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Louise Thomas
Editor
The BBC is currently facing a dilemma – what does the corporation do with all its archive footage of Huw Edwards, who this week pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children?
Not only did the former BBC News presenter announce the Queen’s death in 2022, but he also presided over the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games, and the weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as many other seminal moments in recent British history.
“News is a matter of public record,” one BBC executive told The Times of the predicament this week. “What a nightmare.”
One staffer told the publication that the BBC can’t take down news clips of Edwards because they are “considered social history”, but added that they “can take down documentaries and other content that doesn’t relate to news”.
Archive footage of Edwards reporting on many huge events has already appeared in numerous documentaries over the years – most recently in Channel 4’s The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson, which at the time of writing is available to watch on the broadcaster’s website.
Here, we have compiled a list of all the programmes that have already used archive footage of the disgraced presenter, as well as TV shows and films where he has appeared in a cameo role.
The most notable examples of his cameos include in the 2012 Bond film Skyfall, in which he can be seen reading a fictional news bulletin about MI6 being plunged into crisis. He also appeared in a 2006 episode of Doctor Who, about a girl who can make people disappear, which has been removed from iPlayer.
Archive appearances
1997: The Enormous Election with Dennis Pennis
2002: Timeshift
2003: Who Wants to Steal a Million?
2004: Who Killed Kirsty MacColl?
2004: Old Big ’Ead: A Tribute to Brian Clough
2006: To Kill a Burglar: The Tony Martin Story
2006: Time Trumpet (two episodes)
2007: Taking Liberties
2007: The Funny Side of the News
2008: Heroes Unmasked
2008: Beautiful People
2009: Mars: A Horizon Guide
2010: Five Days that Changed Britain
2012: The Final Frontier? A Horizon Guide to the Universe
2013: Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe
2014: JFK to 9/11: Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick
2015: The VIP Paedophile Ring: What’s the Truth
2016: Professing Themselves to Be Wise
2006-2016: Screenwipe (five episodes)
2017: Glastonbury 2017
2017: The Last Leg
2018: Grenfell: The First 24 Hours
2019: Zone of Champions
2019: Newscast
2019: Frankie Boyle’s New World Order
2020: Victoria Derbyshire
2020: The Andrew Neil Show
2020: The Shipman Files
2020: The Noughties
2021: The Riots 2011: One Week in August
2021: Life Through a Lens
2022: Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
2024: The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson
2024: The Bolt Report
TV and film cameos
2005: Absolute Power
2006: Doctor Who
2006: The Children’s Party at the Palace
2008: Psychoville
2010: Casualty
2012: Skyfall
2013: Zombie Cats from Mars: Life on Mars Parody
