Barry Tomes, a veteran publicist with 54 years in the business, has revealed why he stopped representing Huw Edwards after just one week. The 70-year-old had offered to work for the former BBC newsreader on a pro bono basis, but says a second meeting left him convinced he could not continue.
Tomes, whose past clients include Lulu, The Beach Boys, Deirdre "White Dee" Kelly and Andrew Wardle, first approached Edwards around a year before Channel 5 aired Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. He did so because he was putting together a case study about mental illness.
Tomes has spoken about losing his grandfather to suicide, as well as friends and colleagues in the music industry. He started a podcast called Medical Protocols and hopes to make a documentary, describing the process as a "long process" that was sidetracked by "the Edwards storm".
Why he approached Edwards
Explaining his interest in mental health, Tomes said: "Are there different forms of it? What does it create? If you have a bang on the head, I know if you have a stroke, it can change things." He also said one of his case studies concerned paedophiles, adding: "Having worked with Gary Glitter years ago, I thought he was a great guy - and of course I'm horrified by him now - but I didn't understand why these people went down that route."
Edwards pleaded guilty in 2024 to three counts of making indecent images of children. He received a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, over 41 images, seven of which were category A, the most serious classification. Two images showed victims aged between seven and nine.
In March, Edwards criticised the docudrama Power, claiming production company Wonderhood "made no attempt" to contact him. He said: "I am making an effort to produce my own account of these terrible events. This is a slow process, given the fragile state of my health. I have been open about my struggle with persistent mental illness over a period of 25 years."
He added: "What is less well known is the severity of that condition, which was managed successfully until the downward spiral which led to an appalling outcome. Mental illness is misunderstood by many, but can never be an excuse for criminality. It can, however, at least help explain why people sometimes behave in shocking and reprehensible ways, and why things fell apart for me in the way they did."
The sentencing report noted that Edwards has arteriosclerosis, a degenerative neurocognitive disorder associated with behavioural disturbance, which was considered by the judge.
The first meeting
Tomes was in Hong Kong when, about a week before the docudrama aired, Edwards sent him a text message. He said: "He called me at midnight, introduced himself, perfectly polite, and he said, I'd really like to meet with you." Tomes assumed Edwards had grown nervous because the programme was about to air and he had not spoken to the press.
After an 18-hour journey back to the UK, Tomes met Edwards "somewhere in the south of England". He recalled: "As he walked towards me, I'm like, 'that's the man off the telly, that's the Huw Edwards that I know'. He doesn't look like he's put on a load of weight; that's the man. We spoke, we shook hands, very courteous, very polite, very grateful for me seeing him."
At that meeting, Tomes asked whether Edwards wanted to return to the media. Edwards said no. Tomes recalled: "Okay, that's good because that's not why I'm here. I'm here about the mental health, and I want to talk to you about that in depth at some point."
Tomes said Edwards was "anxious" in the days before Power aired. "Whether you like him or not, he is a human being, and he was very anxious. As a duty of care, I didn't want to push anything," he said. He made clear no money would change hands, and he agreed to represent Edwards for one week only, including on Good Morning Britain.
The second meeting
Tomes had arranged to meet Edwards seven days after their first meeting, but Edwards was unable to attend. They met three days later at the same place. In the ten days between the two meetings, Tomes counted around 310 articles about Edwards and said as many as 11 TV offers came in. He believed Edwards was still serving his sentence and any public account would cause more damage.
It was during this second meeting that Tomes decided to walk away. He said: "I decided that second time, there's no way I'm going to represent. I didn't see regret. Only for regret, my life's over. I didn't see regret for the people."
He added: "I have had a saying for years and years. I don't believe you should say sorry; I think you should show it, and I don't think he's shown sorry. He said it, or some spokesperson said it in court. I don't think he said it enough."
The pair have not seen each other since. Tomes no longer represents Edwards, whom he described as "ill-advised". He may still take a call from a close friend of Edwards acting as a third party, but does not speak to Edwards directly.
Substack and what comes next
Edwards has been living in seclusion in Wales and launched a Substack newsletter. Tomes said he initially thought somebody was "having a joke" when he saw the posts, and predicted: "He's digging a hole for himself. I think he's going to come out of the Substacking much worse."
"I have said to him: nobody actually cares about your opinion about the new Prime Minister. Nobody actually cares about your opinion about French politics or about the history of Wales. You've committed the worst crime," Tomes said.
In a recent Substack post, Edwards wrote: "It is the failure to separate the crime from the perpetrator which fuels mindless hatred — a hatred which impedes society's ability to understand why some people behave in ways that are destructive and shameful."
Tomes responded: "He's got that wrong. They don't hate him; they hate what he did." Although he described paedophilia as "worse than murder", he said Edwards should still "have his say", suggesting he wait three years to write a book he is reportedly planning.
Regret and the limelight
Tomes said Edwards is "a very religious man by all accounts" and suggested he "should go off and work in the church anonymously" after having his say. He also believes Edwards does not want to return to broadcasting but misses attention: "I've worked with celebrities since I was 17 years old. I know the ones that want the limelight, and I know the ones that don't. And he does."
Reflecting on remorse, Tomes said: "I felt, in my honest opinion, while I was talking to him, he didn't show regret for what had happened. He said he'd been sorry for it. Now, it wasn't a question I asked; I didn't say, 'Do you regret this?' But I didn't see it."
He added: "I don't know what's going on in his mind, obviously, and he may well have apologised a thousand times, but I've not been in touch with him before. Certainly, during that second meeting with him, I thought, in my honest opinion, that he would have said something, like, 'I really regret doing this, I regret it happening'."
"I've read his latest Substack, and he does say he's shown a lot of remorse, and he regrets it. I was merely referring to my personal opinion of when I was in a meeting with him alone," Tomes said.
