When it emerged he had been paying for pornographic material of children as young as seven via WhatsApp, Huw Edwards’s life rightly imploded.
His TV-producer wife of 30 years, Vicky Flind, left him after police charged the veteran BBC star with three counts of making indecent images of children. He moved back to sleepy west Wales to live an isolated existence with his elderly mother.
But while few could bear the sight of Edwards, now 64, one man stood firmly by his side – PR man Barry Tomes.
In the months following the broadcaster’s guilty plea in 2024, the showbiz publicist approached him with a pledge to help him rebuild his shattered career – without, I’m told, ‘taking a penny’ for doing so.
The 70-year-old represented Edwards for seven days during the recent broadcast of Channel 5’s drama about the broadcaster’s downfall, starring Martin Clunes. But in that time he made quite a splash, getting grilled on Good Morning Britain by Susanna Reid who repeatedly asked him: ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Everybody’s allowed to say their piece,’ Tomes insisted.
Standing by a convicted paedophile was a bold move from Tomes, who has decades of experience in the industry representing the likes of The Beach Boys, and one that earned him much backlash from the wider public.
But I can now reveal that in the latest in a string of mostly self-inflicted disasters to have befallen Edwards, he has now fallen out with the one person willing to indulge his egotistical wish for a comeback.
In September 2024, Huw Edwards received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children
Edwards launched his Substack on Wednesday, in the first public move he has made since he was taken off-air three years ago
The feud that has emerged between Edwards, who at his peak was trousering more than £520,000 a year from licence-fee payers, and his one-time publicist seems to have been sparked by Edwards’s bizarre decision this week to begin posting his musings on the online blogging platform Substack.
Now Tomes, who had been one of the closest people to the BBC superstar since his downfall, has lifted the lid on what it was really like to work with him, revealing Edwards is still yearning for life in the spotlight.
‘Huw told me he didn’t want to go back to TV,’ Tomes tells me. ‘He said that part of his life was categorically over. But I just think he now wants the limelight again. I think he misses that. It must be a craving for him.’
On whether he would be the one to help him make a return to public life, the celeb PR said: ‘I wouldn’t work with Huw again, absolutely not. I wouldn’t work with him for £100,000 a year because he’s getting it all wrong.
‘I don’t think Substack is the platform for someone like Huw Edwards. He has to accept that nobody cares about his opinion on the new Prime Minister or the economy. Nobody cares. When you commit that type of crime, nobody cares about you anymore.’
In September 2024, Edwards received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.
Tomes, who grew up on a council estate in Birmingham, continued: ‘I told him he shouldn’t do anything while he’s still serving his sentence, which will be until September. If he had been in prison, he wouldn’t have the chance to do this. So I don’t think he should be doing it even though he’s not.
‘I think he’s probably surrounded by some close friends who are saying: “You don’t deserve this, you should go back out there.” But people will just want to slate him. He’s opening himself up to ridicule.’
Barry Tomes represented Edwards for seven days during the recent broadcast of Channel 5’s drama about the broadcaster’s downfall
The feud that has emerged between Edwards and his one-time publicist, right, seems to have been sparked by the disgraced presenter’s bizarre decision this week to begin posting his musings on Substack
Edwards launched his Substack on Wednesday, in the first public move he has made since he was taken off-air three years ago, initially being suspended by the Beeb on full pay.
Titled Welcome (with the word written in Welsh, Irish, French and English) and with the subheading ‘A first step…’ the first post sees the disgraced journalist promising the world a ‘Relaunch’.
Edwards promises to ‘offer thoughts on matters of national and local interest’ as someone with ‘four decades years [sic] in broadcast journalism’ – note the sloppy error.
‘In light of my recent experiences,’ the convicted paedophile continued, ‘I would also like to talk about the criminal justice system: the courts, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Probation Service. I am also ready to be unflinchingly honest about the reality of long-term mental illness, and the continued failure to recognise its devastating effects on affected individuals, their families and friends. If my posts help others facing similar challenges, so much the better.’
He continued: ‘There will be those who do not wish to read my work, and I respect that choice. But for those who might be interested, I would like to start tentatively by offering some commentary and analysis based on my long experience.’
Accompanied with a black and white picture of himself looking considerably older than his age, he rounded off the essay with the promise: ‘I will try to post once a week. There are no plans for paid subscriptions. Thank you for even considering reading my work.’
Edwards then published some fairly innocuous commentary on the Labour leadership campaign, in scrupulously neutral BBC style.
As for Tomes, he previously revealed that he was not ‘nervous’ when he started out as Edwards’s publicist.
‘I’ve got quite broad shoulders. I’m 70, and I’ve got life experience. I’ve had experience of taking flak,’ he said.
‘Will my Facebook numbers go down? Yeah. But that’s OK, because I don’t need people who judge me. Judge what I achieve, not what I do. I have a mantra, which is: “If someone is having a go at me, they’re leaving someone else alone.”’
It appears he might have changed his tune when it comes to Edwards.
