{"id":900090,"date":"2026-04-18T15:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/first-look-at-grooming-scenes-in-huw-edwards-drama-with-martin-clunes\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:16:17","slug":"first-look-at-grooming-scenes-in-huw-edwards-drama-with-martin-clunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/first-look-at-grooming-scenes-in-huw-edwards-drama-with-martin-clunes\/","title":{"rendered":"First look at grooming scenes in Huw Edwards drama with Martin Clunes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"js-article-text\">\n<ul>\n<li class><strong>Have YOU got a story? Email <span \n                data-original-string='G4aleKFWM65kfKn4x0fpMw==7f4Tm60omNcqBD\/61GbeMgFzwbLC3hMv5L+68ABrc8fEGA='\n                class='apbct-email-encoder'\n                title='This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.'>ti<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**<\/span>@<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**********<\/span>co.uk<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class><strong>Not sure what to watch tonight? Discover our brand new <a target=\"_self\" class href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tv\/tv-guide\/index.html\">TV GUIDE<\/a>\u00a0now!\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-4802\/conor-obrien.html\">CONOR O&#8217;BRIEN, TV REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><span> <span>Published:<\/span> <time datetime=\"2026-03-11T16:49:52+0000\"> 12:49 EDT, 11 March 2026 <\/time> <\/span> | <span> <span>Updated:<\/span> <time datetime=\"2026-03-12T09:29:41+0000\"> 05:29 EDT, 12 March 2026 <\/time> <\/span> <\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/channel-5\/index.html\" id=\"mol-4472fea0-1d67-11f1-89f5-c9db95f5a392\">Channel 5<\/a>&#8216;s scandalous new docudrama about\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" class href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/huw-edwards\/index.html\" id=\"mol-44283a00-1d67-11f1-89f5-c9db95f5a392\">Huw Edwards<\/a>\u00a0has released a first look at its grooming scenes\u00a0\u2013 depicting the disgraced former <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/bbc\/index.html\" id=\"mol-d225d010-1d62-11f1-89f5-c9db95f5a392\">BBC<\/a>\u00a0newsreader curled up in bed.<\/p>\n<p>Under the working title Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, the docudrama stars <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/martin-clunes\/index.html\" id=\"mol-0404d770-1d63-11f1-89f5-c9db95f5a392\">Martin Clunes<\/a>\u00a0as Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>It will follow the real-life story of how the former BBC news presenter became the centre of a grooming scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards, who presented the BBC&#8217;s News at Ten for decades and broke some of the biggest stories including the death of Queen Elizabeth II, pled guilty to making indecent images of children in July 2024.<\/p>\n<p>New pictures from the drama show Martin, 64, in character to portray the grooming scenes.<\/p>\n<p>One shot depicts Edwards curled up on his bed while on the phone to a teenage victim.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An upcoming docudrama starring Martin Clunes as Huw Edwards has released a first look at its grooming scenes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>It will follow the real-life story of how the former BBC news presenter became the centre of a grooming scandal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, another shows the same teenage boy on the phone to Edwards while out and about.<\/p>\n<p>Channel 5 teased of the series: &#8216;The drama explores the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in television\u00a0\u2013 Huw Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Starring Martin Clunes as Edwards, the series explores the newsreader\u2019s double life as it spirals out of control, leading him to make the greatest announcement of his career \u2013 his total exit from public life following his conviction for serious child sexual offences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Edwards had a secret. Online, he was repeatedly soliciting explicit sexual photos from young men, and in particular grooming a vulnerable 17-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He had also struck up a separate online friendship with a man who, from December 2020 to August 2021, repeatedly sent him messages containing child abuse imagery which he accessed, including so called \u2018Category A\u2019 images\u00a0\u2013 the most extreme.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>An earlier first look at the programme, which is directed by BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Michael Samuels, <a target=\"_self\" class href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tv\/article-15616797\/martin-clunes-huw-edwards-drama.html\">saw the Doc Martin actor transformed into Edwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Seen putting in an earpiece as he prepares for broadcast in a TV studio, Martin stared down the lens of the camera in the ten-second clip.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Edwards (played here by Martin Clunes), who earned \u00a3475,000 a year at the corporation, secretly groomed a vulnerable 17-year-old boy while working as Britain\u2019s most respected newsreader<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Channel 5 previously teased of the series: &#8216;The drama explores the story of how a vulnerable 17-year-old was groomed by one of the most powerful figures in television \u2013 Huw Edwards&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8216;Martin Clunes stars as in Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, coming soon to 5,&#8217; a voiceover rung out over the dramatic shot.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards, who earned \u00a3475,000 a year at the corporation, secretly groomed a vulnerable 17-year-old boy while working as Britain\u2019s most respected newsreader.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards, 64, was suspended by the BBC in July 2023 and was later convicted of making indecent images of children for which he received a six-month suspended sentence in September 2024.<\/p>\n<div data-channel-color=\"home\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tv\/tv-guide\/index.html\"><br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2025\/09\/24\/308_Desktop.png\" width=\"308px\"><br \/>\n<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a target=\"_self\" class href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tv\/article-15446425\/bbc-boss-warning-huw-edwards-drama.html\">a former BBC boss issued Channel 5 a stern warning<\/a>, speculating that their new drama about Edwards &#8216;will rapidly run into legal problems&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Roger Mosey, who previously headed up BBC TV News, admitted he felt the series was &#8216;very risky&#8217;\u00a0\u2013 instead noting a &#8216;documentary approach&#8217; would have been safer.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Times Radio, Roger, 68, who left the broadcaster in 2013 to become Master of <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/cambridge\/index.html\" id=\"mol-8fb21fa0-ecb0-11f0-baa8-090da8352bb6\" class>Cambridge<\/a>&#8216;s Selwyn College, told radio hosts <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/jane-garvey\/index.html\" id=\"mol-8f9ff730-ecb0-11f0-baa8-090da8352bb6\">Jane Garvey<\/a> and Fi Glover that a drama would not have been his &#8216;preferred route&#8217; of looking at the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;Dramas involving living people are always very risky. A documentary approach seems to me to be completely legitimate and right and you should have the right to investigate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But as we saw, you remember <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/steve-coogan\/index.html\" id=\"mol-8fa9e240-ecb0-11f0-baa8-090da8352bb6\">Steve Coogan<\/a>&#8216;s film made about Richard III&#8230; once you start doing a narrative in a movie of good guys and bad guys and who did it, you can run into legal problems really very, very rapidly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Drama would not be my preferred route of looking at this.&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>            <ad-slot position=\"smart_feed\"><\/ad-slot><\/p>\n<p>            <ad-slot position=\"after_article\"><\/ad-slot><\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tv\/article-15636263\/first-look-grooming-scenes-huw-edwards-martin-clunes.html?ns_mchannel=rss&#038;ito=1490&#038;ns_campaign=1490\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have YOU got a story? Email <span \n                data-original-string='xKhLP2xvT0N+FwUgX1Xrrw==7f4xNeXWB\/uWdGfw0IX\/M4\/DVocdGa02Y8D+IyGjG5Y5jw='\n                class='apbct-email-encoder'\n                title='This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.'>ti<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**<\/span>@<span class=\"apbct-blur\">**********<\/span>co.uk<\/span>\u00a0 Not sure what to watch tonight? Discover our brand new TV GUIDE\u00a0now!\u00a0 By CONOR O&#8217;BRIEN, TV REPORTER Published: 12:49 EDT, 11 March 2026 | Updated: 05:29 EDT, 12 March 2026 Channel 5&#8217;s scandalous new docudrama about\u00a0Huw Edwards\u00a0has released a first look at its grooming scenes\u00a0\u2013 depicting the disgraced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[673,56050],"tags":[5719,8823],"class_list":{"0":"post-900090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-first","8":"category-grooming","9":"tag-first","10":"tag-grooming"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}