Latest news with #flight103
Edinburgh Reporter
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Fringe 2025 – Fuselage ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What can you say about an act of terrorism committed more than thirty years ago? Hasn't everything already been said? For Annie Lareau the answer to that is no. The friends she lost in what remains the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history were not just names and numbers; she wants to remember them as the people who were, and still are, so important to her. Annie is now an acclaimed actor. Fuselage is her story, but it is also the story of all of her friends who died in that attack. By focusing not on their deaths but on their young, vital, exuberant lives, Annie has created perhaps the most moving piece of theatre you will see in this year's Fringe. On the night of 21 December 1988 Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. The flight had left Heathrow less than an hour before, heading for New York, two of the stops on the route from Frankfurt to Detroit. Many of its passengers were students from Syracuse University, in London on a Study Abroad programme and now returning home to spend Christmas with their families. There were no survivors of the crash. Eleven Lockerbie residents were also killed as parts of the plane plummeted to the ground. Image: Giao Nguyen Annie had wanted to take that flight. She had a booking for the next day but tried to change it so that she could travel with her friends. The cost of making the change was £75. She could not afford that, so she waved her friends off from their Portobello Road flat and went on with her packing. Fuselage is performed by Annie and two fellow actors, Brenda Joyner and Peter Dylan O'Connor. Joyner and O'Connor each take several parts and Annie plays herself. As we enter the theatre, photos of some of the people who died, of the aftermath of the crash, the police, the press, the lines of coffins and the Memorial Garden in Lockerbie are shown on a screen. Music plays, Total Eclipse of the Heart, FAME! – I want to live forever ('I want to light up the sky…'). The stage is set with plastic chairs, with strings of them also hanging from the ceiling. Fuselage skilfully draws several strands together. We see the young Annie arriving at Syracuse, meeting her soon to be best friend Theo(dora) Cohen and settling into her drama course. We see present day Annie, travelling with her daughter to Lockerbie to meet Colin Dorrance, the then 18-year-old policeman who was first on the scene of the crash, and who will now show her where her friends died. And we learn about the causative events that began two years before those friends boarded Flight 103. Image: Giao Nguyen The minute Annie turns up for her classes, she knows she has met a kindred spirit. Theo is tiny, 'a small scrappy girl' and Theo introduces her friend Geoffrey, another theatre student. There is a hilarious scene in which the three of them act out 1980s student life; psychedelic glasses, shoulder pads, scrunchies. Geoffrey smokes a joint and airplays a chair, they all dance around the stage. In class they endure calisthenics and vocal warmups. Annie moves to the others' floor in the dorm; they drink, they party. They do everything together, love the good bits, laugh about the others. They are having the time of their lives. Meanwhile a Swiss businessman is selling timers to Libya. A bomb blows up a discotheque in Berlin. President Regan authorises retaliatory air strikes on Libya. Frankfurt airport employs a criminal as its security manager. An investigation notes numerous security lapses at the airport; a screening scanner is found to be malfunctioning but is kept in use. Pan Am prioritises its profits and refuses to hire more security staff, while charging each of its passengers a $5 'security surcharge'. The Syracuse students know nothing about any of this. It's Christmas, they put up decorations and hang earrings on a spindly tree. They and their friends apply to spend the Fall semester in London. Annie starts to have nightmares about planes crashing and airports catching fire. They terrify her. Is she going to die on a plane? There is a tremendous warmth around all three of these excellent actors. The close friendship between the students is totally convincing. The optimism and energy of youth radiates from them as they bounce from one thing to the next, hardly pausing for breath. Theo is especially lively, always up for anything, taking any chances that come her way, and already very successful in her field. There are so many poignant moments, small details that will later form such precious memories. Annie and Theo's adventures in Greece, the group's weekend in Paris and Christmas shopping in London. Annie's nightmares continue. Image: Giao Nguyen On 21 December Theo and friends head for Heathrow, squashed into two taxis. A few hours later their plane falls out of the sky. In present time, Annie meets Colin and his neighbour Josephine. Josephine was one of a group of women who washed, ironed and stored every scrap of clothing recovered from the scene. The humanity and kindness shown by the people of Lockerbie, even in the midst of their own tragedy, will never be forgotten. Personal possessions were scattered over the town – handbags, cards, Christmas presents. And by now the audience feels it knows the young people who packed those bags, wrapped those gifts. The detail of Annie's writing has made them real for us. These are the people who danced together, stayed up all night together, hanging their earrings on a Christmas tree. The aftermath of the bombing is a further hell for Annie. Syracuse's London office asks her to go through their list of students and mark the names of anyone whom she knows to have been on the flight. The press hounds her. She has an agonising call with Theo's mother. She is consumed by guilt. Her relationships with men become toxic; she wants them to hurt her, to take away the greater pain. It has taken her many years to recover from 'a deep-seated self-hatred'. Fuselage ends on a note of cautious hope. Annie and Geoffrey are still friends; their lives are intertwined. When Annie finally opens Theo's box in the Pan Am archive at Syracuse, she finds an earring she had lent to her friend as she left for the airport, 'A little bit of me had been with her through the sky, the fire, and the silence.' I am sure that there were few dry eyes in the house at the end of Sunday's performance. All three actors in Fuselage are outstanding, but it is the strength of Annie Lareau's writing, and the immense courage and personal commitment she shows on stage, that elevate this play to stellar heights. 'The victims are names, barely acknowledged. They belonged to us…' By writing and performing this stunning play, Annie has honoured her friends and shown them to be so much more than victims; she has celebrated their lives, and invited us to celebrate them with her. As someone who remembers Lockerbie, I was far more affected by Fuselage than by all the news reports at the time. Then, everything seemed somehow distant; now at last it is real, and our hearts break for all those lost lives, and for the people they left behind. Fuselage is at Pleasance Courtyard (Above), 60 Pleasance (Venue 33) at 3.45pm every day until 25 August. Please note that there are no shows on Wednesday 13 and Tuesday 19 August. Tickets here Like this: Like Related
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
The true story behind BBC Lockerbie drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103
BBC's The Bombing of Pan Am 103 dramatises the events of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, and the subsequent investigation that took place to find who was responsible. Starring Connor Swindells, Eddie Marsan and Patrick J Adams amongst its stellar ensemble cast, the six-part series explores the UK's deadliest terrorist attack in the country's history. The investigation is still ongoing, with new details even emerging in recent months. Here is everything that you need to know about the real life event that inspired the TV series. On 21 December, 1988 Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in a terrorist attack that killed a total of 270 people — all 243 passengers and 16 crew onboard, as well as 11 residents in the town. Scotland's Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary led the investigation to determine what happened to bring the plane down, given it wasn't initially known if it was a terrorist attack or not, and after the cause was determined who committed the attack. They were aided by FBI special agent Richard Marquise, who led the agency's investigation into the event. Together the forces on both sides of the Atlantic pieced together what happened, that a bomb was hidden in a piece of luggage that was loaded onto the Pan Am plane in Frankfurt, Germany. The investigation found that the explosive originated in Malta, which led police to believe that the attack was carried out by Libyan forces. During the investigation it was revealed that authorities had been warned about a possible terrorist attack 16 days prior to the Lockerbie bombing. An anonymous call to the US Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, warned that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks, the warning was taken seriously and a bulletin issued to all embassy staff, but not the public. Following three years of investigation, the joint forces issued arrest warrants for two Libyan nationals in 1991, and after extensive negotiations, and United Nations sanctions, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed the men over for trial in 1999. In 1991, Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, a station manager for Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa Airport, Malta, were accused of being involved in the Lockerbie bombing. Authorities accused the two men of placing the bomb on an Air Malta flight before it was transferred to a plane at Frankfurt airport. Their trial began in 1999, and took place a neutral location at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands with three Scottish judges presiding over the case. Both al-Megrahi and Fhimah chose not to give evidence during the trial. In 2001 al-Megrahi was convicted for having a key role in the bombing of Pan Am 103, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused Fhimah was acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Al-Megrahi tried to appeal his conviction but was unsuccessful, however he was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died aged 60 in Tripoli, Libya, in 2012. In 2020, American and Scottish police forces issued a warrant for the arrest of Abu Agila Mas'id Kheir Al-Marimi, a former Libyan intelligence operative he was indicted for his alleged role in building the bomb that was used in the terrorist attack. Al-Marimi is currently in US custody and is facing charges in the United States. In March 2025, it was reported that newly released documents allegedly provide written proof that Gaddafi's Jamahiriya Security Organisation (JSO) was behind the Lockerbie bombing. If verified, the documents will be used in Al-Marimi's trial. Per the BBC, former FBI special agent said in a statement: "The FBI and the US Department of Justice have been aware of this and I know they're working closely with their colleagues at the Crown Office and Police Scotland to see if this is something that can be used in court. "I'm very hopeful that it can be used and will lead to at least one more conviction. We'll have to see what goes beyond that, depending on what they can find." On 14 March, a US judge delayed Al-Marimi's trial at the request of the prosecution and defence, a new trial date has not yet been set. The Bombing of Pan Am 103 airs on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday and Monday nights, with episodes landing on BBC iPlayer.
Metro
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Eddie Marsan explains truth behind his 'Kentucky accent' in devastating BBC dram
Eddie Marsan has revealed the inspiration behind his Kentucky accent in the BBC's gripping drama about the Lockerbie disaster. On December 21, 1998, Pan American Airways flight 103 exploded over the small town of Lockerbie in south-west Scotland as it made its way from Frankfurt to Detroit via London Heathrow. All in all, 270 people – including 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground – were killed as the plane fell from 30,000ft. Soon after, investigators discovered that the explosion was caused by a bomb, making it one of the deadliest attacks to ever hit the UK and, at the time, the largest crime scene in the world spanning 845 square miles. The horror of that crash and the efforts of individual law enforcement agencies to uncover what caused it is now the subject of a six-part drama on BBC One, called The Bombing of Pan Am 103, which stars Connor Swindells, Peter Mullan and Suits star Patrick J. Adams. Marsan, who plays real-life FBI explosives expert Tom Thurman, discussed his preparation for the role and what attracted him to the project. Speaking at the Curzon theatre in Soho after a screening of the BBC series, Marsan – who has played Amy Winehouse's father in last year's Back to Black – was adamant that this is not a story about 'one hero'. 'It's really not a story about just one hero, one lone person that solved all of this. It's about the work of a community. 'There's also a collective response to this trauma, that was one of the things that really interested me about this project. Touching upon the American accent he uses, Marsan added: 'Well, I didn't have any chance keep up with Peter Mullan doing a Scottish accent, so I thought I'd be the Kentucky detective with a twinkle in his eye. 'No, seriously, I hope I did the accent well. Really, it's like training to be a boxer. 'You do it for an hour or two, then you break and do it all again. The good thing was that I had my dialect coach with me on set, so it was easy really. I didn't have to think about it, I just did it and then she would tell me if I was doing anything wrong.' Following the release of Sky's Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, starring Colin Firth, which takes a look at the efforts of Dr. Jim Swire who searches for justice following the death of his daughter Flora, the new BBC series takes a different perspective on the crash. More Trending Written by Jonathan Lee and Gillian Roger Park, the series focuses on the never before seen efforts of US, British and Scottish law enforcement agencies working together to discover what happened. However, the story is one that continued to develop throughout the shooting of the series. In March it was revealed that the trial of Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, who is accused of building the bomb that destroyed the plane will be postponed after it was originally planned for May 12. View More » The Bombing of Pan Am 103 airs on BBC One on Sunday May 18. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 'I'm 77 but Rose Ayling-Ellis' experiment has turned me into a big kid' MORE: Who came last in Eurovision 2025 as Austria secures victory for third time MORE: Graham Norton leaves Eurovision final viewers in stitches with 'brutal' Margaret Thatcher jibe
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC's Lockerbie drama Bombing of Pan Am 103 is ‘not a story about one hero'
The BBC's new dramatisation of the Lockerbie disaster, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, is 'not a story about one hero', the cast have said, as it details the efforts of the police, the residents of the Scottish town, and people around the world in trying to catch who was behind the attack. On 21 December, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in a terrorist attack that killed all 243 passengers and 16 crew onboard, as well as 11 residents in the town. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history and investigations are still ongoing. The BBC series explores the attack and the events that took place in the aftermath. But while Sky's equivalent drama Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is focused on activist Jim Swire's attempt to find out what happened after his daughter was killed on the flight, BBC's drama takes a more rounded approach. It highlights the work of the many detectives involved from both sides of the Atlantic, and the way the community came together in the wake of the tragedy. Reflecting on the BBC drama's appeal, actor Eddie Marsan said: "I thought what was so beautiful about it was a story of a collective response to a trauma. The way the women of Lockerbie wash their clothes, the detectives and the way the team solved it — It's not a story about one hero. "It's about a community, having a collective, people having a heroic response, which I loved." Marsan portrays FBI agent Tom Thurman, an examiner in the Explosives Unit who helped piece together key information in the investigation. The actor added: "When I met Tom, he's such a fascinating man. He's got a twinkle in his eye, he loves to solve puzzles, and he was just a brilliant character to play. "I thought I couldn't out Scottish Peter Mullan, so I will become the guy from Kentucky with the twinkle in his eye instead." The six-part series has been created by Adam Morane-Griffiths, who conducted extensive research about the Lockerbie bombing through his work in documentaries. It was as a result of this that he came to realise it would be beneficial to a drama, and that's how BBC's show came to be. Simon Heath, who executive produced the series, said: "He had thousands of hours of interviews with all of the lead detectives in the case, he had access to Richard Marquise, played by Patrick J Adams, in the series. "I think when we first pitched the project and tried to get off the ground what we came up against was that a lot of places would like it to be the story of this one super cop who somehow solved everything and pieced together the truth alone," he said. "And it became obvious very quickly that that's not really what the story was. "I remember a an early image Adam showed me which really stayed with me, a really powerful image was in Longtown in this warehouse where they'd laid out all the plane parts... and there was something about all those puzzle pieces hung up there that spoke to the story. "I think a mosaic approach seemed appropriate in a way, and we wanted to look at some of the bigger investigative pieces but also some of the more personal fragments, the family stories, the stories of the Ladies of Lockerbie in the community. It seemed to us, I think, that all of those stories spoke to the work of piercing together what [happened]." What was most important for the team behind the drama was ensuring those impacted by the event were at the forefront of the story and could share their experiences, director Michael Keillor said. "I think the first thing with a real story like this is people involved, the families of the victims who we met prior to pre production, that was front of mind," he explained. "But everything we did right through the entire shoot, even when we were shooting as well, we were very mindful of where we were shooting. "The crash site, we had to put that somewhere where people couldn't see, it could be hidden away. The nose cone as well is such a strong image, especially in Scotland, that if anyone saw that it wouldn't really be very cool, so that was a big part of the sensitivity. "In Lockerbie itself, Julia Standard, our producer, had a town hall there and met people at Lockerbie to gauge the temperature there for people's feelings, and we only really filmed there for a couple of days for really important stuff. "It's incredibly front of mind. I've never done a drama based on a true story, especially one that's based on the Scottish story I lived through, as well as a massive story back home, so it was incredibly important for me to be very careful." Scottish actor Lauren Lyle, who plays DS Ed McCusker's wife June in the show, spoke of how there was a sense of responsibility over sharing the story in the right way: "I think being Scottish, it's a very personal story that I've grown up. I didn't live through it, but my parents did and my family did, and it's always been something that I've known a lot about and it's something people really talk about. "I know Simon [Heath, executive producer] because [his company] made my show Karen Pirie so I knew that the show was being made and we spoke and I expressed that it's such a, in a way, horribly iconic story and I said: 'If there is anything, I'd be really honoured.' "I didn't know anything about June and then I had a phone call, a couple of quite long phone calls with Ed McCusker and I think it just put into perspective the emotional reality. I think the women of the story put in the emotional reality of what happened. "He was doing it for her because they had this amazing romantic story of their life and their love together, and about five years ago she died of cancer and the last thing that she said to him was 'you have to tell your Lockerbie story'. "And I'm on the phone going, 'Oh my God, we I have to do it now.' So it was sort of an honour to be a part of something that I've always known about, and to do it for her as well because she'll never see it come to life, but for him to know that we have [is important]." The Bombing of Pan Am 103 premieres on BBC One from 9pm, Sunday 18 May and will be available on BBC iPlayer. Episodes will be released Sunday and Monday nights.
