Channel 5 has defended its (*5*) in regards to the downfall of Huw Edwards, saying it raises the “urgent” subject of grooming and on-line security and gives voice to his alleged victim, who labored with the programme to inform his aspect of the story so “no one who has been silenced feels they are alone”.
Starring Martin Clunes because the disgraced former BBC newsreader, the drama charts the declare of a relationship and texts between Edwards and a susceptible younger man who was on the centre of a scandal reported by the Sun in 2023, which alleged the presenter made funds to a 17-year-old for sexually express photos.
Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards contains an onscreen message from the alleged victim on the finish of the programme by which says he hopes his story will assist others who really feel powerless.
Given the title “Ryan Davies” to defend his id, he labored with producers on the scripts and says in his message: “I chose to tell my story now for the first time so that no one who has been silenced feels they are alone. Your truth matters and it deserves to be heard.”
Now aged 23, Ryan provides: “After years of struggle, I have finally overcome my battle with drugs. I refuse to let Huw Edwards or what he did define who I am or the life I will yet lead.”
The fall from grace of the BBC’s main information presenter, who was the face of its protection of main occasions together with the loss of life of Queen Elizabeth II, is proven after the Sun reported that “a top BBC star” had paid a “teenager for sexual pictures”.
The programme additionally paperwork how Edwards struck up a separate on-line friendship with a person known as Alex Williams, who between 2020 and 2021 despatched him messages containing baby abuse imagery that he accessed. It led to Edwards’s conviction in 2024 for accessing indecent photos of youngsters as younger as seven, for which he was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
Speaking at a screening of the drama in London, producers stated studying the texts Edwards despatched to the younger man was like “going into the heart of darkness” of a “disturbing” and “very imbalanced relationship”.
The government producer Sam Anstiss, whose firm Wonderhood Studios made the programme, stated: “People have talked about the timing of this drama and I would say the timing is really right. Foremost because the victim says it’s right, he’s ready to tell his story, and there are really urgent themes in this drama around online safety, child pornography [and] the leniency of the sentencing.”
She stated Wonderhood made the programme with the cooperation of Ryan, his household and the Sun.
Like the Netflix hit Adolescence, Power shines a lightweight on kids’s vulnerabilities on-line. Anstiss stated: “It’s grappling with some really urgent and important themes. It’s proper public service broadcasting at its finest.”
The Channel 5 proprietor Paramount’s chief content material officer, Ben Frow, stated Power gave “a different side of the story” and highlighted “a very serious issue, in this case the grooming of young men and abuse of power”.
Frow acknowledged there had been criticism of Channel 5’s resolution to make the present. But he added: “I think it isn’t too soon … If you want to reach as many people as possible and highlight how grooming works and the insidiousness of grooming, drama is … the most powerful way to do it.”
The present additionally covers how the household of Ryan tried to complain to the BBC however had issues with the process, which the BBC apologised for in 2024 and has reviewed. The company has been made conscious by producers that it options within the programme.
Osian Morgan, who performs Ryan, stated he was “hugely inspired by him”, whereas Clunes stated his uncannily comparable model of Edwards was helped by watching him nightly on the BBC.
Power reiterates on display screen that no legal motion was taken towards Edwards in relation to Ryan and “he has always disputed the principal allegations made in the Sun in July 2023”. It says: “Huw Edwards was offered an opportunity to comment on the allegation made in this film but declined to do so.”
