POWER- DOWNFALL OF HUW EDWARDS - tue 9pm ch5

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Martin Clunes as Huw Edwards in its highly anticipated new drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards.

a feature length factual drama

The Doc Martin and Manhunt star plays the former BBC News presenter in the feature-length factual drama, which premieres on Tuesday 24 March at 9pm on Channel 5

The series explores "the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in television", according to the synopsis, which continues: "The series explores the newsreader’s double life as it spirals out of control, leading him to make the greatest announcement of his career – his total exit from public life following his conviction for serious child sexual offences."

In September 2022, Edwards was one of Britain's most trusted newsreaders, chosen to deliver the historic announcement that Queen Elizabeth II had died.

A year later, his online activity was exposed.

Below are the facts - mainly public known but if don’t want to know till watch the programme then stop reading

In 2023, The Sun published allegations that a BBC presenter had paid a young person (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a44480790/bbc-responds-presenter-accused-paying-teenager-explicit-photos/) for sexually explicit photos, with the BBC suspending this male presenter in response (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/reality-tv/a44484380/bbc-presenter-suspended-explicit-photos-teenager/). The presenter was then confirmed to be Edwards by his wife Vicky Flind (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a44520185/huw-edwards-named-bbc-suspended-presenter/), which prompted a police investigation.

Edwards received three charges of making indecent images of children (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a61727897/bbc-huw-edwards-charged-indecent-images/) between December 2020 and April 2022.

He pleaded guilty (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a61748562/huw-edwards-pleads-guilty-indecent-child-images/) at Westminster Magistrates Court, and was given a suspended sentence (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a62221949/huw-edwards-sentence-indecent-child-images/).

The programme also documents how Edwards struck up a separate online friendship with a man called Alex Williams, who between 2020 and 2021 sent him messages containing child abuse imagery that he accessed.

It led to Edwards’s conviction in 2024 for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven, for which he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence.

The court heard that Edwards had been involved in online chat with an adult man on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021, who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children. The bulk of these, 36, were sent during a two-month period.

The man told Edwards that the boy was quite young-looking and that he had more images which were illegal. Mr Edwards told him not to send any illegal images, the court was told. No more were sent, and the pair continued to exchange legal pornographic images until April 2022.

"It is only the images that are the subject of the charges that came via a WhatsApp chat. Mr Edwards did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else."

Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards (https://www.theguardian.com/media/huw-edwards)includes an onscreen message from the alleged victim at the end of the programme in which says he hopes his story will help others who feel powerless.

Given the name “Ryan Davies” to protect his identity, he worked with producers on the scripts and says in his message: “I chose to tell my story now for the first time so that no one who has been silenced feels they are alone.

Your truth matters and it deserves to be heard.”
Now aged 23, Ryan adds: “After years of struggle, I have finally overcome my battle with drugs.

I refuse to let Huw Edwards or what he did define who I am or the life I will yet lead.”

Ryan is played by Osian Morgan , most recently seen in under salt marsh as Alfie

Tho was he that blatant or more for tv ?

Horrible deceitful man. Don't need to sit through it to know what he did and have read about the programme anyway. Don't need to sit there subjecting my brain to a mans sexual interests and his interest in teens and children. and his wanking . No thanks. Want entertaining when I switch the box on.

His poor wife and kids. No shits given about them. If he wanted to explore his bisexuality there were others ways

It was obviously all going to come out one day . Stupid as well as deceitful.
He should have paid the money back to the BBC also.
Tax payers money.

I don’t think it’s enough. I think they should’ve made examples of the people in such a high profile case to act as a deterrent and show that sharing images of child sexual abuse is a serious crime even if you are not physically perpetrating it. Yes it is a criminal record but a suspended sentence is not the same as going inside, and 6 months or a year is really not very long. I know people who commit crimes against children don’t have an easy time in prison, but that is a consequence of their crime

I didn’t like it at all. I’m not sure what the purpose was. The Rethian principles for broadcasting, seem to be missing from this. Was it to Inform, Educate or Entertain because I’m not sure it did any of those things.

There were no revelations, nothing that hadn’t been reported already. There was no real depth about grooming and how people can be enticed in to it. It sure as hell wasn’t entertaining.

It was a very one sided piece, I’ve no issue with that generally, but making every single character seem unlikable is a strange thing to do when you are presenting a victim’s story. I don’t know if it was poor acting or poor writing but something didn’t work. Clunes is an excellent actor but his portrayal didn’t seem particularly believable.

I absolutely would not watch this with a 14 year old. No kid wants to watch a man masturbating on TV, in front of their parents.

Each to their own but I don’t mind admitting that I was educated by it as I honestly had no clue before how on-line grooming works. And I think the portrayal did give some insight in to HE’s character and motivations, how he was quite insecure at heart, like all bullies, and how he saw himself within the BBC. And I think he came across as quite brittle, hard and cold because that is who he is and who he had to be to live a double life.

And rather than find all of the characters likeable or unlikeable, I thought they were flawed, like most peoplle. HE and the step dad were definitely unlikeable. I felt huge sympathy for the mother and the young man who was groomed though. I thought it was realistic and all the better for it. The mum found herself in a situation completely beyond the realm of her experience.

On the subject of HE’s wife and family, it would have been interesting to know their perspective but I was happy for them that they did not feature in the documentary apart from a distant shout or closing door.

I really like Martin Clunes but bloody hell he must have found this a tough role to play

Just watched it and I thought Martin Clunes was excellent. As were the other actors.

what an absolute wrong un Huw Edwards is.

cat A moving images of a 7-9 year old boy is very very serious & yet even now I get the impression he behaves like his $hit doesn’t stink.

I hope ‘Ryan’ is safe, sober and getting on with a deserved happy life. And I hope the lawyer and people who protected and continue to protect Huw Edwards struggle to sleep at night.

What's the lawyer got to do with it? If you mean whoever represented him at his trial, he was simply doing his job. Everyone is entitled to a fair hearing.

It is worth watching for the acting alone - Martin Clunes is superb as Huw Edwards.

For the person who said that it didn't inform - I thought it was very informative! It showed a great deal about the psychology of grooming (Edwards' manipulative anger used to coerce the boy) and also shows how the teenage progressed into addiction which kept him in the spiral of abuse. Edwards instructing him on meeting to open a PayPal account, is not dissimilar to the kids that are lured in County Lines for the easy money (at the start).

I do remember reading stories of other men coming forward at the time that Huw befriended through Instagram - one was taken out for lunch at the Ivy and then when he went into the toilet, Edwards followed him in at made a lunge for his cock at the urinals...

So clearly there was a much, much bigger picture to the one depicted in this dramatisation.

It is very respectful to his wife & children as they are completely omitted which gives the incorrect impression that Edwards was this Christian Gray type bachelor living in this very swanky masculine looking house (all dark minimalist interiors) when the reality is probable that he may have been surrounded by his wife, 5 kids & their teenage friends at the time of messaging these men.

Bump

it was like watching paint dry and I think it was a mistake for MC to take on the role.

I don’t think it explored the online grooming part of it in anywhere near enough depth. Same with the situation the mother found herself in. When you compare it to something like Adolescence, which focuses quite a bit on those issues, it barely scratched the surface. I empathises with the parents in Adolescence because the complexity of their situation was explored. I had sympathy for the young boy because his background was laid bare.

I rarely say this but perhaps this was too short. Mostly these are extended to six or eight parts when a couple of episodes would be enough, but this one could have done with more depth.

If HE’s behaviour was so well known at the BBC and the media, just like in Philip Schofield’s case, why do these organisations still lean towards protecting their ‘talent’ rather than the victims?

you’ve kind of answered your own question there. The presenters perceived ‘talent’ brings in big ££££££. And they are talented, or they wouldn’t have got the job. But talented doesn’t automatically equate to being a decent human being. Plenty of talented individuals are absolutely disgusting individuals, it’s often their talent/ charisma which very often allows them to get away with being morally reprehensible in the first place. Money will always have a bigger pull than morals 9 times out of 10.

I don't really understand why people watch things like this tbh. Surely it's enough to read what happened, without needing it to be dramatised and turned into entertainment?

It wasn’t entertainment. It was more factual how easy it can be for a teen /child to be lured

There are lots of things we don't watch for actual fun, rather to learn more and to give us an understanding of how things happened. It is useful I think and surely will help parents to be on alert.

I found it appalling how he lived such a double life but so many people do.

It was well made and sensitively done but I found Clune's impersonation just too ott.

If the real HE is even a fraction as vile as his character in this dramatisation then I hope he rots in hell.

Poor ‘Ryan’.

Saw this last night and I thought that Martin Clunes was superb in this role. I personally didn’t think that it was too slow as all the dialogue was necessary to the plot.
Huw Edwards is a despicable man and I find it incredulous that he was only given a suspended sentence. He must have a lot of other dirt to dish out about others or is he possibly a Freemason?

As a mum to a 17yo boy, I found it quite scary how easy the boy got into it. I really felt for this mum.

It was a very hard watch, in my opinion.

certainly brought the perspective of ‘Ryan’ to life very well. I really felt for him.

his step father was painted as a horrible character, and his mum in many ways, controlled by him. I can’t imagine the step father to still be in his life and signing off on this? I felt sorry for his mum but also wanted her to stand up for her son more.

like a PP, I found it wrong that HE’s wife and kids weren’t shown more/at all. Although occasionally hearing his wife call ‘dinner’, It gave the impression he was a lone man, when actually he would have been with teens and his family when leading this hideous life.