Preview Screening: Attacking the Devil + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors Jacqui Morris and David Morris.

For 14 years Sir Harold Evans was editor of The Sunday Times. A period considered to be the ‘golden age’ in British journalism, with an investigative climate all too rare by today’s standards. Evans had both the freedom and resources to allow teams of journalists to work on long-term projects, such as the exposure of Kim Philby as a Soviet spy.

In Attacking the Devil, director Jacqui Morris (McCullin 2012) focuses on Evans’ investigation into the drug thalidomide, which left 10,000 babies with deformities in the 1950s and 60s. The suppliers of the drug, Distillers Biochemicals, used the law of sub judice to try and stop any discussion in the press of the case before the courts. In order to help the child victims of thalidomide get proper compensation Evans and his team risked imprisonment by defying the Attorney General and the political establishment and went ahead with exposing the story.

With contributions from many of the people who were intimately involved and interviews with figures such as Alan Rusbridger, Geoffrey Robertson and Ralph Nader. They all testify to how Evans set an example of how an editor can change the world for the better. 

Directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris
Duration: 99′
Year: 2014