A new television drama is set to chronicle the spectacular fall from grace of former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, with actor Martin Clunes taking on the lead role. The first look image reveals Clunes, 64, transformed into the disgraced presenter, sitting stern-faced at a BBC news desk.
From News at Ten to National Scandal
For two decades, Huw Edwards was a cornerstone of BBC News, fronting the flagship News at Ten programme. His voice delivered historic announcements, including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. As one of the corporation's highest-paid stars, he earned between £475,000 and £479,999 in the 2023/2024 financial year.
However, his esteemed career unravelled in July 2023 when a national newspaper reported allegations that a top BBC presenter had paid a teenager for sexual images. Edwards was suspended by the BBC. Although initial police investigations by South Wales Police and the Metropolitan Police found no evidence of criminal conduct, a deeper probe followed.
A Double Life Exposed
The drama, with the working title Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, will explore the presenter's secret double life. While reading the evening news, Edwards was soliciting explicit sexual photos from young men and, most seriously, grooming a vulnerable 17-year-old over many months.
In a separate online friendship, from December 2020 to August 2021, he received messages from a man containing illegal child abuse imagery, which he accessed. This included Category A images, the most extreme kind.
In July 2024, police charged Edwards with three counts of making indecent images of children—involving a child as young as seven—and receiving 41 illegal images from a convicted paedophile via WhatsApp. He pleaded guilty and, in April 2024, was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and placed on the sex offenders' register. He resigned from the BBC the same month.
Channel 5's Fact-Based Drama
Commissioned by Channel 5, the two-part series is described as an "unflinching drama" that paints a "complex, emotional and nuanced portrait" of the scandal. It marks the first collaboration between the channel's factual and scripted commissioning teams.
Ben Frow, Channel 5's chief content officer, stated: "This is an important and shocking story – of how a man in a position of power and trust betrayed that status. By gaining exclusive access to the key individuals involved... we explore the human cost behind the headlines."
The production is directed by Bafta and Emmy winner Michael Samuels and written by Mark Burt. Channel 5 confirms the series is built on extensive factual research over 12 months, including first-hand interviews with those at the heart of the story.
In the wake of his conviction, the BBC began removing Edwards' past appearances from archive footage, including his voice from a Doctor Who episode. A plaque in his honour at Cardiff Castle was also removed.
The corporation has also sought to recoup more than £200,000 in salary paid to Edwards between his arrest in November 2023 and his resignation in April 2024. As of August 2025, this money had not been returned, with the BBC stating it was seeking legal advice. BBC chairman Dr Samir Shah publicly appealed to Edwards, saying: "Give it back Huw, just give it back."
