Colin Firth has been pictured on the set of an upcoming drama series in which he plays a grieving father following the Lockerbie bombing. Firth will portray Dr. Jim Swire, who has long fought for justice for his daughter Flora Swire after she died when Pan Am flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Scotland on December 21, 1988.
He was pictured Wednesday, March 20, by the PA news agency as he walked through a scene that appears to have taken place shortly after the plane’s debris crashed into the city, killing 11 people on the ground. During the flight there were 259 deaths, all passengers and crew.
The Sky series, filmed in Bathgate, West Lothian, sees Firth portray the English doctor who “risks everything in the memory of his daughter and the unwavering pursuit of truth and justice”.
Along with his wife Jane, Dr Swire has spearheaded a call for a full inquiry into Lockerbie.
He told the BBC in December 2022 that he wanted a UN tribunal to be set up, rather than the case being heard by the US or Scotland, and has long wanted the evidence against the only man convicted of the attack to be re-evaluated.
The filming also featured actors portraying police officers and soldiers.
The show is based on the Book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search For Justice by Dr Swire and Peter Biddulph.
Scottish playwright David Harrower, known for the play Blackbird, is the main writer and Otto Bathurst, who won a Bafta for the BBC period crime drama Peaky Blinders, is the main director.
It is a co-production between Carnival Films, which is part of Universal International Studios and Sky Studios.
The BBC and Netflix announced in July that they had commissioned World Productions to make a six-part drama about the Lockerbie bombing.
Novelist and screenwriter Jonathan Lee, who wrote High Dive, is the lead writer and Michael Keillor, who worked on Line Of Duty, Roadkill and Chimerica, will direct.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of 270 counts of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting at a special court in The Hague in 2001 and jailed in Scotland.
He was granted release in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Megrahi returned to Libya where he died in 2012.
His family, and some relatives of the bombing victims, believe he suffered a miscarriage of justice. Appeals against his conviction have been rejected.
Libya’s Abu Agila Masud is said to have helped make the bomb. He is due to stand trial in the United States in May 2025 on three charges, which he denies.
