Last night saw the airing of the highly-anticipated drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, which portrayed a fictionalised version of Huw Edwards' fall from grace, and viewers are all saying the same thing about Martin Clunes' performance as the disgraced newsreader.
Clunes, 64, leads the drama series as he portrays a dramatised version of Huw Edwards, the former BBC news presenter who was convicted of making indecent images of children in 2024. The Channel 5 drama centres on Edwards' "double life" as a well known face on British television, and what was going on behind the cameras.
As the episode was airing many viewers of the show took to social media to praise Martin Clunes' performance as Edwards. Many of them praised just how well Clunes embodied the role of Edwards and how skilled he was that the performance became "unnerving."
One viewer said of Martin: "Martin Clunes is a very fine actor, but tonight he was unnerving as news reader Huw Edwards. In fact, he was so good he was repellent. There were quite a few sequences hard to take."
Another said: "Actor Martin Clunes is playing the Newsreader Huw Edwards soo well it's quite Scary and really dark." And another praised him saying, "Martin Clunes is delivering a performance that makes the skin crawl. Absolute tour de force."
Ahead of the release of the show Martin revealed he watched old news clips of Edwards to get an understanding for playing the character.
"I was familiar with Huw Edwards, the newsreader, and how he presented himself when he was reading the news," he explained. "But I've seen other actors make the mistake of just inhabiting that projected face of a famous person or politician – I knew that we needed the other side of him too.
"Finding archive clips of Edwards away from the news was less easy, but I wanted to make sure I did."
Just before last night's release the real Huw Edwards hit out at the Channel 5 programme, telling the Daily Mail, "they [Channel 5] made no attempt to check with me the truth of any aspect of their narrative before going ahead with the production."
He added: "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."
In response Channel 5 told the publication Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards was 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. 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."
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards is available on Channel 5 now
