CNN Picks Up Sky Doc Series About Lockerbie Disaster From Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse

Max Goldbart
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: CNN has picked up Sky’s BAFTA-winning Lockerbie doc series from Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse.

Lockerbie examines what was the deadliest terror attack on the U.S. before 9/11 on its 35th anniversary. The 1988 bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, led to the deaths of 270 people, 190 of whom were U.S. citizens. With access to victims’ families, investigators, intelligence officers and other key figures who had not spoken until now, the series follows the disaster from start to end and profiles who was responsible.

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Lockerbie was produced by Theroux, Nancy Strang and Arron Fellows’ Mindhouse in association with Sky Studios. Directed by John Dower, it beat off competition from another Sky show, Dublin Narcos, along with Channel 4’s Evacuation and the BBC’s Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland to scoop the BAFTA for Factual Series.

The team behind ‘Lockerbie’ at the BAFTAs. Image: Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images.
The team behind ‘Lockerbie’ at the BAFTAs. Image: Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images.

Both Sky/Peacock and the BBC/Netflix are making limited drama series versions of the Lockerbie disaster, with the former starring Colin Firth and the latter Patrick J. Adams and Connor Swindells. Mindhouse, meanwhile, recently made a series about the 20th anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle disaster for CNN and the BBC, which is available to stream on Max.

The news caps off a good week for Mindhouse, which also sold another Sky doc, Tell Them You Love Me, to Netflix.

The feature explores the controversial affair between a married female professor and a non-verbal black man with cerebral palsy.

Mindhouse’s Fellows said: “We’re delighted that Lockerbie and Tell Them You Love Me are going to be available in the U.S. after such a brilliant response in the UK. We are increasingly developing and making documentaries and factual projects for the international market at Mindhouse, and we look forward to growing that aspect of the business.”

Strang added: “We’re delighted to be embarking on another collaboration with CNN after Columbia: The Final Flight. The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 was the biggest terrorist attack against America before 9/11, so it felt important that we found the right U.S. partner to work with to deliver this important story to an American audience.”

Lockerbie is distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios. Tell Them You Love Me is sold by Kino Lorber in North America. NBCUniversal Global Distribution handle international sales excluding North America on behalf of Sky Studios.

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