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Academy Award-winner Colin Firth is set to return to the screen in the upcoming limited series Lockerbie for Peacock and Sky, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Firth has largely been absent in 2023, except for partnering with Jamie Foxx to produce a Luther Vandross documentary and in archival footage in his iconic role as Mr. Darcy in Barbie. His last projects were in 2022 for the film Empire of Light and Max miniseries The Staircase.
The Lockerbie bombing
The event series follows the story of the Lockerbie bombing terrorist attacks in 1988. A Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to Detroit was blown up by a bomb 38 minutes after it took off over Lockerbie, a Scottish town. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed. Parts of the plane crashed into a residential area which killed 11 more people.
Firth will play Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the incident.
The series is described as: “In the wake of the disaster and his daughter Flora’s death, Dr. Jim Swire (Firth), is nominated spokesperson for the U.K. victims’ families, who have united to demand truth and justice.
The description continues, “Traveling across continents and political divides, Jim embarks on a relentless journey that not only jeopardizes 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 limited event series is based on Swire and Peter Biddulph's 2021 book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice, as well as other sources. The show aims to take a look at what happened during the disaster as well as its aftermath. It also wants to given “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,” according to the series' producers.
Carnival Films, part of Universal International Studios and Sky Studios, is producing the series. David Harrower is the show's lead writer and Maryam Hamidi will guest write an episode. BAFTA winner Otto Bathhurst, who directed three episodes of Peaky Blinders, will be the series' lead director, with Jim Loach directing an episode as well.
Pan Am Flight 103
A total of 270 people were killed during the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. It has been called the deadliest terror attack in UK history. The Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation jointly investigated the incident for three years. At the end of it, both law enforcement bodies issues warrants of arrests to two Libyan nationals in 1991.
After years of negotiations as well as UN sanctions, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men to stand trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 1999. Two years later, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of the murder of the 270 victims and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
However in 2009, the Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in 2012 and was the only person convicted for the attack.
Gaddafi accepted that Libya was responsibility for the attacks, as part of the country's agreement with the UN so sanctions could be lifted. The Libyan government paid compensation to victims' families. Gaddafi maintained that he never gave the order, but had to accept responsibility since al-Megrahi was a government employee.
In 2020, Tunisian resident and Libyan national Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was indicted by US authorities for his part in the bombing. He was placed in custody in 2022, but pled not guilty the following year. His federal trial is set to occur next year.
Lockerbie will be available in the UK, Ireland, Austraia, Germany, Italy and Switzerland on Sky, as well as on NOW, its streaming service. In the US, it will stream on Peacock.
