Colin Firth To Headline Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Drama For Peacock
Academy Award winner Colin Firth is set to star in Lockerbie, a limited series for Peacock and Sky about the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the titular Scottish town.
On Dec. 21, 1988, 259 passengers — including 35 Syracuse University students who had been studying abroad — and crew were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie 38 minutes after take-off. Eleven Lockerbie residents also lost their lives, as the plane came down.
Two Libyan intelligence officers were charged in 1991 by U.S. prosecutors with plotting and carrying out the bombing, but then-dictator Muammar Gadhafi wouldn't let them be turned over to U.S. authorities. After years of negotiations, Libya allowed the suspects to be tried by Scottish judges in the Netherlands; one was convicted and sentenced to life in prison (and died of cancer in 2012), the other was acquitted.
In the five-part TV series, which is based on the book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph plus other sources, Firth will portray Jim Swire, an English doctor who lost his daughter, Flora, in the tragedy and has doggedly pursued justice, along with his wife Jane, ever since.
Flora Swire, one day shy of age 24 at the time, was on her way to America to visit her boyfriend for Christmas. (Flight 103 originated in Frankfort, Germany, and was heading to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and then Detroit.)
In the wake of the disaster and Flora's death, Jim Swire was nominated spokesperson for the UK victims' families. "Traveling across continents and political divides, Jim embarks on a relentless journey that not only jeopardizes his stability, family and life, but completely overturns his trust in the justice system," the series synopsis reads. "As the truth shifts under Jim's feet, his view of the world is left forever sullied."
"Exploring events from the disaster and its aftermath, Lockerbie provides an intimate account of a man, a husband, and a father who risks everything in memory of his daughter and the unflinching pursuit of truth and justice."
Lockerbie will be available on Peacock in the U.S. and on Sky and streaming service NOW in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Production on the series will commence early this year.