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Lockerbie disaster to feature in new Sky drama series

Katie Archer
·Contributor
·3-min read
Residents of Lockerbie and others affected by the bombing climb Burnswark Hill, above the town of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway with 21 flags, representing the 21 nationalities of the victims, for the Walk for Peace event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the air disaster. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
Residents of Lockerbie and others affected by the bombing climb Burnswark Hill to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the air disaster. (Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

A new drama series that tells the story of the Lockerbie disaster and its devastating effects on the victims' families has been announced by Sky and Peacock.

The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 will be dramatised in mini-series Lockerbie, which will also follow the search for justice by Dr Jim Swire and his wife Jane who lost their beloved daughter, Flora, in the tragedy and whose book about their experiences inspires the series.

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It tells the harrowing story of the 259 passengers and crew who lost their lives when the bomb went off 38 minutes after take-off over the quiet Scottish town of Lockerbie as well as the 11 residents on the ground who were killed.

Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the crime 13 years afterwards in 2001 and later released on compassionate grounds in 2009.

Aircraft debris and destroyed houses in Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie are seen from the air as traffic passes along the A74 main road following the midair explosion of Pan Ams flight 103, 'Clipper Maid of the Seas over the village of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, United Kingdom, on Thursday, December 22, 1988. (Photo by Bryn Colton/Getty Images)
Aircraft debris and destroyed houses in Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie following the midair explosion of Pan Am flight 103. (Bryn Colton/Getty Images)

Lockerbie is acknowledged as one of the worst terror attacks in history and in the aftermath of the bombing, some of the families of the victims banded together to search for justice.

Among them was Dr Jim Swire whose campaign has taken him to the sand dunes of Libya to meet face-to-face with Colonel Gaddafi, to 10 Downing Street to meet with successive Prime Ministers and to the corridors of power in the US where he worked with the American victims’ groups to mount pressure on Washington for tighter airport security, well before 9/11.

The moving series will explore events from 1988 to the present day, while providing an intimate account of a man, a husband, and a father who pushes his marriage, his health, and his sanity to the edge.

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 04: Kirsten Sheridan attends Meet the Filmmakers during the 2012 Irish Film New York Film Festival at the Apple Store Soho on October 4, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Kirsten Sheridan co-wrote the series. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)

Lockerbie is a five-part series written by Academy Award nominees Jim and Kirsten Sheridan, and produced by Gareth Neame (Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age) and Nigel Marchant.

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The Sheridans said: "The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 was one of the world’s deadliest terror attacks that continues to have widespread implications for the meaning of justice in the US, Scotland and Libya.

"Over 30 years on, this series takes an intimate and very personal look at the aftermath of the disaster, and we are grateful to all of those, particularly Jim and Jane, who have entrusted us to tell their story, and the story of their loved ones, on screen."

Lockerbie is partly based on book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph and is expected to air on Sky and Peacock in 2023.

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