Martin Clunes has spoken about his role as disgraced former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards in the upcoming Channel 5 drama Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards. The drama, based on fact, depicts Edwards's fall from being the BBC's top newsreader to his conviction for making indecent images of children. Clunes, best known for Doc Martin, said he did not ask whether Michael Sheen was offered the part, but joked: 'I bet he was.'
The drama shows Edwards reading the news in the late-night slot he occupied for decades, with his BBC desk recreated in a London studio. Clunes noted that the production team used makeup to flatten his ears and thin his lips to match Edwards's appearance. He added that he lost some weight for the role but joked that he was 'blessed with a really great body'.
Clunes addressed potential criticism for playing a gay man as a straight actor, saying: 'I wonder if I will be attacked for being a straight man playing a gay man, which is very unfashionable these days.' The drama distinguishes between Edwards's homosexuality, which a court medical report said he had long suppressed, and his criminal sexual interest in children.
The drama also depicts Edwards's online pursuit of a late-teenage boy, played by Osian Morgan, with details provided by the real child's family. Clunes said the title Power reflects the inappropriate use of his public profile by Edwards. Since his ITV dramas Manhunt and Out There, Clunes has taken on heavier dramatic roles, including Mr Earnshaw in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights film.
