Martin Clunes has shared the archive footage moment of disgraced BBC presenter Huw Edwards that left him with shivers in hindsight.
The actor, 64, is starring as Edwards, also 64, in a new Channel 5 factual drama about the downfall of the once-beloved flagship news host whose career at the national broadcaster spanned 40 years.
He was the face of some of the nation’s biggest new stories, most recently including Queen Elizabeth II’s death, until his arrest in September 2023 following months of speculation, after police discovered his WhatsApp correspondence with convicted paedophile Alex Williams.
Edwards was subsequently suspended by the BBC and ultimately resigned in April 2024.
In September 2024, he was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting to three counts of making indecent images of children, and was placed on the sex offender register.
Channel 5’s new dramatisation, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, is based on interviews with Ryan Davies, a pseudonym for the groomed teenager in contact with Edwards over WhatsApp, Instagram, and FaceTime.
Discussing how he prepared for the role, the Wuthering Heights star explained that he viewed archive footage of the former Welsh presenter outside of the newsroom ‘because we’ve seen that Huw Edwards’.
The Doc Martin’s star told The Times he watched ‘little snippets of him at awards ceremonies or when he was off duty, to see how he rolled. He’s a tiny bit more Welsh when he’s not reading the news.’
This led him to the discovery of one particularly noteworthy moment, as he explained.
‘One of the archive bits I watched was an outside broadcast. He’s outside Number 10 at night in a coat, and he’s just texting, waiting to go live, which I found chilling in light of what we know,’ he shared.
Clunes also reached out to former colleagues to get a sense of the impression he made on others.
‘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,’ he coyly noted.
The official synopsis for the show shares it will ‘investigate 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’.
A new trailer and first look photos have revealed just how fully Clunes has transformed into Edwards.
He’s joined on screen by Welsh actor, Osian Morgan, who plays the teenager at the centre of the original allegations.
Meanwhile, Ben Bishop will play The Sun’s news editor, Ben O’Driscoll and Claire Calbraith will play Editor Victoria Newton, who first broke the story that a BBC star had allegedly paid for sexually explicit photos from a young person.
Elsewhere, Chanel Cresswell from Trollied, Dirty Business, and This Is England will play reporter Scarlet Howes.
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards will air on March 24 at 9pm on Channel 5.
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