Barry Tomes offered to represent fallen newsreader Huw Edwards on a pro bono basis for seven days. After their second meeting, he knew he never wanted to work with him again
Having worked in the publicity business for 54 years, nothing much fazes Barry Tomes, who took on a seemingly impossible task earlier this year by choosing to represent disgraced newsreader Huw Edwards.
Now, the 70-year-old publicist has opened up about the moment he knew he wouldn’t be able to work for the former BBC star, and why he now won’t pick up the phone to him.
Over his lengthy career, Tomes has represented a number of high-profile clients, from Lulu to The Beach Boys. In recent years, he’s carved out a niche by attracting more ‘outrageous’ talent. This includes Deirdre ‘White Dee’ Kelly, who rose to fame on the highly controversial 2014 Channel 4 doc Benefits Street, which followed the lives of claimants in Birmingham’s Winson Green area.
Other clients include Andrew Wardle, who, due to a rare condition, was born without a penis. In 2018, Andrew, who has spoken openly about his struggles, underwent a £50,000 genital reconstruction surgery, which fitted him with a penile mechanical implant.
Barry was the one who approached Edwards, around one year before the Channel 5 drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards was released. As explained to The Mirror, he did so because he was pulling together a case study about mental illness.
Having sadly lost his grandfather to suicide, as well as friends and colleagues in the music industry, Barry was left with unanswered questions.
He previously started a podcast called Medical Protocols, which connects him with doctors and specialists, where he explores health conditions. In the future, he intends to film a documentary but says this has been a “long process”, and that, for a while, he was sidetracked by “the Edwards storm.”
Speaking with the Mirror, he pondered: “Are there different forms of it? What does it create? If you have a bang on the head, I know if you have a stroke, it can change things.
“One of [the case studies] was about paedophiles. Having worked with Gary Glitter years ago, I thought he was a great guy – and of course I’m horrified by him now – but I didn’t understand why these people went down that route.”
Mental health has been an important part of the conversation surrounding Edwards’ crimes. In March, the veteran broadcaster expressed fury over docudrama Power, claiming production company Wonderhood “made no attempt” to contact him.
He also announced plans to share his own version of events in a statement at the time, asserting: “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. I 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.”
The sentencing report notes that Edwards has arteriosclerosis, a degenerative neurocognitive disorder which results in the hardening and furring of the arteries, and is associated with behavioural disturbance. The judge considered this condition during sentencing.
While Barry was able to get a direct line for Edwards, the formerly lauded presenter didn’t return his calls straight away. Then, about a week before the docudrama aired, Barry received a text message while working in Hong Kong. Edwards wanted to speak with him.
Barry remembered: “He called me at midnight, introduced himself, perfectly polite, and he said, I’d really like to meet with you. Now, I assume that was because he knew three days later the docudrama was coming out and he’d obviously got very nervous. He hadn’t spoken to any of the press; he hadn’t spoken to anybody.”
By this point, Edwards’ once stellar reputation was in tatters. In 2024, Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. He was then handed a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, with another charge of accessing 41 images of children. Seven of those images were classified category A, the most serious category, while two showed victims between the ages of seven and nine years old.
It was a case few publicists would dare to take on. After making the 18-hour journey back to the UK, Barry met with Edwards “somewhere in the south of England”. Remembering the moment the former broadcasting giant approached him, Barry recalled: “As he walked towards me, I’m like, ‘that’s the man off the telly, that’s the Huw Edwards that I know’. He doesn’t look like he’s put on a load of weight; that’s the man. We spoke, we shook hands, very courteous, very polite, very grateful for me seeing him.”
Before moving ahead with anything, Barry knew he had to make one thing crystal clear, asking him: “‘Do you want to be back in the media?’ No. Okay, that’s good because that’s not why I’m here. I’m here about the mental health, and I want to talk to you about that in depth at some point.”
This was a matter of days before Power aired, and Barry knew all too well that public attention was about to go “nuclear”. Edwards needed no reminding of this.
Picking up on Edwards’ “anxious” state, Barry says he knew it wasn’t the time to pursue the mental health avenue. He remarked, “Whether you like him or not, he is a human being, and he was very anxious. As a duty of care, I didn’t want to push anything.”
Barry also made it clear to Edwards that no money would be exchanged, claiming he’d only agreed to work for the former newsreader for one week on a pro bono basis. Those seven days proved eventful, however, with Barry representing Edwards on various high-profile platforms, including Good Morning Britain.
While some might have struggled with the backlash of supporting such a controversial figure, battle-worn Barry didn’t let criticism or the various “abusive texts” drag him down. He had reportedly arranged to meet with Edwards seven days after their initial meet-up, but the ex-broadcaster was unable to follow through with their plans.
It would allegedly be three full days later that Edwards was finally able to meet, at the same place as that first introduction. This time around, however, Barry saw a side to Edwards that he claims made him uneasy, and, crucially, unlikely to ever work with him again.
In the ten days since the two men had first shaken hands, Barry had counted some 310 articles about Edwards, and claims as many as 11 TV offers rolled in. While Edwards was keen to give his account of things, Barry was conscious that his one-time client was still serving out his sentence. In his view, this move would only lead to more damage.
Furthermore, as Barry observed, in his opinion, Edwards allegedly showed little regret for others over what he’d done. He explained: “I decided that second time, there’s no way I’m going to represent. I didn’t see regret. Only for regret, my life’s over. I didn’t see regret for the people.”
He continued: “I have had a saying for years and years. I don’t believe you should say sorry; I think you should show it, and I don’t think he’s shown sorry. He said it, or some spokesperson said it in court. I don’t think he said it enough.”
The pair walked away from each other that day, and haven’t seen each other since. Barry has confirmed he no longer represents Edwards, whom he regards as “ill-advised”. While he might still accept a call from a close friend of Edwards, who acts as a third party, he does not speak with him directly.
In the two years since his downfall, Edwards’ once extraordinarily successful life appears virtually unrecognisable. He’s swapped the fast-paced BBC studio for seclusion in Wales, but despite everything, he’s still fighting to have his voice heard through his new Substack.
It’s a venture Barry strongly disapproves of, and he initially thought somebody was “having a joke” when he realised that posts had gone live. Barry predicted: “He’s digging a hole for himself. I think he’s going to come out of the Substacking much worse.”
He continued: “I have said to him: nobody actually cares about your opinion about the new Prime Minister. Nobody actually cares about your opinion about French politics or about the history of Wales. You’ve committed the worst crime.”
In a recent post, Edwards took a philosophical view as he reflected on themes of hatred and truth, writing: “It is the failure to separate the crime from the perpetrator which fuels mindless hatred — a hatred which impedes society’s ability to understand why some people behave in ways that are destructive and shameful.”
Barry remarked, “He’s got that wrong. They don’t hate him; they hate what he did.” While he abhors what Edwards has done, regarding paedophilia as “worse than murder”, he still believes he should “have his say”, waiting for a good three years to write the book he is reportedly intent on writing, at a time when his mind is clearer.
This book should not be thought of as a way back to Edwards’ glory days, however. As Barry put it: “He’s a very religious man by all accounts, I think he should have his say if that will make him feel better as a human being, but then should go off and work in the church anonymously. That’s my opinion.”
A humble life of prayer might well be a shock to the system for someone like Edwards, who has forged a name for himself in the spotlight. Barry pondered: “If I’m honest, I think I’m right in saying that I believe he doesn’t want to go back to broadcasting and get his TV job back, but he misses the limelight. I’ve worked with celebrities since I was 17 years old. I know the ones that want the limelight, and I know the ones that don’t. And he does.”
Reflecting on whether he believes Edwards feels remorse, Barry clarified: “I felt, in my honest opinion, while I was talking to him, he didn’t show regret for what had happened. He said he’d been sorry for it. Now, it wasn’t a question I asked; I didn’t say, ‘Do you regret this?’ But I didn’t see it.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his mind, obviously, and he may well have apologised a thousand times, but I’ve not been in touch with him before. Certainly, during that second meeting with him, I thought, in my honest opinion, that he would have said something, like, ‘I really regret doing this, I regret it happening’.
“I’ve read his latest Substack, and he does say he’s shown a lot of remorse, and he regrets it. I was merely referring to my personal opinion of when I was in a meeting with him alone.”
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