{"id":357886,"date":"2026-01-07T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357886\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:10:07","slug":"former-bbc-presenter-huw-edwards-to-be-played-by-martin-clunes-in-new-drama-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/357886\/","title":{"rendered":"Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards to be played by Martin Clunes in new drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doc Martin star Martin Clunes will portray former BBC presenter Huw Edwards in a new drama.<\/p>\n

The two-part factual series, provisionally titled Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, will recount how one of the most recognisable figures in British television became the centre of a high-profile scandal which saw him receive a suspended jail sentence.<\/p>\n

Edwards, whose career started in Wales<\/a> before he became one of the public broadcaster’s highest-paid newsreaders, presented BBC’s News at Ten for decades. <\/p>\n

In that time he delivered some of the biggest stories in British recent history including Queen Elizabeth II’s death, before pleading guilty to making indecent images of children in July 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n

Clunes will portray the Bridgend-born newsreader in the series by television channel 5, which says it will recount how the scandal unfolded and feature interviews from those who first reported the story.<\/p>\n

Ben Frow, chief content officer at 5, said: “This is an important and shocking story of how a man in a position of power and trust betrayed that status.<\/p>\n

“By gaining exclusive access to the key individuals involved and those who investigated the story, we explore the human cost behind the headlines.”<\/p>\n

Edward’s career ended in disgrace after a report by the Sun in July 2023 alleged a “top BBC Star” had paid a teenager for sexual pictures.<\/p>\n

Days later, his wife named him as the presenter at the centre of the scandal and the newsreader resigned in April. <\/p>\n

In June 2024, following a Met Police investigation, he was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children in relation to WhatsApp exchanges with a man called Alex Williams.<\/p>\n

Edwards pleaded guilty to the charges a month later, and admitted to having 41 photographs on WhatsApp, including seven of the most serious type.<\/p>\n

He was given a six-month prison sentence<\/a>, suspended for two years, and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.<\/p>\n

The new series will be directed by Michael Samuels, known for British dramas The Windermere Children and Any Human Heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doc Martin star Martin Clunes will portray former BBC presenter Huw Edwards in a new drama. The two-part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-357886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}