Why disgraced BBC star Huw Edwards is telling friends he 'is ready to tell his truth' about 17-year-old 'Ryan' and their sordid association...

Back in March, Huw Edwards made a jaw-dropping decision – described to me by at least one person who used to work with him as a ‘terrible, terrible’ idea.

Channel 5 was just about to launch a no-holds-barred drama depicting the spectacular downfall of the man who was once the face of BBC News – who had anchored 2019’s general election coverage, taking over from David Dimbleby, and had memorably announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II back in 2022.

Edwards was of course subsequently convicted of possessing indecent images of children, as well as found to have had an entirely inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable teenage boy.

Yet as Channel 5 was preparing to air its drama, rather than slinking into obscurity, Edwards instead began blogging on the online platform Substack, musing on everything from his own self-inflicted situation to the state of British politics and Welsh poetry – and he was even reported to be writing a book telling ‘his side of the story’.

It’s doubtful that – at least without sincere repentance – any attempt at a comeback was a good idea. But Edwards’s timing was appalling.

Martin Clunes was to play him on Channel 5 at his most sneering, arrogant and predatory, with the drama telling the story of the entirely inappropriate relationship between Edwards and a 17-year-old named only as ‘Ryan’ – a sordid association that saw Edwards paying the youngster some £35,000 for sexual images, a fact that was initially divulged to The Sun newspaper by ‘Ryan’s’ mother and stepfather.

The show would also tell the story of how Edwards went on to plead guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, receiving a six-month suspended prison sentence. He had accessed 41 images, including one of a child aged between seven and nine.

And the drama would further dwell on Edwards’s connections to fellow paedophile and convicted sex offender Alex Williams, who supplied him with that trove of illegal material.

Yet so determined was he to stage a comeback that, as well as launching his Substack, Edwards had even hired publicist Barry Tomes to ‘rehabilitate’ him – and was, say sources, ‘utterly determined’ to have his say.

That was then. But this week, however, came the biggest sign yet that Edwards remains intent on telling ‘his truth’ – after it was confirmed that he had complained to television regulator Ofcom about his treatment in the Channel 5 show.

The disgraced 65-year-old even complained separately to the independent newspaper regulator Ipso about a story the Daily Mail recently published, telling of a friendship he had struck up with a retired teacher. Edwards claimed the Mail’s coverage breached rules of ‘privacy’ and ‘accuracy’ – though last week Ipso unceremoniously threw out his claim.

Despite that setback, Ofcom is now investigating Edwards’s grievance against Channel 5 under so-called ‘fairness and privacy’ rules, after almost four million people watched the drama in just four weeks.

Edwards has previously complained that producers failed to ‘check with me the truth of any aspect of their narrative’, insisting that it was ‘hardly likely to convey the reality of what happened’.

For its part, Channel 5 has defended its programme, insisting it was based on ‘extensive interviews with the victim, his family, the journalists who revealed his story, text exchanges between the victim and Edwards and court reporting’.

So just why is Edwards, who now lives with his beloved mother in Wales (quite the contrast to his busy life in London with ex-wife Vicky Flind and their five children in the leafy enclave of Dulwich) so determined to stick his head above the parapet?

‘Huw took the view right at the beginning, when The Sun published their story, that he was wronged,’ says one associate.

‘And there was a time when he was going to take very heavy legal action. While he was ill in hospital, citing mental health problems [in the aftermath of the Sun’s coverage] Vicky got a “crisis PR” company in place to try to protect him. The talk was always that when he was better, he was going to get lawyers involved. He just would not admit that the paper had told the truth.’

My source adds: ‘Huw knew it was time to write his version of events earlier this year. He wanted to swap the narrative [for his own], but this has got ridiculous. The best thing he can do now is retreat from the limelight, because nobody is interested in hearing him out. He won’t win.’

Edward’s associates now say that had he not pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children, he would have gone ahead with that legal action against the Sun. And at least one former friend adds that he chose to exploit his mental-health problems as a means of ‘getting his own way’.

‘Huw’s arrest killed off his hopes of ever being able to go for The Sun,’ says the ex-friend. ‘It was game over after that: there was no way back. Anyone could see that, but he had the mental health card in mind, and he played it whenever he could - and still is today.

‘Huw is going and going and going. He wants “his truth” out there when to comes to “Ryan”: he wants people to understand his side of things. It’s very strange behaviour. Wouldn’t most people simply step back and repent? Just look at [disgraced ex-ITV presenter] Phillip Schofield: he has disappeared and he was never convicted of any crime.’

Edwards’s bizarre attempts to barge his way back into public life have been noted with scorn by many of his former BBC colleagues.

In March he said that his imagined return to public life would be 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. What is less well known is the severity of that condition, which was managed successfully until the downward spiral [in the aftermath of the reporting into “Ryan”].’

As for his book, this is likely to be self-published, as no self-respecting publisher would ever give him a deal.

‘Huw was treated like a king at the BBC: he was the star of the show and was given so many privileges,’ one of his former colleagues told me last night.

‘The bosses always went over and above for him and he repaid them and us by bringing the whole organisation into disrepute. And now he is “back” - and thinks he can order people to listen to him and get his own way like he used to.

‘It’s dreadful. A lot of people are hoping that Ofcom will just tell him to get lost.’