The Bombing of Pan Am 103 is more documentary than drama ...Middle East

Just days before Christmas in 1988, the worst terrorist attack ever on British soil unfolded when a plane bound for New York from London Heathrow exploded over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people. As the world looked on in horror, investigators from Scotland, England and the US scrambled to understand what had happened. The BBC’s new six-part series, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, tells their stories, as well as those of the families whose loved ones would never make it home for Christmas again.

Inevitably, this is heavy stuff, and thankfully (or tediously, depending on your perspective), the BBC’s dramatisation of the tragedy, interspersed with archival news snippets, is faithful to the facts. As the first episode opens, text on screen explains that – while some scenes and characters have been added for dramatic purposes – the show has been produced following extensive research and interviews.

Accuracy is paramount when dealing with an event that affected so many still living today. Yet The Bombing of Pan Am 103 has moments of feeling stilted, creaking with dialogue that would get its writers top marks for diligent research but not necessarily human interest. “Lockerbie is near Dumfries, the UK’s smallest police force,” says the agent leading an FBI briefing in the immediate wake of the incident – good to know, I guess, though hard to swallow as believable speech.

Despite instances of over-zealous trivia impinging on the story’s flow, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 does an admirable job of portraying the individual impact of such an international incident. Local DS Ed McCusker (Connor Swindells), for instance, is simultaneously shell-shocked, flummoxed and incensed by the flaming wreckage raining down on his hometown.

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One short scene, of him returning home in the small hours after a long day on the case, crumpling on to his wife who is waiting up for him in front of the news on the sofa, is especially touching. The enormity of what Ed and his colleagues are grappling with, contrasted with the hitherto local scale of their professional lives, makes for a fascinating dramatic undercurrent.

Meanwhile, the jolt of a news crew arriving at the ill-fated New York airport gate, where families are still awaiting their loved ones, illustrates the emotional contradiction that makes such incidents so harrowing.

The moments of light-touch showing – rather than heavy-handed telling – the story of Flight 103 add invaluable nuance to the series. Similarly, its focus on the power struggle between the various teams – the local Scots force, the FBI in New York, and the London police – lends the well-known story an unexpected slant, infusing the investigation with layers of complex motivations.

“Until I’m told otherwise, I’m in charge,” snaps the leading Lockerbie officer, DCS Orr (Peter Mullan) at a patronising officer from Heathrow. Fair enough, but not necessarily the most level-headed way to run a case – it remains to be seen whether Orr’s territorial approach will pay off or backfire.

With the plane’s black box finally found, indicating terrorism rather than engine failure, the first episode draws to a close with a candlelit vigil in Lockerbie and some stirring words from DCS Orr: “Whoever they are, wherever they are, we will bring them to justice.” No doubt, those lines were written based on the real man’s actual speech at the time – while that ruthless accuracy tends to undermine its narrative drive, the series ultimately feels more like a gripping documentary than a dull history module.

Just as well, because The Bombing of Pan Am 103 has plenty to teach us — about grief, the roles individuals can play at historic moments — besides its rote facts. It is sometimes wooden, but never insubstantial.

‘The Bombing of Pan Am 103’ is on tomorrow at 9pm on BBC One

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