Fiercely composed expression just short of a scowl, neatly trimmed silver hair and a steady delivery with the subtlest of Welsh lilts.

Huw Edwards’ commendably dependable performances from behind a polished desk in the BBC studio were as sure as night followed day.

How jarring will it be, then, two years after his presence vanished from our living rooms, to see that intense glare staring back into the camera once again?

Promotional images for the upcoming drama about the newsreader’s downfall indicate Martin Clunes has certainly captured Edwards’ finely tuned manner.

Leaning earnestly forward, right arm bent over his notes with his left palm down on the desk – it is the pose of a man who carries the weight of history, and one Edwards worked hard to perfect, and Clunes worked equally hard to recapture.

The resulting controversial two-part drama, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, will bring a dramatized take on the former BBC news anchor back into our homes when it airs on Channel 5 on Tuesday – prompting many to question: is it too soon? Are the wounds still too raw, for his family, victims, community and once adoring public?

The real Edwards, of course, disappeared abruptly from our screens almost three years ago, making his final appearance presenting the News at One, on July 5 2023, before off-air accusations came to light about him paying a vulnerable young man to send him sexual images.

His downfall was swift, and cemented in September 2024, when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court to admit charges of making indecent images of children and was handed a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

The full sordid truth, when it was finally laid bare, was truly shocking, and not just for Vicky Flind, his wife of 30 years, and mother to their five children, who promptly left him.

During the police investigation, a number of WhatsApp messages was found on his phone including an exchange with a man later convicted of sex offences.

He’d offered Edwards sick images of someone described as ‘young’ to which Edwards responded with the damning words ‘go on’.

Paedophile Alex Williams would go on to send Edwards 377 images via WhatsApp, including 41 indecent images of children, some showing a victim aged between seven and nine.

‘Amazing,’ came Huw’s appreciative reply. There was no way back for him after that.

Despite the fact that his sentence was suspended and he was given remarkably few legal restrictions under the terms of his licence, the Daily Mail has learned that Edwards has been living a strict, reclusive existence since his tired and pale appearance in court, flanked by his legal team.

The 64-year-old retreated to the quiet Welsh village where his elderly mother, Aerona Protheroe, still lives after moving of the family home in Dulwich, in south east London.

During his days as Britain’s top newsman, Edwards he would regularly immerse himself into village life there, during weekly trips to visit his mother and would often visit the local pub to share a pint with locals.

Staff said he had not shown his face on the premises since the scandal hit, however.

‘He’s not been in since the s**t hit the fan,’ one told the Daily Mail.

‘He used to come in once a week, or whenever he was back here to see his mum. He’d often bring her with him, and sometimes his wife and children.

‘He liked a pint and everyone was pleased to see him back then because he was a local celebrity. How little we knew.’

Edwards was previously in the habit of taking his mother for a stroll along the beach in Llanelli, before sitting and chatting on a bench in the town’s Millennium Park.

The pair would later head to a nearby restaurant and drink tea. But even this ritual appears to have stopped.

‘No one’s got any time for him around here since it all came out about what he’d been up to all these years while pretending to be a church-going pillar of the community.

‘I’m aware of the new film that’s being released, but I think they could have waited a bit longer because it’s all still so raw for a lot of people around here.

‘Aerona is well-respected and I think it would have been better for her if they’d waited until she’d passed before putting it out, but I guess that’s not how the film industry works.

‘This has been awful for her. She’s always been so proud of Huw and he’s let her down as much as anyone. But she’s the only one who’s stood by him. That’s a mother’s love for you, I suppose.’

Edwards may now have grasped the fact that there is no path to redemption for the man who went from Britain’s most respected newsreader – feted for the restrained and graceful way he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II to the nation in September 2022, and his formidable anchoring of the King’s coronation – to vilified sex offender.

But his ego prevented him from appreciating this sooner.

Last November, Edwards appeared to be gearing up for a comeback – posting a professional headshot in black and white, posed with a moody expression and a salt and pepper beard.

He also reactivated his account on Instagram – the same platform where he first engaged with Williams.

The furious reaction to this activity was enough to extinguish any last flickers of hope that all was not over, however.

The stepfather of Huw’s victim, whose story is to be told in the upcoming drama, said at the time: ‘If he thinks he can just put up a picture of himself and it’s going to change the way people think about him, he’s wrong. He’s scum.

‘You can paint over cracks but you can never hide them. He is finished; he’s a paedophile. Any time he raises his head it is an insult to his victims. He needs to realise this is it and disappear.’

Edwards swiftly deleted his Facebook page and scrubbed all content from his Instagram.

Only a detailed LinkedIn profile remains, documenting Edwards’ path to become BBC’s chief anchor during 39 years at the broadcaster.

Describing himself as ‘journalist, broadcaster, author’, the page makes no mention of the scandal, serving instead as a dusty shrine to a stellar media career that once was.

Despite his almost four decades at the BBC, Edwards’ character was such that he made few close friends among his colleagues.

A former co-worker said: ‘He didn’t have that many friends in the industry before [the conviction.] He was ‘one of the unloved’, for obvious reasons.’

Even Clunes has acknowledged that while researching the role he discovered from former colleagues that Edwards ‘was never fun to work with’.’

The corporation, which is sadly no stranger to such scandal, fought to salvage some honour by demanding that Edwards repay more than £200,000 he earned after his arrest, in November 2023, and April 2024, when he resigned.

BBC Chair Samir Shah wrote in a letter to staff in August 2024 saying that Edwards had ‘behaved in bad faith’ in continuing to take the money despite knowing what he had done,

More than a year-and-a-half on, however, and it appears the same stubbornness that led Edwards to believe he could mount a showbusiness comeback has not gone away.

The Daily Mail can reveal that he has failed to repay a single penny.

Edwards’ suspended sentence will elapse in August, but almost nothing will change for the disgraced newsreader.

Though he will remain on the sex offenders register for another five years, the chief magistrate chose not to hand down a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

This means that Edwards has been able to live as he pleases, with no limitations on where he can go in the UK and no restrictions on his internet or phone use.

He has also been free to travel abroad, provided he gives police seven days’ notice of his plans.

The expiry of his suspended sentence licence will happen without fanfare – there will be no email, letter or phonecall from the probation service.

Edwards should have simply made a note of the date during his probation induction, but will likely take little solace from it elapsing.

For the ire of the public will likely never have an expiry date.

The announcement of a film about such subject matter was naturally met with some controversy, but the makers of Power have defended claims it was too soon to dramatize Edwards’ downfall.

Executive producer Sam Anstiss insisted it was the desire of the young man who disclosed how Edwards paid him thousands for sexual images of himself to tell his story that led to the decision to greenlight the show.

‘The timing was right. [He] was ready to tell his story. There are really urgent themes in this drama around online safety,’ she said.

The young man, who is not named but called Ryan in the drama, is played by Osian Morgan.

At the climax of the two-hour film, the real Ryan tells the audience in a statement he has got his life on track and overcome dependence on drugs.

‘I chose to tell my story now for the first time so no one who has been silenced feels they are alone,’ he says.

‘I refuse to let Huw Edwards or what he did define who I am or the life I will lead.’

Edwards’ own life could have been defined by any number of glittering achievements.

Rather, it will be the his own depravity and foolishness for which he will be remembered.

Additional reporting: Nic North