Ofcom has opened an investigation into Channel 5’s Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, putting the broadcaster’s account of the former BBC presenter’s case under scrutiny after Edwards lodged a complaint.

Edwards’s position is that the 88-minute factual drama was not merely unflattering but materially inaccurate. He said he was “relieved” Ofcom would investigate and argued that the programme gave viewers a “wholly misleading and unfair version of events.”¹ He also said he had not been given a fair chance to answer what he described as inaccuracies and fabrications.

The complaint concerns Ofcom’s rules on fairness and privacy, rather than a finding that Channel 5 breached those standards. The regulator said it was investigating “a fairness and privacy complaint about this programme” and will consider material submitted by both sides before reaching a decision.²

Channel 5 takes the opposite view. It says it stands by the programme and will “robustly” defend the complaint.¹ The broadcaster has said the drama drew on interviews with the victim and his family, reporting by journalists who uncovered the story, text exchanges, and court reporting. It also said allegations in the film had been put to Edwards through his solicitors before transmission.²

The dispute therefore centres less on the underlying court case than on how it was reconstructed for television: Edwards says the portrayal failed to reflect the full reality, while Channel 5 says its reporting and pre-broadcast process met the required standard. The programme, broadcast in March and starring Martin Clunes, was Channel 5’s highest-rated show of the year, attracting 3.8 million viewers in its first month, according to one report.¹