New BBC and Netflix drama will tell story of Lockerbie bombing
The six-part series will focus on the events surrounding the 1988 bombing and the subsequent investigation
The production company behind United, which focused on the Munich air disaster, and Anne, which told the story of Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams, has been commissioned to make a six-part factual drama about the Lockerbie bombing.
Pan Am flight 103 was over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, en route from Heathrow to JFK airport in New York, when a bomb exploded in the hold. The blast killed all 259 people on the plane, as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, is so far the only man convicted in relation to the bombing, after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, sitting at a special court in the Hague in 2001.
He was sent to prison in Scotland, but was controversially granted compassionate release in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, returning home to Libya where he died in 2012.
The BBC and Netflix have commissioned World Productions to make Lockerbie, which will focus on the real events surrounding the bombing and the joint Scots-American investigation into the terrorist attack.
“We have the right team in place to tell this extraordinary story with the greatest of care, making sure the series reflects the devastating events of that night, the complex and far-reaching investigation that followed and the effect it had on all those who lost loved ones,” Gaynor Holmes, the BBC’s commissioning editor, said.
Novelist and screenwriter Jonathan Lee is the lead writer for the new series, with two episodes written by Scottish screenwriter Gillian Roger Park.
“The Pan Am 103 Disaster and the global manhunt it spawned was a defining event in world history – one that contains so many instances of resilience and courage that deserve to be honoured and understood,” said Lee. “It’s a privilege to write this story for the screen.”
The series is being made in association with MGM Television, with Lockerbie set to air first on BBC One and iPlayer, followed on Netflix globally.
