The Bombing of Pan Am 103

The horror of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 has been portrayed before in documentaries and also the recent drama starring Colin Firth as a bereaved father.

This series, though, is primarily focused on the extremely complex, wide-ranging and stressful investigation and the multiple countries and agencies who worked together to find the culprits. The whole cast is excellent but in particular Connor Swindells and Patrick J Adams as the Scottish Police and FBI leads are tremendous and so believable. The years of dogged investigation and the many, many professionals who worked tirelessly to identify the bombers is inspirational. Those who were involved will never be the same again, I'm sure.

The torment of the families is very much to the fore as well, and the close bond that many of them formed with the people of Lockerbie and members of the investigation team over the following years is very emotionally played here. Phylis Logan is great as a local lady who forms a volunteer group to carefully clean and sort out the victims' belongings so they could return as much as possible to the grieving families.

This is a very, very good series and it is extremely emotionally affecting.

Criticisms: Some accents needed working on as they were a distraction to the story. Apart from that, most of the acting was very good.

Too long. Four episodes would have been better.

A lot of time taken up with mundane things like cops and agents travelling back and forth.

Personally I would have preferred some flashback reminders of key plot items as it was hard for me to remember and keep track of some details and characters.

The font used for captions at the beginning and end of episodes was too small.

Praises: The series did well in portraying the kindness and generosity of the Scottish volunteers and people of Lockerbie.

The authentic film clips of politicians of that time and the years following were helpful.

The aftermath of the bombing was not unnecessarily graphic.

It's been said this has strayed from the train of events somewhat, and may even have factual inaccuracies. Maybe so. However, I feel it has captured the essence of this awful tragedy - with a strong cast, well-written screenplay and thoughtful direction. I would like to know what the people of Lockerbie thought of it, as well as those (still with us) who were involved in the aftermath of the disaster - police, FBI, forensic experts and other professionals - as well as families of the victims. Arguably it might bring back memories which many would best not wish to have resurrected, but these views would surely be authentic.

A few reviewers have given dreadful scores because it's unrealistic. I have an imagination so I can imagine what it would be like to be the first on the scene. These people are complaining there's not enough bodies! I mean come on, we don't need to see that. We can all imagine what 270 deaths would look like! I would imagine that the response would be coordinated initially from Glasgow. Another reviewer thought that there should be more emphasis on local responders. My response to that would be that they should make their own dramatisation with the focus on local responders. Oh and while they are at it make it a gory, rather than a sensitive drama respecting the dead and bereaved.

I live exactly on the flight path probably one more minute into the flight. This could have been us. It could have been a lot of places.

So far so good. It's not over dramatised. It's a sensitive portrayal of actual events.

This is what the BBC does so well. Not over dramatised, but based on good research and faithful to the events.

I've given 7/10 until I see more but with just episode 1, I am blown away by the preparation, scene setting, extras, props.

Initially disappointed with the representation of 1988 like it was the 60s or 70s! I remember that year and the UK was much more power dressing and double breasted jackets... Though maybe not in Lockerbie, tbf.

Acting and script is a bit patchy, but there are some great actors to carry this off, albeit with some sketchy US accents.

Lastly, to reflect on the event itself. What a dreadful thing to do. So much terror, and for what. The btards. It's a testament to this tragedy that we are reconstructing it nearly 40 years later.