Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards on Channel 5 stars Martin Clunes as disgraced BBC News presenter
From grumpy GP in Doc Martin to
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards is a brand new Channel 5 drama that is guaranteed to cause controversy when it lands on our screens later this year.
As the current working title of the two-part series suggests, it will dramatise the dramatic fall from grace of former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards.
Martin Clunes will portray the disgraced news anchor in what could possible be the most radical decision of his so-far rather safe career.
Here’s everything you need to know about Martin Clunes’ new role in Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, including plot, cast, and start date.
What is Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards?
Channel 5 has announced Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, which they describe as “a major, two-part factual drama” about the Huw Edwards scandal which shocked the nation in July 2023.
The upcoming series will “explore the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in television”. The drama will also explore 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.
Channel 5 tells us: “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, this unflinching drama paints a complex, emotional and nuanced portrait. It reveals 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.”
A year in the making, the project is the first collaboration between Channel 5’s factual and scripted commissioning teams. The series is directed by BAFTA and EMMY winning Michael Samuels, famous for his work on The Windermere Children, and Any Human Heart. Meanwhile, The Trial’s Mark Burt wrote the drama.
Who plays Huw Edwards in the new drama?
Martin Clunes will play Huw Edwards in the Channel 5 drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. And it’s certainly against type for the actor, famous for appearing in Doc Martin, Vanity Fair, and Warren. There’s a joke about Men Behaving Badly here somewhere, but it would be in bad taste to print it.
It’s not the first time Martin has portrayed a real life character either. Between 2019 and 2021, Martin played DCI Colin Sutton in the popular crime drama Manhunt.
His fans will soon be able to see him portray
Channel 5 has not yet confirmed who else will appear in the drama.
How many episodes is Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards?
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards will be two episodes long.
Channel 5 has not yet confirmed if the episodes will be feature length. There’s a lot to squeeze into two hours if not.
What happened to Huw Edwards?
In September 2022, Huw Edwards was one of Britain’s most-trusted newsreaders, chosen to deliver the most important news to the British public. To an audience of millions across the country, he made the historic declaration that Queen Elizabeth II had died.
But Edwards had a secret. Online, he was 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, repeatedly sent him messages containing child abuse imagery which he accessed, including so called ‘Category A’ images. Category A images are the most extreme.
In July 2023, Edward’s secrets started to unravel rapidly after a national newspaper reported that “a top BBC star” had paid a “teenager for sexual pictures”.
Separately, the police started to investigate Edwards’ online activity. The former newsreader subsequently pleaded guilty in court to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Those offences were separate from newspaper allegations that he paid a young person for explicit photos.
‘A man in a position of power and trust betrayed that status’
Talking about the drama, Ben Frow – Chief Content Officer at Channel 5 – said: “This is an important and shocking story. A 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.”
When is the start date of Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards on Channel 5?
Channel 5 has not yet revealed a start date for the upcoming drama, but we’re hoping it will arrive sometime in 2026.
Failing that, we may have to wait until 2027. Watch this space for more info as soon as we get it.
Read more: Channel 5 announce The Family Secret, a ‘gripping psychological drama’ about dark pasts
