The BBC's new drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103 tells a sweeping story in the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, following a series of real-life people involved in the subsequent investigation as played by some big-name actors.
One of the figures whose life is dramatised in the series is Ed McCusker, a police officer who played a key role in the investigation as a detective sergeant with Strathclyde police.
McCusker is played in the series by Connor Swindells, but just who is the real-life detective and what do we know about where he is now?
Read on for everything you need to know about the real-life Ed McCusker, as portrayed by Swindells in The Bombing of Pan Am 103.
Who is Ed McCusker, as seen in The Bombing of Pan Am 103?
As seen in The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Ed McCusker is a former police officer, who was a detective sergeant with Strathclyde police on duty at the time of the bombing.
Many elements of his character's role in the drama are based on his real memories of events, but producer Julia Stannard has explained that his storyline also includes the actions of other police officers.
"In terms of characters, literally hundreds of investigators were involved in the case, so we had to decide who to include and where we needed to combine the actions of many police officers into one character who could represent the experiences of a number of the real people involved," Stannard explained.
"Most notably our Ed McCusker as shown in the drama reflects the experiences of a number of the Scottish cops who were involved in the initial investigation, as well as the real Ed McCusker.
"Alex Smith, whose father lived in Sherwood Crescent, was one of the first of the police officers on the scene on the night of the crash.
"Alex also knew the Flannigan family, and of course Steven. Steven and his brother lost their parents and sister in the destruction of their family home on Sherwood Crescent. Although we tell elements of Alex’s story, we don’t depict him as a character in the programme, and instead, our character of Ed incorporates his actions.
"Ed was crucial because not only was he among the investigators in Lockerbie immediately after the crash, he was a key player in the Holmes computer system which was used to log and process the enormous amount of evidence gathered.
"Furthermore, in his later role of witness protection, he was instrumental in making Tony Gauci feel that he would be safe if he gave evidence."
Who happened to Ed McCusker?
After working on the Lockerbie case, McCusker went on to work on implementing witness protection programmes. He later left the police, and for a period worked for the Irish government, investigating the Troubles.
Most recently, McCusker was a key influence for the team working on The Bombing of Pan Am 103, and executive producer Adam Morane-Griffiths has revealed that he was actually the person who got him thinking about telling the story in the first place.
Morane-Griffiths said: "I was producing a docudrama series about a horrendous set of murders in Glasgow and ended up in the back of a minibus with Ed McCusker - he’d investigated those murders. He had also been on the investigation following the bombing of Pan Am 103.
"We bonded because once he had left the police, he’d spent some time investigating the Troubles for the Irish Government. I asked him if he'd heard of my grandfather, who was assassinated in the Troubles, and he had. We got chatting and he asked if I’d heard about Operation Autumn Leaves. I hadn’t, but I went back to my hotel room and started to look into it.
"The next time I was with Ed I said how interesting I thought the story was but asked why he’d told me about it. Ed pointed out the connection to Lockerbie, and that’s how I started, back around 2016, 2017."
Along with McCusker, Morane-Griffiths went on to form relationships with other key figures portrayed in the drama including Dick Marquise, Tom Thurman and Kathryn Turman.
McCusker subsequently visited the set a number of times to help the team with accuracy and authenticity, and met with Swindells.
"Meeting Ed was great, he’s an incredibly warm, friendly man who was so generous with his me," Swindells said. "He had me around to lunch at his house.
"He was so generous with trying to recount as much as possible the events that occurred, lifting me up with as much support as he could. He’s been a great resource, not just to me but to everyone on this production, and I’m very grateful."
McCusker also spoke with Lauren Lyle, who plays his wife June in the drama, who passed away some years ago.
Speaking at a Q&A for the series, Lyle said she was on the phone with him for "about three hours" the first time they spoke, and that he relayed his entire love story with June.
He also told Lyle that he was doing the series for June, because the last thing she said to him was that "you have to tell your Lockerbie story".
The Bombing of Pan Am 103 premieres on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 18th May, with new episodes premiering at 9pm every Sunday and Monday for three weeks.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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