Martin Clunes takes on challenging role in feature length drama about the demise of BBC star Huw Edwards
Martin Clunes feels like he really got under the skin of disgraced newsreader Huw Edwards in a new TV drama. The 64-year-old stars in Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards on, alongside Osian Morgan as a young man known only as “Ryan”, who is manipulated and controlled by Edwards.
Channel 5’s drama focuses on BBC newsreader Edwards’ double life, leading to his arrest and exit from public life. Martin, 64, says: “I was familiar with Huw Edwards, the newsreader, and how he presented himself when he was reading the news.
“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. I noticed from looking at that archive that he was different when he wasn’t reading the news, and I wanted to make that distinction. If you listen to his rhythms, he’s far more Welsh when he’s not news reading.
“I didn’t know the details and I didn’t really want to at the time, but for the purposes of this drama I think they’re extremely important. How does something like this happen, with someone who is right in front of our faces every single night?”
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Edwards, 64, was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and placed on the sex offenders register in 2024, after admitting creating indecent images of children.
The drama also focuses on the real-life “Ryan”, who came into contact with Edwards when he was 17. It is based on extensive factual research, including text messages between Edwards and “Ryan”. The man in question, who has never been named, told at the weekend how he was paid by the newsreader for sexual pictures.
Of playing the role, Martin says: “I knew it would be a challenge on a number of levels. The script is always the most important thing and I thought it was really powerful. It’s always good when drama tackles difficult stories, especially when it does so as intelligently as this.
“Beyond the salacious curiosity around this story, I really thought there was another story worth telling, that of ‘Ryan’.
“Obviously the press and the media have focussed on the fallen big man, Huw Edwards. But behind that, there’s this lad and his family whose lives got turned upside down.”
Whilst Martin says he tried not to judge Edwards, he spoke to ex-colleagues who told him the BBC presenter was “never fun to work with”. Some of the things he did to “Ryan” were difficult to act out, but working closely with Osian helped.
“It can be uncomfortable, but it’s all part of the job and you just have to go there,” he says. “Sometimes it’s harder when a role is nebulous and you can’t pin your performance on something. But we had transcripts of text messages between Huw Edwards and ‘Ryan’, and they do appear in the script, so we breathed life into them.
“It was hard towards the end of the story, hearing Osian’s vulnerable voice when Edwards was bullying him, and the hurt of this boy reaching out in a sensitive way. I didn’t feel very nice at the end of those scenes, so again it was definitely good to have Osian in the room to talk to afterwards.”
The pair took the decision to “both be there in the room for the other actor’ during the scenes which involved phone calls, normally the director or assistant director will read out the other lines, and you have to act to that.
“But because of the intimate nature of so many of these phone calls we felt we couldn’t do that,” Clunes explains.
Best known for roles in ITV drama Doc Martin and BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly, Martin had to slim down a little to play Edwards.
And the make-up department had to work on his distinctive ears. “I don’t know how they fixed them, but it was quite involved,” he admits.
The final effect is brilliant and he looks very much like the man who delivered the news of the death of the Queen to many millions of Brits.
Martin has recently taken on darker roles but says that is not through any grand plan. He adds: “I never try to second-guess what the audience will think. I’ve played a murderer before and I’m vile in Wuthering Heights, so this isn’t my first dark role.
“I’ve always been lucky enough to balance light-hearted jobs with dramas in between. I’d play someone like Doc Martin again in a heartbeat.
“Sometimes with acting you just have to jump off the cliff and hope you land well – you don’t want everything to feel measured and calculated. I gave it my best shot, and I knew I was putting the performance into good hands.”
* Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, Channel 5, March 24.
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