When I think of intense plane crash scenes in television and movies, titles that spring to mind include movies such as “Foreign Correspondent” (1940), the Robert Zemeckis-directed “Cast Away” (2000) and “Flight” (2012), “The Aviator” (2004), “United 93” (2006) and “Sully” (2016) — and the pilot episodes of “Lost” and “Yellowjackets”
Add to that list the premiere episode of the engrossing and powerful dramatic series “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth,” debuting Thursday with all five episodes on Peacock. Inspired by the true-life story of the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over the sleepy town of Lockerbie, Scotland, and the subsequent investigative efforts by the father of one of the victims, this is the first must-watch show of 2025.
What differentiates the terrifying crash depicted in “Lockerbie” is that we bear witness to the horror almost exclusively from the ground. A Christmastime tableau — of a boy riding his bicycle through a quiet street and greeting a neighbor dressed as Santa Claus, a farmer finishing his chores, dozens of locals circling around a skating rink — is shattered when there’s a startling explosion in the sky and a glow of orange above. And then comes the hellish shower, like an alien invasion, as debris in pieces small and large rains down.
All 259 passengers and crew were murdered by the terrorist bombing, and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed as well.
With real-life news footage interspersed, “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth” brings home the brutal and lasting force of that crash without coming across as exploitative. The same could be said for the series in its entirety, which creates a dense and involving piece of fictionalized storytelling while adhering to the historical timeline.
Based on the book “The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice” by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, the series focuses primarily on the relentless and some would say even obsessive quest by Dr. Jim Swire to unearth the identities of the terrorists and see they are brought to justice. Colin Firth gives a magnificent and laser-focused performance as Swire, who spent years piecing together evidence, giving a voice to the UK victims’ families, putting pressure on politicians and advocating for a man he came to believe had been wrongfully convicted.
Although there’s no denying Swire’s heroics and his tireless efforts (which continue to this day), we come to share the frustrations of his wife, Jane (Catherine McCormack, doing brilliant work as the emotional heart of the story) and his surviving children as he becomes so consumed with the case that he comes perilously close to losing his entire family. There are times when we want to shout at the skies for Swire to stop the globe-trotting crusade, fully acknowledge and deal with his grief — and return emotionally to the family he still has, the family he has ignored far too many times through the years.
Swire is living in contented comfort in the village of Finstall, England, when his family’s world is shattered by the news that his 23-year-old daughter Flora was among those killed in the crash. Swire partners with a relatively small-time but doggedly determined journalist named Murray Guthrie (a fictional construct played by Sam Troughton) to wade through endless reams of evidence and to fight institutional bureaucracy to determine the identities, the motives and the methods of the terrorists who planted the bomb on the plane. (At times, we feel as overwhelmed as Swire, who constructs the obligatory Wall of Evidence containing photos, newspaper clippings, notes, etc.)
There are a few moments when the series itself acknowledges the complexity of the case, as when two suspected terrorists are put on trial, and we get title cards explaining who has entered a scene, e.g., “Thomas Hayes, Forensic Scientist, Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment (RARDE).”
Telling this story mostly through the viewpoint of one man, who has engaged in some controversial actions and choices through the years, is sure to be met with some controversy, as is the depiction of the relationship between Swire and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (portrayed well by Ardalan Esmali), the Libyan whom Swire came to believe was wrongly convicted.
Mostly, though, this is a compelling work, led by Firth’s lionhearted performance. Late in the series, in a scene set many years after the crash, a cashier asks Swire about a button on his lapel with the message, “Lockerbie: the TRUTH must be KNOWN.” When he says, “The Lockerbie disaster,” she gives a puzzled look and replies, “What was that?” It’s not her fault. She’s young. She can’t be expected to know about every horrific tragedy this world has known.
Still, whether you’re old enough to remember the fate of Pan Am Flight 103 or it seems like ancient history, “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth” is an invaluable dramatic record of the history.