The Bombing of Pan Am 103, review: a story told with restraint, detail, and decency

Telegraph

18-05-2025

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (BBC One) could have started by showing the explosion at 31,000ft over the town of Lockerbie. It could have reconstructed the final seconds aboard the plane. It could have recreated the moment of impact as, in the words of a prosecutor at the trial of the bomber, 'locals felt the heavens cave in'. But it doesn't. This could be for reasons of budget, but it also indicates a level of restraint that is present throughout this sober, painstaking drama.
We do see the devastating aftermath, homes ablaze and streets resembling a war zone. But the emphasis is on the investigation, which began after the bombing that claimed 270 lives, conducted by the Scottish police and the FBI. It ran for years, and the drama also takes its time. It delves into the minutiae, with much time given to tiny but crucial details: identifying fragments of a circuit board, or tracing scraps of clothing to an outfitters in Malta. The drama excels at showing us the sheer scale of the task, with evidence from the plane and its luggage scattered over an 850-mile area. 'If it's not a rock, if it's not growing, then pick it up, bag it, label it. Details make cases,' the senior investigating officer tells his search teams, and we will come to understand the value of that instruction.
A police procedural, then, but also a tribute to the Lockerbie community and the care its residents showed towards the victims. A local woman, Moira Shearer (Phyllis Logan), is among a group of volunteers who return recovered items to the bereaved families. Bagpipers play as the bodies are sent home. The Scottish police are dogged and respectful. The FBI, by contrast, has its fair share of blow-hards. Occasionally, this difference is rammed home in unsubtle style.
At the same time as illustrating the huge scale of the investigation, writer Jonathan Lee concentrates on a few key characters. Chief among them is Ed McClusker, a Scottish detective of quiet decency who is among the first on the scene. He is played by Connor Swindells, an unshowy actor who is exactly right for the part. Peter Mullan brings gravitas as the senior investigating officer, DCS John Orr. On the other side of the Atlantic, Suits star Patrick J Adams plays FBI agent Dick Marquise, who slowly comes to appreciate the fine job that the Scottish force is doing. Rounding out the group is Eddie Marsan as FBI bomb expert Tom Thurman, with a howler of an American accent.
The drama is not overly emotive. Victims' families appear and you will feel enormous sympathy for them, but even the awful plight of Steven McCormick, who lost his parents and younger sister and came to be known in the press as 'the orphan of Lockerbie', doesn't tug at the heart strings as much as it could (if you look up Steven's story and what became of him, it is truly desolating). The script doesn't allow us to become too involved with the individual stories, instead focusing on the relationship between the Scottish police and the FBI, which swings between collaboration and distrust. A supplementary storyline features Kathryn Turman (Merritt Weaver), an American who set up victim-support services for families that are still in use today.
Another recent dramatisation, Lockerbie: a Search for Truth – which starred Colin Firth as bereaved father Dr Jim Swire – was more controversial, airing Swire's theory that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was framed. The Bombing of Pan Am 103 does not concern itself with that, and pointedly ends with a caption informing viewers that al-Megrahi served less than two weeks in prison for each life lost.