TV-MA | 5 episodes | Drama | 2025
It’s hard to believe that Western governments deliberately covered-up the culpability of the Iranian regime and its Palestinian puppets in the 1988 Lockerbie airline terror attack to shield them from the consequences of their actions.
On the other hand, it is relatively easy to buy into the official story, blaming the ruthless and erratic terrorist-sponsoring Libyan rogue-state. As a spokesman for the Lockerbie families, Dr. Jim Swire (Colin Firth) initially accepted the British government’s Libyan theory, but he eventually became an outspoken gadfly-skeptic.
Inevitably, his zeal caused friction with many other bereaved Lockerbie families, sometime including his own, according to creator-writer David Harrower’s five-episode fact-based drama, “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.”
Tragedy in the Air
Four days before Christmas, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, with Swire’s daughter Flora Margaret MacDonald Swire (Rosanna Adams) aboard. Not only were there no survivors, there were also casualties on the ground from the falling debris.To add frustration to fear, Pan Am had difficulty confirming the passenger list during the early hours following the tragedy. The British government compounded that frustration by enveloping the terrorist attack in a cloak of official secrecy.
Despite his medical background, Dr. Swire discovers he has a talent for attracting media attention to the Pan Am 103 case, so the association of Lockerbie families quickly elects him their spokesman. They cheer for him when he confronts stonewalling government officials, but they are unnerved by Swire’s grandstanding: He reveals he successfully smuggled a non-explosive replica of the Flight 103 bomb through UK airport security.
Swire initially expresses great confidence in the British government’s charges against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Ardalan Esmaili) and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah (Mudar Abbara); both are simultaneous employees of Libyan Arab Airlines and Libya’s intelligence service. Of course, Col. Gaddafi (Nabil Al Raee) is not inclined to extradite his loyal operatives, so Swire jets out to Libya to convince him to trust Scottish justice and somehow succeeds.
Righteous Outrage
However, as Swire watches the trial unfold in the neutral venue of the Netherlands, but under Scottish law, the doctor-activist’s mind completely changes as he listens to the defense present their rebuttals. Now entirely convinced of their innocence, he is as confused as everyone else when the court convicts Megrahi, but not Fhimah.Since Swire has only one speed when it comes to the Flight 103 case—righteous outrage—he tirelessly dedicates himself to clearing Megrahi’s name. Not surprisingly, he is largely ostracized by the other Lockerbie families, while he sorely tries the patience of his long-suffering wife, Jane (Catherine McCormack).
Whether they intended to or not, screenwriters Harrower and Maryam Hamidi’s adaptation of Swire’s non-fiction memoir presents a profoundly sad portrait of a man so obsessed with conspiracies that he loses sight of the forest for the trees. Essentially, Swire (as they depict him) sacrifices years with his remaining family because he is so consumed with Megrahi’s cause.
Ironically, Harrower and Hamidi mention in passing new evidence that supports the Libyan theory. They spend considerable time casting aspersions on the Thatcher and Blair governments.
Yet, the awkward fact remains that the two major competing theories both agree that Palestinian terrorists (namely the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) most likely executed the atrocity, either at the behest of Libya or Iran. As a result, the series will likely garner a frosty reception from its target audience, British conservatives.
Indeed, Swire’s perspective is an awkward vantage point from which to tell the Lockerbie story. It leads to a decidedly flat concluding installment. This largely consists of Swire seeking validation from Megrahi, who suddenly looks more guilty, even to the stubborn doctor.
One-Dimensional Cast
Firth keenly expresses Swire’s grief and misery, but like the film itself, his performance mostly hits the same emotional notes, over and over again. McCormack brings much more subtlety and complexity to Jane Swire, who often acts like she has lost a husband as well as a daughter.
Sam Troughton portrays Murray Guthrie, a fictionalized Scottish journalist who becomes Swire’s confidant, and possibly also his enabler, with rumpled cynicism that well-serves the muckraking tone of the series. However, Esmaili plays Megfrahi as such a one-dimensional victim that it will surely trouble and even offend many Lockerbie families.
Indeed, the notion that Swire might have dedicated years of his life to free a man complicit in his daughter’s murder should be grist for grandly tragic and ironic drama. Yet, Harrower dispenses with it in a matter of minutes. Frankly, “Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth” is as much defined by its missed opportunities as it is by its biases.
In some ways, it provides a timely reminder of the ongoing dangers of terrorism, including that perpetrated by violent Palestinian militants, but its selective cherry-picking of viewpoints is glaringly conspicuous.
Ultimately, the pacing is just too flat to recommend “Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth.”
