POWER: The downfall of Huw Edwards (Channel 5, Tuesday) is a feature-length drama about the disgraced former BBC newsreader, who, in 2024, was convicted of making indecent images of children. He also groomed a young man, who was just 17 when it began, sending him tens of thousands of pounds. This is the story of that abuse of power.
I thought that this was excellent, a compelling, albeit deeply grim, portrayal of how power is wielded and deliberately minimised to evade accountability. Martin Clunes is superb as Mr Edwards, thoroughly executing the broadcaster’s accent and on-screen demeanour in a vivid and believable performance.
The depiction of Mr Edwards’s behaviour off-screen, contested by him in a statement issued before the programme’s release, gives an impression of a dominant man who could be volatile and capricious, and who used a vast power differential and the lure of money to control and manipulate a vulnerable teenager. In a statement, Mr Edwards has criticised the programme; but, despite his vague denials, his continued appeals for pity owing to poor mental health only bolster this drama’s characterisation of him, as someone who puts his own feelings and needs before others’, regardless of the consequences.
It is a picture drawn by extensive interviews with his anonymous victim and his family, supplemented by the evidence of text messages and court reporting. In his statement, Mr Edwards hints at possibly telling his own side of the story in the future, and, as repugnant as that thought may be, if he chooses to do so, he still has enough power to be heard. The only power that the young man whom he groomed has is to refuse to be silenced any longer: “I chose to tell my story now for the first time so that no one who has been silenced feels they are alone.”
Last One Laughing (Prime, Thursday and Friday) has returned for a second series, after its first hugely successful outing last year. The premise is childishly simple: ten comedians spend six hours together in a room, trying to make each other laugh, in an environment where laughing gets you eliminated from the game. Hosted by Jimmy Carr, it is unproblematic, joyfully funny television.
Happily, the reigning champion, Bob Mortimer, also returns to defend his crown. This time, he is joined by some dastardly dead-pan challengers, including Diane Morgan, Romesh Ranganathan, and the Australian comic Sam Campbell, who, I suspect, will be an impossible nut to crack, even for Bob. Also on board are David Mitchell, Mel Giedroyc, and the man who laughed all the way to winning Celebrity Traitors, Alan Carr — who as we all know, is extremely sober and inscrutable. First one to be eliminated, perhaps? You’ll have to watch and see.
