Lockerbie

I've only completed episode one at this point and I'm astounded by how I'm left feeling afterwards. This was always going to be a hard watch but in fact what is more powerful than its ability to break your heart is the giving us the audience a mere taste of how unbelievably shocking and life altering this event must have been for the residents of Lockerbie, the families of the passengers and the country as a whole. I was only eight at the time so had no real memory of this happening but from shielded to educated, I highly commend the series makers. It's beautifully made, acted and a just tribute to every victim.

This Sky TV series (now on Peacock) won't be everyone's cup o' tea. It's largely an intense recounting of the decades-long investigation into the Pan Am 103 bombing that technically remains unresolved. Episode 1 was riveting with a gut-wrenching reenactment of the airliner crash over Lockerbie Scotland. Some will find the rest of the series tedious, unless they enjoy investigative journalism and/or legal dramas. Colin First plays Dr. Jim Swire, the father of one of the bombing victims. Swire was obsessed with uncovering the truth - both for his daughter and eventually for the convicted Libyan man who he came to believe was innocent. The lengths he went to were incredible and startling. The attempts to spur an independent inquiry and the uncovering of the intricate details of the event were fascinating. I learned so much about this case. Like many people, I thought it was all settled, but another criminal trial is coming up in 2025. Overall, I found this to be a very compelling series.

I remember sitting with my parents when the news bulletin came in about Lockerbie, an event which shocked our nation. I had returned from my first trip to the USA that summer, working on a summer camp near Syracuse. A number of students from Syracuse had also worked there over the holiday. A group of them were on that flight, returning from a trip to London. I would not find out that friends of friends had lost several people on board that flight, several from one class alone, until many years later.

The narrative presented to the public about who & why was responsible was always confusing & convoluted and I was never entirely convinced by the official version.

Here we finally get the television drama this story deserves, told, perhaps wisely (though I am sure some will think it unfair) primarily from one family's perspective searching for the truth. I consider myself fairly educated on this subject, but this show brought several things to light that I was previously unaware of. What is very clear is that these families were lied to from the outset and facts were deliberately withheld from them.

Catherine McCormack gives the performance of her life as the grieving mother, with Colin Firth doing what he does best in the leading role. This series is not an easy watch, but as I have said before about similar productions, it is absolutely 100 percent essential viewing. Another stand out performance is that of Sam Troughton as the intrepid reporter chasing all the pieces of the jigsaw, while newcomer Jemma Carlton holds on her own against the heavyweights. Remember under Thatcher (don't get me started) there was no Public Inquiry into Hillsborough, Marchioness nor Lockerbie.

Naturally any drama taking on a topic as emotional tragic as this must be handled with care, sensitivity and respect for those directly impacted by the events. I won't presume to know their views, but I think they would be very satisfied with the powerful results we have here.

The crash itself is especially well handled. We see enough to know the utter horror of what they went through both in the air and on the ground but no more than is required.

This sequence is extremely well directed by Otto Bathhurst.

I urge you to watch it. The main theme here is everyone should always be held accountable for their mistakes. Otherwise those damaged by such events can't even begin to heal.

I highly commend the entire production team.

First class drama - watch it now.

This five-part Sky TV dramatisation of the events surrounding the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, which killed a total of 270 people, has already attracted controversy by taking as its point of view, claims of the innocence of the one man convicted so far of the crime, Libyan Baset el-Megrahi. The point is made in a subtitle at the end of the final episode that of course another high-ranking Libyan of the time has now been extradited to the United States and will face trial in May of this year so that there may yet be another twist in this appalling tale. El-Megrahi, after years of appealing his conviction, on being diagnosed with terminal cancer, finally abandoned this course of action to qualify for his eventual release and repatriation where he duly died of prostate cancer some three years, not the expected three months, later.

Now, cards on the table, although I was and remain a supporter of the ruling Scottish National Party in my home country which made the decision to grant Megrahi his liberty on compassionate grounds, I remember at the time being outraged, strongly believing that such a mass-murderer deserved to die in jail. This programme on the other hand, tells the story from the viewpoint of Dr Jim Swire, an English doctor who lost his beloved young daughter in the crash. Swire tirelessly endeavoured to get to the truth, no matter how unpalatable and came to the firm conclusion that Megrahi was innocent, effectively being set up by the American FBI or CIA, possibly in collusion with the British government of the day. One of the reasons there was and continues to be such speculation over what happened on board Pan-Am Flight 103 is precisely because there has been no official government enquiry into the surrounding events as there tends to be for disasters of this magnitude. Swire, with the sometime.assistance of an equally unconvinced Scottish journalist, comes to believe that the real perpetrators were Iran and Syria, both strategically important nations to the west for different reasons by the time of the trial, but mainly, inevitably, for oil. Libya, as a rogue state under the dictatorship of the notorious President Gaddafi, was duly blamed for the attack with Megrahi put forward as the ultimate patsy.

The sad fact is that the truth may never be known, with so many of the official documents remaining classified, but the production here leaves little doubt as to what it believes to be Megrahi's innocence, going a long way to painting him as a sympathetic figure, the sacrificial victim of a deliberate miscarriage of justice.

My conclusion is that it's better to take a side in matters like these, rather than sitting on the fence and that is certainly the case here. Swire too then is presented in a mostly favourable light, indefatigable in his pursuit for truth even if it loses him some of the love and respect of his family and even his wife who herself is struggling with her mental health in the wake of their loss.

The first episode in particular was difficult to watch, as it recreated in detail I know what still couldn't have been even a fraction of the actual carnage which occurred on that fateful December night. Thereafter we follow Swire in his campaign and unsurprisingly the dramatic tension fades somewhat as we endure lengthy courtroom scenes. Nevertheless, this was a compelling series, skilfully and sensitively directed (apart from one jarring moment when a young Scottish woman claims ignorance of the tragedy, believe me, like the awful Dunblane massacre in the next decade, I think all Scots know exactly how emotive the very word Lockerbie is in our country).

Colin Firth carries the weight of the production on his broad shoulders and does so convincingly with a performance throughout of sensitivity and restraint, well matched by Catherine McCormack as his troubled wife.

While I may have felt somewhat guided and even manipulated by the programme-makers to accept their version of events, I was nevertheless emotionally engaged throughout by this strong, well made and ultimately provocative drama.

The horrendous 1988 plane crash disaster from Jim Swire's point of view (respectable performance from Firth), a parent who lost a daughter on that flight, and for over twenty years Jim just kept seeking justice that got buried by the powers-that-be to suit their own agenda. A tightly structured mini-series that will have you binge-watching in one seating. And it only took five episodes to tell this riveting true story (depending on your political point of view), instead of the standard 6 to 10 episodes of stretching a story with useless meandering to other characters, instead focusing on the commitment of one father wanting answers in honour of his daughter...