwards accessed. For decades, Edwards had been one of the most powerful figures in British television. His double life spiraled until he had no choice but to announce his total exit from public life.
Channel 5's drama, titled Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, attempts to tell this story. The cast includes Osian Morgan as the teenager at the centre of the allegations, along with actors portraying journalists from The Sun who broke the story. Clunes spoke to The Times about his research, explaining that he also reached out to Edwards' former BBC colleagues. "I don't want to be drawn into slagging Huw Edwards off, because I don't see that as my role," he said. "But I didn't hear any compliments."
The drama airs on March 24. But even before it reaches viewers, a former BBC executive has issued a warning. Roger Mosey, who once headed BBC TV News, told the press he believes the series is "very risky" and will "rapidly run into legal problems." He suggested a documentary approach would have been safer. The dramatization walks a line between telling a story the public needs to understand and potentially crossing into territory that could invite legal challenge. Clunes' preparation—the archive footage, the conversations with colleagues, the search for the man beneath the public figure—represents an attempt to do something difficult: to show how someone can be two people at once, and how the world can miss what is happening in plain sight.
Citações Notáveis
I don't want to be drawn into slagging Huw Edwards off, because I don't see that as my role. But I didn't hear any compliments.— Martin Clunes
The series is very risky and will rapidly run into legal problems; a documentary approach would have been safer.— Roger Mosey, former BBC TV News head
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What made you decide to take on a role like this? It's not a character you can sympathize with.
I think that's exactly why it matters. The public knew Huw Edwards one way. This drama is about showing the gap between the person on screen and the person in private. That gap is where the crime happened.
When you watched that footage of him outside Number 10, texting—did you feel like you were seeing something you shouldn't?
Not shouldn't. But it was unsettling because it was so ordinary. He's just waiting to go live, doing what thousands of people do every day. Except we know now what he was doing when no one was watching.
Did the former colleagues you spoke to seem shocked? Betrayed?
No one said anything good about him. But I got the sense it was more complicated than simple betrayal. It was disbelief, maybe. How do you reconcile the person you worked alongside with what he'd done?
A former BBC boss warned this drama could face legal trouble. Does that change how you approach the character?
It makes you careful. But careful doesn't mean dishonest. We're telling a true story about a real crime. The risk is in the details, in how you portray the grooming itself. That's where the line is.
What will viewers take away from this?
I hope they understand that predators don't look like monsters. They look like the people we trust. That's the real horror.