Live Film Special: Good Night, and Good Luck w/Helen Lewis

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

History, News, Society & Culture, Politics, Philosophy

4.7 • 747 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). A film about the golden age of journalism and the grim years of McCarthyism, it tells the story of Ed Murrow’s attempt to take down scaremongering and conspiracy theories. Where is McCarthyism at work today? What’s happened to cancel culture? How was early TV like podcasting? And is George Clooney a hero for our times? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: Brave New World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, my name's David Rumserman, and this is past, present, future, the History of Ideas
0:15.1	podcast. Today's episode is another live recording made at the Regent Street Cinema in London just this week.
0:22.6	The screening was George Clooney's film Good Night and Good Luck about McCarthyism.
0:27.7	And I'm speaking to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about the film, about McCarthyism, about council culture and about the golden age of journalism.
0:42.4	As always, with these live film episodes, we are aware that this conversation you're
0:47.4	about to hear took place after we had just all watched the film, including our audience.
0:52.9	And you may never have seen the film, or you may
0:55.5	have seen it a long time ago. So I'm just going to briefly recap what the film is about and what
1:01.9	happens. It was made in 2005. It's directed by George Clooney. George Clooney also stars in it,
1:08.1	though he doesn't play the main role. The main role, Ed Morrow,
1:11.1	is played by the actor David Stratharne. It's worth saying it's in black and white, if you haven't
1:15.5	seen it. It looks gorgeous on the big screen. Everyone there, I think, was struck by that. One of
1:21.7	the reasons it looks gorgeous, and we allude to this in the beginning of the conversation,
1:24.8	is everybody is smoking all the time, so smoke curls around everyone in this gorgeously lit film. Among the people who smoke all the time
1:32.7	are the main character, Ed Morrow. This is a true life story about a real American journalist. He was
1:40.0	at the time. It's set in the 1950s, the most famous TV journalist in America, and he smoked
1:45.9	throughout his live TV broadcast. The film is set in two timeframes. It begins and ends.
1:51.7	It is framed by a speech that Morrow gave in 1958, in which he lamented the decline of serious
1:57.5	TV journalism. But the bulk of the action takes place in 1953, and it is the story
2:03.3	of Morrow and his producer, Fred Friendly, played by George Clooney, taking on and taking down
2:09.6	Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, had from
2:15.8	1950 to 1953 been running a scare campaign against
	...

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