US-based streamer Netflix and UK pubcaster the BBC have commissioned a factual drama about the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
On 21 December 1988, flight Pan Am 103 was en route from Heathrow to JFK when a bomb exploded in its hold over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, with 43 British citizens and 190 Americans among the 270 killed.
The story will be told in a 6×60′ factual drama called Lockerbie, which will dramatise the real events surrounding the bombing and the joint Scots-US investigation.
The lead writer is novelist and screenwriter Jonathan Lee, while two episodes will be written by Scottish screenwriter Gillian Roger Park.
The series is being produced by ITV Studios-owned World Productions, which previously worked on United, about the 1958 Munich air disaster, and Anne, which told the story of Anne Williams’ fight for justice following the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium crush. MGM Television (The Devil’s Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes) is also on board.
Lockerbie will air on BBC One and iPlayer followed by Netflix in the UK and globally. Julia Stannard (United, War and Peace, Anne) will produce and Michael Keillor (Chimerica, Roadkill, Best Interests) will direct. It was initially developed by MGM Television and Night Train Media.
The project was initiated by filmmaker Adam Morane-Griffiths, whose research includes extensive interviews with Scottish police officers and representatives from US investigative agencies, many of whom have never previously shared their stories.
Filming will take place later this year in Scotland, Malta and Toronto.
The executive producers are World Productions’ Simon Heath and Roderick Seligman; Toluca Pictures’ Steve Stark and Stacey Levin; the BBC’s Gaynor Holmes; and Adam Morane-Griffiths, Sara Curran, Herbert L Kloiber and Michael Keillor.
