First look at BBC Lockerbie drama unveiled
In a statement the BBC and Netflix said the new programme would be centred around the search for evidence on the ground in Scotland, before taking in the trial at Camp Zeist in 2000 and the ongoing build-up to a new trial in the USA. It will also "highlight the human impact on the investigators, the families and the Lockerbie community".Other stars in the new show include Eddie Marsan, Phyliss Logan and Tony Curran.
Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down on 21 December 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew and another 11 residents in Lockerbie.The disaster remains the worst act of mass murder in British legal history.In 2001, a Scottish court sitting in the neutral Netherlands ruled the bombing was an act of state-sponsored terrorism carried out by Libyan intelligence.Three judges decided Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was part of the plot and convicted him of playing a central role in the bombing.Megrahi was to serve a life sentence in Scotland but was sent back to Libya in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012.Some relatives of British victims, led by the English GP Dr Jim Swire, maintained that Megrahi was innocent, and the real culprits were Iran and a Syrian-backed group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.Dr Swire's book Lockerbie: A Search for Truth inspired the Sky production, which was broadcast in January.
The investigation gained momentum after the 2011 fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.This later led to Abu Agila Masud being charged with making the bomb that detonated on the flight.He was due to go on trial in May after pleading not guilty, but the case has been postponed after both the prosecution and defence sought a delay.The new series has been written by novelist Jonathan Lee and Scottish screenwriter Gillian Roger Park, and directed by Michael Keillor.It will air on BBC One in the UK and Ireland, and via Netflix globally.
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