A two-part drama about the undoing of disgraced BBC News presenter Huw Edwards is on the way from 5, formerly Channel 5.
Doc Martin star Martin Clunes will play Edwards in Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards (w/t), directed by the BAFTA-winning Michael Samuels and written by Mark Burt (The Trial). The show is set to explore the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in British television.
A year in the making, the project is the first collaboration between 5’s factual and scripted commissioning teams, and the first-ever major dramatization of the scandal.
Edwards was once regarded as one of the U.K.’s most trusted newsreaders and a staple of broadcasting, having headlined landmark BBC coverage on Queen Elizabeth II’s death and the London Olympics in 2012 — until news broke that rocked the country.
In 2024, he was convicted for serious child sexual offences and exited public life entirely. It had come to light that the presenter, married and with children, was repeatedly soliciting explicit sexual photos from young men, and in particular grooming a vulnerable 17-year-old. He had also struck up a separate online friendship with a man who, from December 2020 to August 2021, sent him messages containing child abuse imagery which Edwards accessed, including Category A images, considered the most extreme.
Edwards pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children in a London court and was handed a six-month suspended sentence.
“Building on extensive factual research over the past 12 months, including extensive first hand interviews and co-operation from those at the heart of the scandal and exclusive access to The Sun newspaper’s award-winning investigation into Edwards, this unflinching drama paints a complex, emotional and nuanced portrait,” said 5, “revealing how the grooming of a vulnerable 17-year old over many months led to Edwards’ downfall, disgrace and the end of his life in the public eye.”
Chief content officer at 5, Ben Frow, said: “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 and those who investigated the story, we explore the human cost behind the headlines. As a close collaboration between 5’s factual and scripted teams this is a first for the channel.”
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards is a Wonderhood Studios production commissioned by Guy Davies (consultant editor for commissioning, 5) and Paul Testar (commissioning editor, scripted, 5) and co-produced with programme financiers Krempelwood.
The producer is Angie Daniell, the casting director is Jenny Duffy, the factual producer is Louise Kentleton and director of production is Lianne Hickey. EPs are Samantha Anstiss and Tom Garton.
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