Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards – This drama about Hateful Huw leaves us in no doubt about the depths of his evil, says CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

Power: The Fall of Huw Edwards (Channel 5) – FIVE STARS

Evaluation:

Huw Edwards was very disappointed.

We know this because the disgraced newsreader this week launched a broadcast on Channel 5 of a two-part drama depicting him as a sexual predator.

It is exhausting and deeply distressing to watch the unflinching hour and 50 minutes that chronicle how Edwards groomed and abused a defenseless young boy, repeatedly forcing him to commit depraved acts.

It also reveals Hateful Huw was still trying to contact his victim, months after he left the BBC, simply sending her a message saying: ‘Guess who?’

But Edwards, 64, wants us to know that he is the real victim.

In an exclusive statement to the Daily Mail on Monday, he complained about his “fragile state”, his “constant struggle with mental illness” and the “severity” of it.

Fearless hour and 50 minutes, which reveals how Edwards groomed and abused a vulnerable teenage boy (Image: Osian Morgan, who plays a boy called Ryan in the series)

This technique of deflecting criticism has worked for him before. No doubt he found this to be an effective and unanswerable excuse for most of his life.

But it won’t work anymore. Featuring a brutal performance by Martin Clunes, The Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards reveals this trick and many more the BBC pedophile used to manipulate everyone around him.

We see him control his victim by declaring his ‘disappointment’ at the smallest things to gain the upper hand.

Everyone around him is on guard for fear of making a wrong move; especially ‘Ryan Davies’, who was 17 when he met Edwards online.

Ryan is not the boy’s real name. But she, her mother, and her stepfather teamed up with the filmmakers to let us see how Edwards bombarded her with sickening text messages, demanding nude photos and striptease videos, as well as showering her with tons of money.

Every minute of it is horrific, and the worst parts are truly sickening. We’re used to seeing Edwards glaring at us from across the table, but what he’s doing while watching Ryan’s livestream video from his desk in his home study is indescribably disgusting.

Edwards protested this week, saying the series was ‘unlikely to reflect the reality of what happened’.

But this is only true if the script by Mark Burt is being cautious. Almost everything we see him do is morally despicable.

However, illegal actions such as downloading sexual images of children are only actions he accepts.

Nothing graphically suggestive is shown. For example, when Edwards takes Ryan to a hotel and takes him to the upstairs bedroom, when the door closes we are left outside.

Whether or not the show implies Edwards committed worse crimes is up to viewers.

A non-investigative journalist implies that the BBC was aware of numerous complaints against him for at least five years before he was suspended and subsequently allowed to resign.

I found a moment towards the end, where his career is ruined, particularly chilling.

In a phone conversation with Ryan, drunk on whiskey and self-pity, she implied that neither of them had much to live for. “I want to make it stop, baby,” she bleated.

We’re left to draw our own conclusions and consider that many of Edwards’ problems might have gone away if Ryan had taken his own life.

Clunes delivers a remarkable portrayal that captures the man’s body language, demeanor, and menace without falling into imitation.

Picture: Disgraced former BBC presenter Huw Edwards arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on September 16, 2024.

His Welsh accent (never a Clunes’ strong point) wavers at times, but his refusal to allow Edwards even a modicum of sympathy remains unwavering.

The actor was no less opinionated in interviews this week.

He told Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain yesterday: ‘I appreciate that he’s sorry we’re making this programme, but he would have reported on other meltdowns, other people’s disgraces, without a second thought.’

The story begins with Edwards, wearing a black tie in front of the camera, delivering news of the Queen’s death to the country in September 2022.

He returns several times to that day, the high point of his career, both to show how far he had fallen in the nation’s esteem and to contrast the reality of his seedy personal life with his professional image.

We see him surrounded by BBC sycophants, heaving praises and muttering: ‘Oh, I don’t know about that… I’m just doing my job.’

And we join him on his daily walk as he mentally prepares to project the right image by murmuring the mantra: ‘Heartbroken but tough.’

Those looks Edwards likes to see himself in are rare. The story is told mostly through the experiences of Ryan, played with intense sensitivity by Osian Morgan.

When we first meet Ryan, he is living on an estate in Cardiff with his depressed mother Carys (Sian Reese-Williams) and aggressive, insulting stepfather Mick (Jason Hughes).

Secretly gay and bitterly lonely, Ryan is stunned when a creepy acquaintance, Alex, puts him in touch with Edwards.

The kid has no idea that Alex is supplying the anchor with disgusting images of children, and it’s unclear how this porn purveyor knew Edwards would welcome meeting an emotionally needy teenager.

However, first message purchases result in a £500 gift.

Much more money arrives as the old man encourages his naive new friend to send him photos.

They talk and Edwards compliments her on looking younger than her age.

It quickly becomes clear that what Ryan desires much more than money is acceptance.

He needs the approval of a father figure; a longing that Edwards turns to his advantage by commanding the boy to call him ‘Daddy’.

His actual children (he has five) are never mentioned. We don’t see his wife, Vicky Flind, or even hear her voice off camera.

What we see is his cruelty. In her frequent phone calls with Ryan, sometimes late at night, when they are both in bed, she withdraws her prayers for the most trivial reasons. He can go from calling her ‘babe’ in one breath to scolding her for using slang or not sending suggestive photos.

His favorite weapon is ‘disappointment’. His scowl is so intense, so unrelenting (he was peering out of Ryan’s phone, just as he pinned the camera on News At Ten) that the boy will do anything asked of him to get his consent back.

The drama ends with a tricky twist: Edwards, sitting at the newsreader’s desk, announces his conviction for possessing obscene images of children, including one under the age of nine.

‘Despite the seriousness of my crimes,’ he adds smugly, ‘I was able to escape imprisonment and still remain free. And it’s all on me.’

It definitely is. This drama cannot portray the full depravity of the man who was once Britain’s most trusted broadcaster, but it leaves us in no doubt as to the depth of his evil.