Ahead of the new Channel 5 drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, the Mirror takes a look at the reduced life of the once-trusted broadcaster, who experts say appears to be leaning into a victimhood narrative
Once one of the most respected names at the BBC, Huw Edwards’ life has taken a sharp nosedive in recent times.
A new Channel 5 drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, is set to focus on the downfall that shocked the country tonight. Airing at 9pm on March 24, it stars Martin Clunes in the role of Edwards, and will “explore the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in television”, while also tracking how the news anchor’s life unravelled at breakneck pace as alarming revelations came to light.
On the eve of the two-part programme, described as “a major, factual drama”, registered sex offender Edwards, 64, released an explosive statement, claiming that the production company Wonderhood “made no attempt” to contact him and announcing plans to share his own version of events.
READ MORE: Huw Edwards breaks silence on damning Channel 5 drama with explosive statement
In a statement issued to the Mail Online, father of five Edwards claimed: “I am making an effort to produce my own account of these terrible events. This is a slow process, given the fragile state of my health. have been open about my struggle with persistent mental illness over a period of 25 years.
“What is less well known is the severity of that condition, which was managed successfully until the downward spiral which led to an appalling outcome. Mental illness is misunderstood by many, but can never be an excuse for criminality. It can, however, at least help explain why people sometimes behave in shocking and reprehensible ways, and why things fell apart for me in the way they did.”
A Channel 5 spokesperson has asserted that Power is “based on extensive interviews with the victim, his family, the journalists who revealed his story, text exchanges between the victim and Edwards, and court reporting.” They added: “It has been produced in accordance with Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. All allegations made in the film were put to Huw Edwards via his solicitors six weeks before transmission.”
The Huw Edwards of 2026 appears to be a very different man from the one members of the public felt they knew just a few years ago. A familiar face among BBC viewers, Edwards broke the news on so many huge events in British history, including the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022. Nowadays, this once-trusted public figure is a shell of his former self, his career, marriage, and decades-long reputation in tatters.
Grim downfall
It was the summer of 2023 when Edwards’ secret life began to come to light. The Sun claimed that an unnamed “top BBC star” presenter paid tens of thousands of pounds for explicit photos. Addressing speculation, Edwards’ wife of 30 years, Vicky Flind, named him as the presenter at the centre of the scandal, telling of how her husband was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and receiving inpatient care.
In November that same year, Edwards was arrested in connection with alleged indecent images of children shared on a WhatsApp chat. It was not until the following April that the arrest was made public. It was later revealed that, after Edwards’ phone was seized, his WhatsApp exchanges with convicted paedophile Alex Williams, who, between the years 2018 and 2021, sent him indecent images of children, came to light. These messages included two videos of a boy believed to be between the ages of seven and nine years old.
Edwards resigned from the BBC that same month and was charged in June 2024 following a Metropolitan Police investigation. Then, in September 2024, the Welshman was sentenced to a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to three charges of making seven Category A indecent images of children – the worst type – as well as 12 Category B, and 22 Category C images.
He was also put on the sex offender register for seven years. This means he will have to keep the police informed of his whereabouts, making foreign travel difficult.
Crumbled career
At the time of his arrest, Edwards had been one of the Beeb’s top earners, raking in a salary of between £475,000 and £479,999 in the year 2023/24. He continued to be paid by the BBC until his resignation five months later, and it appears he hasn’t repaid the £200,000 he earned during that period as per the broadcaster’s request, despite numerous phone calls.
Back in March 2025, BBC Chairman Samir Shah told Times Radio: “We’ve been asking him and asking him and asking him. We’re getting legal advice on it”, adding: “If Huw is listening, give it back. Just give it back”.
At his peak, it’s estimated Edwards was worth as much as £3.8 million, enjoying lucrative book and documentary deals, plus high-profile gigs presenting top awards shows, topping up his enviable BBC salary. It’s unlikely he’ll ever reach such dizzying heights again. Addressing the Royal Television Society (RTS) London conference the month of his conviction, BBC director-general Tim Davie stated that he “can’t see” Edwards working for the corporation ever again.
In terms of re-establishing himself in a different field, Edwards faces significant challenges. Outlining the employment obstacles Edwards faces as a registered sex offender, Chartered Security Professional James Bore explained: “Anything involving contact with children as part of the role requires a CRB check, and he will fail any of these.
“For any other role involving a CRB, it will be up to the organisation to decide whether or not it would affect his work. Any job without a CRB check won’t be informed, but given he is well known, it’s likely that the impact on any potential work will be much, much greater than just roles that involve a CRB check as part of their recruitment process.”
Marriage in shreds
While Edwards continued to wear his wedding ring throughout his court case, it’s understood that he and Vicky communicate solely through their lawyers nowadays. In October 2024, Vicky reportedly filed for divorce, with their marriage of 30 years in shreds. Edwards is now said to have moved out of his family home in Dulwich, south London, after the reported separation. The couple, who share three sons and two daughters, have not yet officially divorced.
A source told The Sun: “They separated quite a long time ago but have not announced it publicly. Huw has been living elsewhere for a while.” The former couple met while Huw was working as a BBC correspondent in Westminster, announcing their engagement in 1993. Vicky has also carved out a career in television, previously serving as editor of the BBC’s This Week before moving to ITV’s rival politics show Peston. She also worked on Britain’s Next Prime Minister.
Having left the six-bedroom family home, which was put on the market for £4.75 million as part of the divorce proceedings, it’s understood Edwards now leads a reclusive life in South Wales, where he is said to be staying at his elderly mother’s bungalow.
Rare sightings and ‘spluttering’
While Edwards was once an instantly recognisable face in living rooms up and down the country, sightings of the former newsreader are now few and far between, and paint a gloomy picture of the once lauded broadcaster. On his birthday in August 2025, Edwards looked very different,clutching three mini bottles of prosecco while returning to his car after a brief shopping outing in Swansea. He could be sporting grey stubble, in a very different look to the clean-cut image he once presented.
Meanwhile, snaps taken earlier that same year showed a frowning Edwards puffing away on a vape. Speaking to The Sun at the time, an onlooker remarked: “He looked a shadow of his former, super-confident self — but there was no mistaking it was him. He was vaping, coughing, and spluttering a bit, and didn’t look in the best shape. But he was lucky to be enjoying his freedom when most people think he should have been jailed for what he did.”
Confronting drama
Edwards has made his feelings over the new Channel 5 drama clear, telling the Mail:“[They] made no attempt to check with me the truth of any aspect of their narrative before going ahead with the production.” He continued: “They belatedly asked for a response after the drama had been made, while reserving the right to edit any such response. They also refused to disclose whether any of those making allegations had been paid for their contributions. Channel 5’s ‘factual drama’ is hardly likely to convey the reality of what happened.”
A preview, seen by the Mirror last week, sees Martin Clunes, as Edwards, pleasuring himself during one shocking scene. The drama also depicts how the young victim was paid “tens of thousands” of pounds by Edwards, over the course of several years, to send pictures and videos of himself, for the purposes of sexual gratification.
While the majority of these messages were deleted, upon Edwards’ instruction, some remained on the boy’s mother’s phone, which she screenshotted as proof. One such message sees Edwards telling ‘Ryan’: “I love you, but you kill me.”
At the beginning of the drama, written by Mark Burt, viewers are informed that the narrative is based on extensive interviews and research, with the clarification that “some scenes, characters and text messages have been dramatised.” Asserting that the victim had full control of the process, Burt stated: “It was his story, and he had access to it at every single point. He read the scripts.”
Discussing his transformation into Edwards, Clunes shared how he’d chatted off the record to former BBC colleagues, telling The Guardian: “I spoke to a number of people who had come across him in a professional capacity. And they said a variety of things – I’m not going to badmouth him – but let’s put it this way: no one said he was fun.”
Reflecting on how Edwards might regard the dramatisation, Clunes said: “Well, I don’t think he’d like it. But I mean, he shouldn’t watch it, should he? And he would have happily reported on other people committing similar crimes, so that aspect doesn’t worry me. There’s no way back for him. People get forgiven for cheating on their wives and bit of tax evasion. But, this one, I don’t think you do come back. I don’t think we’ll get a second series.”
‘Victimhood’ mindset
Speaking with the Mirror, body language expert Judi James offered her analysis of Edwards’s recent statement, which she believes reveals a “desire for sympathy or pity for himself”. Judi told us: The third and fourth paragraphs seem to suggest victimhood and vulnerability, with what seems to be a desire for sympathy or pity for himself.
“The repeated use of ‘they’ in the first paragraph adds to the sense of indignance as it aims the comments rather than just saying ‘I wasn’t involved’. So we get an accusatory sounding ‘They belatedly asked…’ ‘They also refused…’ or they ‘made no attempt’. This choice of words makes it read as though Edwards assumes or feels he had rights in this process. The use of quotation marks around ‘factual drama’ seem applied to throw doubt on that description. The tone here suggests a state of authority.
“The second paragraph sees a change of tone with words like ‘deep regret and remorse’, ‘reprehensible actions’ and ‘sincere and profound apologies’. This is a very stand-alone sounding apology that comes after the initial complaints, when it perhaps might have come first to lend a different tone to the whole statement. There is also the add-on of how this regret and remorse was already ‘expressed in court’ and the reference to ‘some people’ who enjoy these images, that makes the tone rather less personal in parts.”
As noted by Judi, there also seems to be hints on the part of Edwards that he intends to tell his own story in his own words, although details remain vague at present. She continued: “The next paragraph begins with a striking statement: ‘I am making an effort to produce my own account of these terrible events’, which could be rather oddly read as a plug for a new book or ‘My Truth’- style documentary.”
“This is where he describes himself as a victim, referring to his own ‘fragile state of my health’ ‘my struggle’ and his ‘downward spiral’ and his ‘persistent mental illness over a period of 25 years’ The generalization is there again when he refers to ‘why people sometimes behave in shocking and reprehensible ways’ rather than choosing to personalizing the statement with an ‘I’. He even finishes with the phrase ‘why things fell apart for me….’ which again suggests he believes he is a victim here.”
Degenerative disease
The sentencing report highlights that Edwards has arteriosclerosis, a degenerative neurocognitive disorder which results in the hardening and furring of the arteries. The judge took this condition into consideration during sentencing. Michael Isaac, a consultant psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist, gave the following conclusion in the pre-sentence report: Additionally, he has been diagnosed with small vessel disease (arteriosclerosis), which is described as a cognitive disorder with behavioural disturbance.
“The qualifier ‘with behavioural disturbance’ reflects changes in Mr Edwards’ behaviour, but in my view, fed into his overall judgment and capacity to make decisions, mainly because of the development of his mood disorder, but compounded by the presence of the neurocognitive disorder, from 2018 and well established by the material time at the end of 2020. This condition will have reduced Mr Edwards’ cognitive reserve, rendering him more vulnerable to the adverse cognitive effects of alcohol.”
The doctor continued: “Since approximately 2018, both of these conditions (neurocognitive disorder and mood disorder) are more likely than not to have impaired Mr Edwards’ decision-making and judgment, including his ability to comply with management instructions, reducing his normal inhibition and becoming ‘stuck’ in behaviours, such as obsessive messaging, whether appropriate or not, but at the same time detached from his communication, in that he would either forget what he had said or do so on a kind of ‘autopilot,’ without any real judgment of how such communications might be perceived or his actions impact on others.”
Publicist’s fight to ‘rebuild’ career
While Edwards may now be an outcast in many of his old media circles, he does at least have one powerful ally in showbiz publicist Barry Tomes, whose previous clients include the likes of Lulu, The Saturdays, and The Beach Boys, as well as reality star White Dee, of Benefits Street fame.
In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Tomes spoke about his determination to help Edwards rebuild his own stellar career, explaining, “I approached Huw. A lot of the public wants to find out how someone ended up doing what he did. People want to know why he did it. People say, ‘How did someone with such an amazing life come to do these things?’ I don’t have the answer to that, but I would like to find it out. I believe the public want to know that. That’s what is driving me.” He added: “I asked Huw if he intends to speak out in the long-term and he said yes. There are no imminent plans to do anything.”
The 70-year-old veteran publicist knows all too well that representing Edwards will undoubtedly throw fierce criticism his own way, but he’s prepared to accept such a daunting challenge. He’s also under no illusion as to the enormous obstacles Edwards now faces, and anticipates a long road ahead. According to Tomes, “He’s got a lot of rebuilding to do with his family and friends. All that takes time. His main focus at the moment is looking after his elderly mother. When he chooses to do something in the public eye, he has to be ready mentally.”
You can catch Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards at 9pm on March 24, on Channel 5.
Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com
READ MORE: Huw Edwards drama – everything we know as former BBC star ‘in hiding’
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