The actor is horribly convincing in this ripped-from-the-headlines drama about the newsreader’s grooming scandal. You might not even be able to stomach it
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hen future generations look back at all the trends and micro-trends that shaped television over the years, you have to assume they’ll be quite surprised when they arrive at the glut of dramatisations that have been made about famous men caught up in sex scandals.
Suddenly they are everywhere. Jimmy Savile got one, with Steve Coogan playing him in The Reckoning. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor got two, with Michael Sheen and Rufus Sewell playing him in A Very Royal Scandal and Scoop respectively. And now, with almost crushing inevitability, comes the turn of Huw Edwards, the subject of Channel 5’s Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards.
Edwards is, of course, the high-profile BBC newsreader who resigned from the BBC in 2024, two months before he was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children. Despite pleading guilty, Edwards remains on the defensive to this day, releasing a statement prior to the broadcast of this film asserting that “Channel 5’s ‘factual drama’ is hardly likely to convey the reality of what happened,” while adding: “I am repelled by the idea that some people enjoy viewing indecent images of children.”
