The man who fell to earth

Barring further revelations, Huw Edwards will probably be rehabilitated - but not as the face of the BBC

I suppose I ought to say something about Huw Edwards, now he has been named as the BBC presenter who allegedly gave a young person £35,000 in exchange for explicit pictures - whatever they are.  I first knew him in the 1980s when we were both scriveners on the BBCs old  “nations and regions” desk in Westminster. It occupied an unsanitary building on the Thames Embankment where Portcullis House now stands.  The upper floors were occupied mainly by dust and pigeons. Hacks from all over the UK were corralled in an open plan office that jangled to the sound of analogue broadcasting. The clatter of Adler typewriters and the incessant ringing of ancient rotary telephones, hacks shouting to be heard over the din.  I loved it.

Huw was charming in a way all BBC folk were supposed to be back then: humble bragging about his abilities which were considerable. He had a very dry Welsh wit. He was fluent in many languages including of course his native tongue.  He often had to translate his stories into Welsh which we all found very amusing for some reason.   

In the 90s I gravitated to the grand new BBC Offices at 4 Millbank where I ended up presenting TV Parliament programmes like Westminster Live.  That was until I was sacked to make way for the Crime Watch presenter, Nick Ross.  I wasn’t bitter.  Whenever I’ve been sacked in my lengthy career it has generally opened the way for much better things. This is something Huw Edwards could usefully be telling himself right now - not that it would seem much consolation. I became a columnist for the Observer and lost touch with Huw who by then had been identified as the future face of BBC news. But whenever I bumped into him he was always matey and down to earth. When you start at the bottom in the BBC news business you remain formal friends for life even if you rarely see each other. It’s like being at the same school.

Could I have imagined his career ending as it seems to have? Not in a million years. I don’t know or care about the details of his alleged transgressions. But if it’s true he was on dating sites and communicating with young people in a suggestive manner then it was so out of character as to be almost unimaginable.  His  was so utterly dedicated to his career - in the nicest possible way of course - that he would surely never do anything so reckless.

You often hear about people in public life, mostly politicians, being closet risk-takers. Matthew Parris, the former MP and broadcaster, talks about how politicians are “addicted to risk”. “Your identikit male politician” he wrote” is hooked on the stuff”. But political journalists generally are the reverse. That’s because they see only too clearly how damaging it can be to walk or even tip toe on the wild side. How the slightest off colour remark or badly worded phrase can be construed as improper. It’s a rough trade.

Like me, Edwards predates the #metoo era and therefore is liable to transgress the obscure language codes which turns harmless jokes or compliments into hate speech. But he of all people was highly attuned to the nuances of language and deportment in the corporation.  He would surely have known that just appearing to hit on a younger colleague or exchanging dodgy pictures with someone outside the BBC would be career death.  Huw Edwards is the nearest thing to royalty that any commoner gets without marrying one. He is a journalist superstar. You don’t get to where he was without being super cautious - about everything.

Can Huw Edwards come back from this?  Can be ever again host the Ten O’Clock News and commentate at royal events?  I very much doubt it.  Some people wrongly accused of sexual impropriety have come back like the octogenarian singer, Sir Cliff Richard who was raided by the police in 2014.  He was treated appallingly by the very BBC news programmes Huw Edwards presented and eventually won nearly £2million from the corporation for damages. However, Richard was never a prominent TV face - perhaps THE face of BBC News.  Paul Giambaccini was a BBC presenter of long standing until he was arrested in 2013 on suspicion of historic sex offences under the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Yewtree. He also sued and won substantial damages. The “professor of pop” is back on air, though not as a member of the BBC pantheon.

Edwards has a lot of sympathisers - unlike fallen Good Morning star, Phillip Schofield, whose career has been ruined by apparently similar non-crime transgressions. He had an affair with a younger colleague which ended badly. Nothing illegal, nothing coercive.  But he had few supporters in his neck of the broadcasting woods and he is now in the wilderness for the duration.

Thanks partly to his TV producer wife, Vicky Flind, Huw Edwards  does have a network of prominent people who will support him on social media and in the prints - including stars like Channel 4’s Robert Peston - especially now he has publicised his history of  depression. I suppose I might sound like one of them since I seem to be doing a good job of giving him a character reference. But Huw Edwards very stratospheric success is probably the greatest obstacle to his returning.  His legion of supporters has to be balanced against his many BBC presenter colleagues who slyly dumped on him before he was outed by his wife.

Awards has committed the cardinal sin of attracting negative headlines. He hasn’t sued the Sun for defamation, at least not yet, so these negatives will remain attached to his personality like dog shit to his shoes. It seems impossible that he could ever again be the face of the corporation.  He would surely not dream of going back to the bottom on whatever has replaced the old nations and regions service.

However, I see him probably making a good living as a presenter of history programmes on Channel 5.  Commercial stations are more tolerant.  His notoriety could even be an asset. He will certainly be lauded back in Wales where he’ll be seen as a victim of tabloid culture, social media and our obsession with exposure. Publishers will be lining up to offer big money for his memoirs. I suspect he’ll have a very comfortable afterlife as the  BBC’s man who fell to earth. I certainly hope so.