Huw Edwards as Guest of Honour at our Charter Dinner

Huw Edwards, Broadcaster and Lead Presenter for BBC News, was guest speaker at Sudbury Rotary Club's annual Charter Night dinner held at The Secret Garden Restaurant in Sudbury during April.  Huw is a Welsh journalist, presenter, and newsreader and as the BBC News lead presenter for major breaking news in the United Kingdom, he presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, the corporation's flagship news broadcast. 

Huw recounted many amusing stories of his life in the media, confirmed that it was very unlikely he would take part in Strictly Come Dancing because of the time pressures of his existing work, and spoke about the role he played in the Bond film Skyfall – for a total of 43 seconds, and as a news presenter!  He had come to Sudbury following a three-hour rehearsal in preparation for the local elections, where he will be on duty from 11 p.m. for seven hours, have a short break and then be back on screen by lunch-time for another six hours.   A gruelling schedule!

He then turned to more serious matters and was candid about the current parlous state of politics in the UK and the serious divisions among people because of Brexit issues.  He also spoke about the problems of social media reporting of news, in that it did not necessarily demonstrate both sides of any debate.  

Fifty guests were present at the birthday dinner – celebrating 69 years of Rotary in Sudbury.   They were fascinated to know how the Club had managed to book Huw Edwards to be their guest speaker.  He explained that he had known the Rotary President, Tony Platt, through their joint interest and involvement in the Welsh Chapels in London and that Tony had been very persuasive!   Huw surprised the guests by addressing us as “Fellow Rotarians”.  Not only is he a Rotarian but he has also been awarded the major accolade in Rotary, a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Tony said  “Huw ensured that the Charter Night was a very enjoyable and successful evening, and one which will be talked about and remembered for a long time.  We were incredibly grateful to Huw for generously giving up time in a very busy schedule of work to visit us in Sudbury, and we will welcome him back at any time.”