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Scotsman
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Who is in the cast of The Bombing of Pan Am 103?
Stars of Suits, Severance and SAS: Rogue Heroes feature in the cast for this BBC drama 👀 Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... BBC has confirmed the cast for The Bombing of Pan Am 103. It is based on the investigation into the Lockerbie bombings. But where do you know the actors from? The 'untold story' of the investigation into the Lockerbie bombings in 1988 will be told in a new BBC drama. A transatlantic TV event it follows the quest to bring the perpetrators to justice. It is the second television show in recent times to be based on the terror attack - following the Colin Firth vehicle Lockerbie: A Search for Truth at the start of 2025. The six-part series is a collaboration between the Beeb and Netflix. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The cast features plenty of recognisable faces from both sides of the Atlantic. Here's all you need to know: What is The Bombing of Pan Am 103 about? DS Ed McCusker (Connor Swindells) in The Bombing of Pan Am 103. | Mark Mainz/BBC/Netflix Unlike the other 2025 series based on the Lockerbie bombings, this six-part drama focuses on the investigation in the aftermath of the attack. The BBC explains that it 'follows the untold story of the Scots-US investigation into the attack' and the 'devastating effect it had on the small town and the families who lost loved ones'. The Beeb adds: 'From the initial exhaustive search for evidence on the ground in Scotland, via the US and Malta to the trial at Camp Zeist in 2000, the series leads up to the upcoming new trial in the US. The Bombing of Pan Am 103 also highlights the human impact on the investigators, the families and the Lockerbie community as it sought to rebuild and connect with bereaved families around the world.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Who is in the cast of The Bombing of Pan Am 103? The show features plenty of faces that you will undoubtedly recognise - including Suits star Patrick J. Adams. The full cast includes: Connor Swindells (SAS Rogue Heroes, Sex Education) Patrick J. Adams (Suits, A League of Their Own) Merritt Wever (Unbelievable, Severance) Peter Mullan (Ozark, Payback) Tony Curran (Mary & George, Mayflies) Douglas Hodge (The Great, Catastrophe) Eddie Marsan (The Power, Ray Donovan) Nicholas Gleaves (After The Flood, The Rising) Lauren Lyle (Karen Pirie, Vigil) Andrew Rothney (The Undeclared War, Traces) Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey, Guilt) Cora Bissett (Annika, Shetland) Kevin McKidd (Greys Anatomy, Six Four) Parker Sawyers (Spy/Master, P-Valley) James Harkness (The Sixth Commandment, The Victim) Molly Geddes (Dinosaur, Where We Stop) Khalid Laith (Vigil, Cobra) Amanda Drew (The Gold, Wolf) What time is The Bombing of Pan Am 103 on TV? The first episode of the six-part series is set to begin on BBC One at 9pm today (May 18). It is due to run for approximately an hour and will be followed by the 10pm News. The preview, via Radio Times , reads: 'Dramatised documentary telling the story of the 1988 terrorist attack, in which a transatlantic flight was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing everyone on board as well as several residents of the town.' Viewers will not have to wait long for the second part as another episode is due to air on TV tomorrow (May 19) night. It will also begin at 9pm and also run for around 60 minutes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Have you got a story you want to share with our readers? You can now send it to us online via YourWorld at . It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.
Express Tribune
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Robert Downey Jr. takes on James Stewart's role in Vertigo remake
A remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 psychological thriller Vertigo is officially in development, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight penning the script. The film, set to be distributed by Paramount, will star Robert Downey Jr. in the iconic role of John "Scottie" Ferguson, originally played by James Stewart. In an exclusive interview with The Direct, Knight admitted the challenge of adapting Vertigo, calling it 'the best film ever made.' He joked, 'You'd have to be an idiot to adapt it, and so that's what I am,' acknowledging the difficulty of reworking the revered classic. Knight likened the writing process to 'diffusing a Second World War time bomb,' emphasizing the complexity of the plot and the high expectations surrounding the remake. Despite the daunting task, he expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying, 'I like stuff like that. It's just so weird to try and do it and just give it a go.' Downey Jr. is also set to produce the film alongside his wife, Susan Downey, and Davis Entertainment's John Davis and John Fox. While work on the script is still ongoing, Knight's schedule is packed with other high-profile projects, including the Peaky Blinders movie and a possible third season of SAS: Rogue Heroes. However, with a relative lull in his workload, now seems to be the ideal time for the Vertigo remake to move forward. No release date has been announced for the film.
Telegraph
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight: ‘Lawlessness always catches one's eye as a writer'
Steven Knight is the creative genius responsible for making the hit television shows Peaky Blinders, SAS: Rogue Heroes and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (among many others). So it comes as something of a surprise when the writer/director/producer admits that he seldom sits in front of the small screen himself. 'I don't really watch stuff,' he says. 'I find it quite hard work to watch: not because it's bad, but because I'm constantly thinking about how they're doing this, how the writer is doing that, or why they're doing something else. And sometimes I think, 'Why can't I do that?'' Knight mainly tunes into live sport, especially the games of his beloved Birmingham City FC. 'And that's it, really.' For someone who doesn't watch much telly, he sure knows what the viewing public wants. Millionaire became so popular globally that it made Knight (and his co-creators David Briggs and Mike Whitehill) life-changingly rich, while the second series of Rogue Heroes has been one of the best shows so far this year. And, of course, there's Peaky. Since the series debuted in September 2013, the exploits of Birmingham's foremost crime family have become one of the most popular and recognisable hits of this century, and it has made superstars of its cast (including Cillian Murphy and the late Helen McCrory). While he was researching the real-life Peaky Blinders – who terrorised the Second City during the Victorian and Edwardian periods – Knight came across the Forty Elephants, an all-female crime gang operating in London around the same time. 'It was women-only, and their profession was confidence tricks, and mass invasions of Harrods and Selfridges to steal stuff. They were the most lawless, uncontrolled force in London,' he says. 'And I just thought, this is such a remarkable story. If one were to invent the Forty Elephants, people would say that's just ridiculous.' While Peaky had the main hold on Knight's attention, the story of the Forty Elephants lodged in a corner of his mind, and he has now, finally, dramatised it in A Thousand Blows. The Disney+ series follows the female gang, led by Mary Carr (The Crown's Erin Doherty), who clash with the bigwigs of the murky world of illegal bare-knuckle boxing in 1880s London. 'The thing that I'm drawn to is forgotten or secret history,' says Knight. 'And this absolutely is that.' The obvious question arises: what is it with Knight and gangsters? 'It's not so much me and gangsters,' he laughs. 'I think it's me and people who take exception to the rules, to authority in various forms... There's always some element of lawlessness that catches one's eye as a writer, and it gives you more scope for what naturally turns into drama.' Knight's fascination with that grey area between the legal and illegal can be traced back to his childhood. One of seven children growing up in inner-city Small Heath, he would play truant with his blacksmith father, George, and catch a glimpse of the real Peaky world. 'He'd say, 'Do you want to go to school or do you want to come with me?' We'd go to a warehouse full of stuff. I'd ask, 'Is this stolen?' and he'd say, 'No, Charlie finds it just before it gets lost.' The people I met were such a laugh.' That 'Charlie' line found its way into Peaky. The first in his family to go on to higher education, Knight took an English degree at University College London and knew he wanted to be a writer. He returned to Birmingham and worked in radio advertising; his break into television came with fellow Brummie Jasper Carrott on the sketch show Canned Carrott, and The Detectives, a police-procedural spoof. Then came Millionaire, and a move into film with Dirty Pretty Things (for which he earned Best Original Screenplay Oscar and Bafta nominations). We meet in a suite at London's Corinthia hotel, the room's lavish furniture removed save for a pair of chairs. Knight, dressed in three shades of green, is characteristically relaxed; he unthinkingly fidgets with a tag that remains on what is obviously a new pair of socks. While A Thousand Blows is based on real people, episodes carry the disclaimer: 'The following is inspired by real characters who lived and fought together in London's East End.' Why did he want to point out that it isn't a true story? 'Because it isn't, and I don't think fiction ever can be, to be honest. Equally, I don't think history books ever can be, because if you read a history book, you'll believe that whatever actually happened was inevitable,' he says. 'My view is that any historical period is pretty chaotic, anything could happen, and there could be any outcome.' More important for him was to capture the essence of his unfashionable characters, because 'usually, working-class life is not written down anywhere'. One of the threads running through A Thousand Blows is how hostile Britain can be to immigrants fresh off the boat: in this case, the Jamaican Hezekiah Moscow, who comes to London with dreams of becoming a lion-tamer, but instead ends up forced to become a bare-knuckle fighter. It echoes the small-boats crisis on the south coast today. 'Certain things are eternally true, and certain tensions are always there,' Knight says. 'And the incarnation of Hezekiah arriving in London from Jamaica, and experiencing what he experiences, the same thing's happening. It's a different dynamic, a different reason, but the experience is the same.' Knight was seen to have pulled off a coup when he convinced Cillian Murphy to reprise his role as gang leader Tommy Shelby for the upcoming Peaky film in the wake of his winning the Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer. The Irishman is now one of Hollywood's hottest properties. 'He's still the same bloke,' says Knight. 'When he was getting all his awards, he would text, usually the next morning, and say, 'I can't wait to be on Peaky.' He's not having his head turned.' But Knight is humble enough not to try to take credit for Murphy's vertiginous rise. 'He would have found his way to that place by another route.' So what makes the actor so special? 'Some people have got it, some people haven't. It's a combination of things, but I think the way he looks works on screen. It's just the way he controls the attention of people watching. I'm not sure you can learn that.' A Thousand Blows sees Knight reunite with another former collaborator, Stephen Graham, whom he cast towards the end of the Peaky TV series and also in the new film. Graham, one of the finest performers of his generation, underwent a remarkable five-month physical transformation to play the brutal boxer Sugar Goodson. He needed no direction to get in shape, but he has packed on pounds and pounds of muscle that is, frankly, outrageous for a 51-year-old. 'He does that himself. If he knows he's playing a bare-knuckle boxer, he's going to guarantee, by the time we start shooting, he'll be a bare-knuckle boxer,' says Knight. 'So he did put himself through an incredible regime. It's his body, but also the look on his face. You just think, 'Oh my God, I'm terrified of this bloke.' Once Stephen's unleashed, he's properly unleashed.' Graham, Murphy and Tom Hardy – another Peaky alumnus – are the best actors working today, he says. Meanwhile, when we met, Knight was also working on a new Star Wars film, but it has since emerged that he is no longer involved in the project. 'There's a system, and when you engage with it, you know what it is. You do your bit, you turn in your draft or drafts, as I did, and then the system moves on,' he tells me later. 'I fully expect that substantial amounts of what I did will be in the movie – who knows? But that's the expectation.' Relations with Disney, which owns Star Wars, are clearly unaffected, as A Thousand Blows has already been renewed for a second series. Though he is a few months away from being of pensionable age, Knight, 65, is as busy as ever. January saw the release of Maria (starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas), which Knight wrote, while shooting of the Peaky film has wrapped, and he is developing a Succession-style series about the Guinness brewing dynasty for Netflix. And he is the mastermind behind Digbeth Loc, a new studio in Birmingham. Why does he keep going? 'I can't not do it, is the honest answer,' he sighs. 'People say you must have discipline, but you don't. It's discipline to stop sometimes.'
