Good Night & Good Luck is the true story of Edward R Morrow, the courageous CBS newsman who exposed the underhand tactics of a Communist-hating Republican senator in 1950s America.

In 1950s America, in the midst of the Cold War, people were understandably worried about Communism but Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-57) exploited this fear, saying Communists were everywhere, even in the State Department. He started conducting witch hunts and few people had the courage to tell him he was a liar and a bully.

However, Edward R Murrow (1908-65) was such a man. A respected CBS journalist who had covered the Battle of Britain and the Blitz broadcast from Britain, he used his show See it Now as a platform to expose McCarthy’s activities – at great risk to himself and his network.

This film looks at Murrow and his relationships with the people at the network during those paranoid days: his producer Fred Friendly, his protégée Don Hollenbeck, and two producers, Joe and Shirley, whose clandestine meetings had nothing to do with Communism and everything to do with the fact that they were secretly married to one another – something else that was taboo in those days. Senator McCarthy is played by himself, from actual TV footage.

Good Night & Good Luck will be screened on M-Net on August 25 at 22h00. Directed by George Clooney. It stars David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr, Patricia Clarkson and Ray Wise.