Colin Firth to star in Sky’s Lockerbie
David Farnor | On 27, Jan 2024
Colin Firth will star in Sky’s Lockerbie.
On 21st December 1988, 259 passengers and crew were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie 38 minutes after take-off, with a further 11 residents losing their life as the plane came down over the quiet, Scottish town. 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.
Firth, most recently seen in Supernova and true crime drama The Staircase, will play Dr Jim Swire, who tragically lost his beloved daughter, Flora, in the devastating event and has doggedly pursued justice, along with his wife Jane, ever since. Jim, nominated spokesperson for the UK victims’ families, travels across continents and political divides on a relentless journey that not only jeopardises his stability, family and life, but completely overturns his trust in the justice system. As the truth shifts under Jim’s feet, his view of the world is left forever sullied.
The series is based on the book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, along with multiple other sources. Renowned Scottish playwright David Harrower (Blackbird, Knives in Hens) has joined the series as lead writer. Maryam Hamidi (Vigil) is guest writer on an episode. BAFTA Award-winning Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders, The Winter King) is lead director. Jim Loach (Save Me) will also direct an episode.
The five-part series is a co-production between Carnival Films, which is part of Universal International Studios and Sky Studios.
Production on the series will commence early this year.
Lockerbie: Sky orders drama from Jim and Kirsten Sheridan
26th February 2022
Sky and Peacock are teaming up to order Lockerbie, a new series based on the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the search for justice by Dr Jim Swire and his wife, Jane, who lost their beloved daughter, Flora, in the air disaster.
All 259 passengers and crew were killed when the bomb exploded over Lockerbie 38 minutes after take-off, with a further 11 residents losing their life as the plane came down over the quiet, Scottish town. Thirteen years later, in 2001, Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the crime and later released on compassionate grounds in 2009.
Shortly after the Lockerbie bombing, one of the worst terrorist attacks in history, some families of the victims joined together to launch a campaign for truth and 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 five-part series will be written by Jim Sheridan (In The Name of The Father, My Left Foot) and Kirsten Sheridan (In America, Dollhouse), with Naomi Sheridan guest writing an episode. The drama is based on the book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, along with multiple other sources. It 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.
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.”
The series is a co-production between UCP and Sky Studios, produced with Universal International Studios’ Carnival Films for Sky and Peacock. Both Universal International Studios and UCP are divisions of Universal Studio Group. It is the first scripted co-commission from Sky and sister company Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.
The series is expected to air in 2023 on Sky in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. Production is due to begin later this year.