Since his grooming scandal came to light, disgraced BBC newsreader Huw Edwards has cowered away from the glare of the public eye.
But I can reveal that despite the black cloud that hangs over his name, the broadcaster, convicted of making indecent images of children, is still receiving work offers.
Indeed, he has been invited back to the screen in a forthcoming film about the fall of a fictional leading broadcaster, to play himself.
Producers of The Janitor – a tale centring around Edwards’s implosion – reportedly asked the convicted sex offender to play a cameo role.
But the 64-year-old, who has recently launched a Substack column offering analysis on current affairs and mental health in an apparent bid for public redemption, rejected the approach from Big Bear Little Bear Productions, who are now looking for an actor to play him instead.
I’m told that the company discussed paying Edwards a fee, which would have been finalised had he accepted the offer, on the condition that the money would have been donated to charity.
According to sources close to the former presenter, he is still looking to tell his version of the events surrounding his downfall.
One source told the Daily Mail: ‘Huw could change his mind, but as it stands, he doesn’t feel this film role is the right way to come back into the spotlight. He wants to tell his side of the story on his terms.’
Filming has begun in Birmingham without the former broadcaster, and the film stars the Peaky Blinders actor, Harry Kirton, who will play The Janitor – a man who cleans up the messes of the powerful.
The storyline draws on the Edwards scandal, that saw one of the BBC’s highest-paid newsreaders – on a salary of £520,000 a year – slapped with a six-month suspended sentence after he was convicted of making indecent images of children.
Huw Edwards on BBC News the day The Queen died, at the height of his powers before his downfall
The disgraced newsreader leaving Westminster Magistrates’ Court in 2024
Jamie Ball, the head of media at Core Productions, who are helping on the project, said: ‘This is a carefully dark, thought-out script, delivered by a stellar cast.
‘We are working with sensitivity, but we are also holding a mirror to the reality of the industry.
‘As in the cases of Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards, these stories are still unfolding in the media, and we felt it was time to show the true cost of silence.’
Making his directorial debut is Kaine Zajaz, a British actor who has previously worked alongside Tom Holland and Michelle Keegan.
Edwards’s former publicist, Barry Tomes, is in talks to be an executive producer on the film.
Tomes, who has decades of experience in the industry representing the likes of The Beach Boys, stood by Edwards and helped him to navigate the publicity around the case.
But in recent weeks the Daily Mail revealed a feud brewing between the pair, which was sparked by Edwards’s bizarre decision to begin posting his musings on the online blogging platform Substack.
‘Huw told me he didn’t want to go back to TV,’ Tomes said. ‘He said that part of his life was categorically over. But I just think he now wants the limelight again. I think he misses that. It must be a craving for him.’
On whether he would be the one to help him make a return to public life, the celeb PR said: ‘I wouldn’t work with Huw again, absolutely not. I wouldn’t work with him for £100,000 a year because he’s getting it all wrong.
‘I don’t think Substack is the platform for someone like Huw Edwards. He has to accept that nobody cares about his opinion on the new Prime Minister or the economy. Nobody cares. When you commit that type of crime, nobody cares about you any more.’
The new film comes after a Channel 5 show in March starring Martin Clunes dramatised Edwards’s crimes.
It prompted Edwards, who was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years, to announce that he was planning his own documentary or podcast series to tell his ‘side of the story’.
In a statement issued to the Daily Mail at the time, Edwards said: ‘Much has been written and reported in the past week following Channel 5’s one-sided account.
Edwards with his one-time publicist Barry Tomes, is in talks to be an executive producer on The Janitor
Martin Clunes as Edwards in the Channel 5 show dramatising his crimes
Edwards separated from his wife of 30 years and moved back to Wales to live an isolated existence with his elderly mother
‘Other opportunities will arise later this year for me to state my case, and to challenge the misleading or fabricated claims made in recent coverage.
‘A number of serious questions still remain to be answered, and not just by me.
‘It will now take some time for me to produce my own account, and until then, I do not intend to comment any further.’
Edwards was given his six-month suspended jail sentence following a year of headlines, which began when he was named as the presenter at the heart of a scandal over payments to a young person for sexually explicit images.
His downfall was swift, and cemented in July 2024, when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to receiving 41 indecent images of children, which included two sexual videos of a boy under nine, from paedophile Alex Williams.
These included both still and moving images, and were made up of seven of the most serious classification, Category A, 12 of Category B and 22 Category C.
Edwards has refused to hand back £200,000 in salary he was paid by the BBC between his arrest in November 2023 and his resignation in April 2024.
He separated from his TV-producer wife of 30 years, Vicky Flind, and he moved back to Wales to live an isolated existence with his elderly mother.
In recent weeks, Edwards launched his Substack in the first public move he has made since he was taken off-air three years ago.
Titled ‘Croeso. Fáilte. Bienvenue. Welcome’ (The same word in Welsh, Irish, French and English) and with the subheading ‘A first step…’ the first post sees the disgraced journalist promising the world a ‘Relaunch’.
Edwards, in his own words, plans to ‘offer thoughts on matters of national and local interest’ as someone with ‘four decades years [sic] in broadcast journalism’.
‘In light of my recent experiences,’ the convicted paedophile continued, ‘I would also like to talk about the criminal justice system: the courts, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Probation Service. I am also ready to be unflinchingly honest about the reality of long-term mental illness, and the continued failure to recognise its devastating effects on affected individuals, their families, and friends. If my posts help others facing similar challenges, so much the better.’
He continued: ‘There will be those who do not wish to read my work, and I respect that choice. But for those who might be interested, I would like to start tentatively by offering some commentary and analysis based on my long experience.’
Accompanied by a black-and-white picture of himself looking considerably older than his age, he rounded off the essay with the promise: ‘I will try to post once a week. There are no plans for paid subscriptions. Thank you for even considering reading my work.’
While Edwards is yet to go public with his version of events, the disgraced BBC newsreader’s suspended prison sentence is over in two months and those around him say it could be sooner rather than later.
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