Colin Firth’s new Lockerbie tragedy TV drama has sparked concern among victims’ families over how it could impact a trial of the alleged bombmaker.
Oscar-winning Firth plays the campaigning dad of a young woman who was one of 270 people killed in the UK’s deadliest terror attack. But Sky’s production airing tomorrow about the 1988 bombing of New York-bound Pan AM 103 has sparked fears over focusing on Dr Jim Swire.
The 88-year-old’s theory on who is to blame for the atrocity is at odds with some of those bereaved. And concern has been raised over the potential influence the show could play in the upcoming trial over one of those blamed. The five-part series comes in the wake of last year’s Post Office scandal drama on ITV, which prompted widespread outrage of the miscarriage of justice by highlighting Sir Alan Bates’ campaign.
Lockerbie resident Robert Love (R) looks at one of the four engines of the ill-fated jet on December 22, 1988.
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A bereaved dad said of the Lockerbie programme: “It is only a drama and is their version of what they like to believe happened. But it is a theory I don’t agree with at all. My concern is the influence this could have on the trial if we only hear his version of events. I would be deeply concerned about that.”
A bomb went off in the hold of the Boeing 747 jet just 38 minutes after taking off from London’s Heathrow on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 onboard and a further 11 on the ground in the Scottish town. Some 43 UK and 190 US citizens were among the 270 who perished – the youngest of whom was only two-months old.
Ex-Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s 2001 conviction over the atrocity has been a source of contention for some. Dr Swire’s hunt for justice is played out in the series, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. The Sky drama is based on the book, Lockerbie: A Father’s Search for Justice, which the campaigner co-authored.
Dr Jim Swire’s theory on who is to blame for the atrocity is at odds with some of those bereaved.
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Megrahi – who Dr Swire believes was wrongly accused – died in 2012 in Libya after being released from Scottish prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with cancer. He had protested his innocence. Libyan Abu Agila Masud, 71, accused of making the bomb, was due to stand trial in Washington in May but proceedings are said to have been delayed by up to 120 days over a medical condition. Masud has denied charges.
But Dr Swire thinks the bombing was carried out by a Syrian-backed group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by a US warship earlier in 1988. However, Paul Hudson, who lost daughter Melina in the tragedy when she was just 16, said he had met Dr Swire several times and “profoundly disagreed” with his “theories”.
Melina was returning home for holidays after spending a semester at Exeter School as part of an exchange. Mr Hudson – who now lives in Florida but was at the time based in Albany, New York – hopes the drama does not influence the jury of the upcoming trial. Mr Hudson, on the board of the Pan AM 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation and who has only seen trailers for the drama, said: “The timing feels coincidental before the trial here. I hope it doesn’t do anything to influence the jury pool.
Dr Swire’s daughter, Flora, among victims of the 1988 Lockerbie atrocity, pictured aged 21.
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“If it creates serious doubts that Libya was innocent this person [Masud] may end up not being convicted. They have got an A-list actor who won’t have come cheap to play Jim Swire. I am sure it will be very popular because of this… It is only a drama and is their version of what they like to believe happened. But it is a theory I don’t agree with at all. My concern is the influence this could have on the trial if we only hear his version of events. I would be deeply concerned about that.”
Meanwhile, Victoria Cummick, whose husband John died in the bombing, has accused programme makers of trying to “influence uninformed audiences” and “instil doubt in potential jurors”. The widow, who regularly visits her late husband’s grave in a Lockerbie cemetery, told the Sun: “I feel that the casting of Colin Firth, depicted as the lone, courageous champion of truth and justice, will elevate Swire’s story, filled with unproven conspiracy theories and politically biased interpretations.”
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, a spokesman for Victims Of Pan Am Flight 103, whose father Frank Ciulla was killed in the attack, told The Mail on Sunday earlier this year: “We have raised our concerns with the producers of the project. We feel they are amplifying and highlighting a false narrative about the bombing, a narrative that the great majority of us who lost loved ones do not align with and have fought very hard against. By focusing on the story of one family, they are denying the story of so many of us.”
Colin Firth said of Dr Swire: ‘I was just overwhelmed by the relentless sadness of his journey.’
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Executive producer of the Sky drama, Gareth Neame, said: “It’s very important to point out that Jim’s belief that there was a miscarriage of justice isn’t the sole belief, and we hope our drama shows that Jim Swire’s opinion has been challenged over the years. Jim Swire has always believed that there was a miscarriage of justice in the Scottish legal proceedings at the trial in the Netherlands, and that Megrahi was innocent.
“That is his opinion and it’s an opinion shared by many other people, but it is not shared by everyone. We acknowledge that there are many families who hold a completely different opinion. So as a drama, we’ve endeavoured to show that by never saying whether Jim’s version of events is correct or not. There’s a lot of evidence to say that it might be, but equally, there’s contradictory evidence as well. We are telling Jim’s story from his perspective.”
Firth, who earned a best actor Academy Award for his role in The King’s Speech, admitted he did not “know very much about Jim Swire beforehand”. But the acclaimed star, who has met Dr Swire, said: “I was just overwhelmed by the relentless sadness of his journey. The twists and turns of it; and revisiting what I thought I knew about the trial, about the investigation and all of the subsequent events. I thought it was the most remarkable story, a painful one, but also in many ways an impressive one. I thought that if you go through the steps that that man has been through, it was very much a story worth telling.”
A policeman walks away from the damaged cockpit of the airliner that exploded over Lockerbie.
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Dr Swire, whose daughter Flora was just shy of her 24th birthday when killed, thinks Megrahi was a wronged man. The campaigner, who lives in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, explained: “My belief is that UK and US governments lied about the way this was carried out. Over the years as the UK families group, all that we have done is try to go behind the scenes to make up our own minds.”
A Sky spokesperson said: “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is based on Dr Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph’s book ‘The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice’ and is anchored in the personal story of Dr Jim and Jane Swire. We understand there are opposing opinions and do not attempt to tell the definitive version of the Lockerbie disaster or present a conclusion. We do not underestimate the responsibility of telling this story sensitively. We engaged with victims’ families and support groups throughout production and in the lead up to the series launch.”