Note: This review was written before the 2025 plane crashes in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
It’s December 21, 1988, and the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, are dark. A boy wheels his sister’s bike to the neighbor’s to be fixed. Christmas lights twinkle. The event that will change everything hasn’t yet happened, but it will. For south of Lockerbie at London’s Heathrow Airport, Pan Am Flight 103 is about to take off.
The five-episode Peacock Original series, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, tells the horrific story of the Pan Am crash from a father’s perspective, Dr. Jim Swire. The series is based on Swire’s co-authored 2021 book, The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice.
Swire was a general practitioner, who hours after casually hugging his 23-year-old daughter goodbye, learns that Flora’s flight has crashed. Through his phone’s receiver, he hears, “There are no survivors.”
After the mind-bending crash, the series settles into a quiet sort of fierce grace. I have no other way to say it. Melodrama it is not, and the most excruciating moments are silent avalanches.
Through fine and artistic drama, the story is told. While Episode 2 reveals governmental refusals for an outside investigation, Episode 3 places us in the courtroom as Libyans Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah stand accused.
Colin Firth enacts the role of Dr. Jim Swire with deep pathos. How well those dark eyes convey anguish. Catherine McCormick joins him as Flora’s intelligent and wrecked mother.
Lockerbie was a village with just over 4,000 inhabitants that became known world-wide in 1988 when Pan AM Flight 103 exploded and crashed. Along with the 270 murdered passengers, eleven residents were killed from falling debris and gas explosions. According to FBI.gov, “The explosion at 30,000 feet rained debris over 845 square miles, creating the largest-ever crime scene.”
It’s a worthy grief movie, says my therapist husband. Swire’s grieving—that is, his frantic busyness—and the family tensions it spawns—rings true.
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth offers no easy answer and no easy fix. Political powers play while a father’s heart pays. So why watch a TV series about this heart-crushing event? Because we suffer, as do our neighbors. Why not watch how someone stood in his excruciating event with agency and with intelligence? (Peacock Original)
About the Author
Cynthia Beach authored the #ChurchToo novel The Surface of Water and the writing book, Creative Juices. She co-directs Scriptoria Workshop with Newbery-winner Gary Schmidt.