The episode opens in May 2002. Alisdair Hendry (Douglas Russell) escorts Doctor Jim Swire (Colin Firth) to an empty room. Jim takes a seat at a table. Alisdair asks how he can stand being in the same room with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Jim remains quiet as the door behind him is unlocked.

December 21, 1988 – In Bromsgrove, Flora Swire (Rosanna Adams) insists William Swire (Harry Redding) return her passport. He opens the door holding up the passport and teases her. She snatches it out of his hand and lightly accuses Cathy Swire (Jemma Carlton) of stealing her clothes. Cathy begs to borrow her outfit. Flora reluctantly agrees when Jane Swire (Catherine McCormack) arrives with a bundle of clean clothes. Flora takes the clothes and kisses her cheek. William nags her for deserting them at Christmas to be with her boyfriend. Jim urges Flora to have the time of her life. She professes to love him. Jane, William, and Jim watch as the car pulls away. At Heathrow Airport in London, Flora embraces Cathy before boarding Pan Am Flight 103 to JFK. A large item is loaded into the cargo hold. The passengers store their bags away. Arnaud Rubin (Dan Wolf) speaks to Flora and takes his seat. Elsewhere, Jim assures a woman that “he” is in no pain and promises to visit after Christmas. Aboard Flight 103, Captain MacQuarrie makes an announcement over the intercom. Arnaud tells Flora about the complex computer program he is working on. She says she is a PhD student. Passengers in the back start singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

Lockerbie, Scotland – Ellen Walker (Claire Brown) is ice skating with two young girls. Aboard Flight 103, Flora joins the applause. Stephen (Reuben Mcauley) waves at a family watching TV inside their home. Pushing his bike down the road, he tells a man wearing a Santa hat that Mr. Edwards is going to show him how to fix his flat tire. Aboard Flight 103, Flora stops a flight attendant as the plane shakes violently and the cabin goes dark. At Thundergarth Farm on the outskirts of Lockerbie, Grant Nelson (Jamie Michie) tosses something over a gate when he hears a loud explosion. In town, Dumfries & Galloway Police officers hear an explosion in the distance. Debris drops on their cruiser. At the ice rink, Ellen and the other patrons hear a loud noise, the music stops, and the building shakes. A large object falls on the Dumfries & Galloway vehicle. The officers are knocked to the ground. One of the officers starts around the building when a ball of fire hits the ground and explodes. The officer is thrown a short distance away. Debris falls from the sky. At Thundergarth Farm, a frantic Grant runs from falling debris. A large object lands on the ground in front of him, throwing him a short distance. Lying on the ground, he looks up to see a burning piece of the plane. Elsewhere, a man is taking out the trash, sees what appears to be the burning plan soaring past his house. Debris explodes a short distance away. At Thundergath Farm, Grant reaches his vehicle. Stephen questions what happened to his house and his parents. Ellen is speechless.

7 Miles South of Lockerbie – Dumfries Courier Reporter Murray Guthrie (Sam Troughton) is eating while driving down the road. A news report about the plane crash blares across the radio. He makes a U-turn and speeds back in the opposite direction. In Bromsgrove, Jim returns home in time to see a news report about the Flight 103 plane crash. Jane questions if that was Flora’s flight. Jim hurriedly jots something down on paper. Murray finds the road blocked by emergency personnel. Slipping his press credentials over his head, he walks over the debris to see two burning buildings. A team of firefighters are working to put out the fire. In Bromsgrove, Cathy arrives home. Jim and Jane ask if Flora made her flight. Cathy says she believes so. At the police station, DCI Gordon Ferrie (Alan Convy) holds a press conference. PC Agnew (Gabriel Scott) informs him that a Thundergarth farmer reports bodies on his farm. Gordon says the farm is three miles from there. Ellen says Grant owns the farm. He orders her to take a group to the farm. Murray sees a body hanging in a tree and a girl’s body lying on top of a crumpled car. He touches the girl’s hand.

In Bromsgrove, Jim finally gets in contact with Pan Am at JFK Airport. At the same time in New York, Bert Ammerman (Simon Delaney) tries to find out about his son, Thomas Joseph Ammerman. In Bromsgrove, Jim gets frustrated with the Pan Am worker (Laura Lovemore) when she can’t provide an update on Flora. At Thundergarth Farm, Ellen sees bodies and debris scattered everywhere. They find Grant holding a deceased infant. Malcolm Redmond (John Sackville) asks who are the men getting into a van. Grant tells him they claim to be crash investigators. In Bromsgrove, Jim receives a call from Pan Am confirming Flora was aboard Flight 103 when it went down. She says none of the 259 passengers or crew survived the crash. Jane breaks down sobbing. The next morning, Murray enters a vacant house and utilizes the phone. He says the cause is still unknown. Someone picks up Flora’s passport.

The locals share their experiences with the media. Among the dead were 38 Syracuse University students. At a press conference, Pan Am Vice President Jeff Kriendler claims there were no indications of any issues. Malcolm Redmond reports on a potential revenge attack for the American drowning of an Iranian Airbus.

January 4, 1989, 14 Days After – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Paul Channon MP (Guy Henry) attend a memorial service. Channon recognizes Jim from Eton. Jane tells him that Flora was onboard Flight 103. He offers his condolences and assures them that they are working 24/7 to find the perpetrators. Jim asks if it was a revenge attack. Channon declines to comment. Jim questions why they haven’t been permitted to see Flora’s body. Channon says it is out of his hands. Murray claims Lord Advocate based his decision to keep the victims’ families from viewing the bodies on a psychiatrist’s recommendation. Jim insists it should be their choice. Murray suggests he utilize his credentials to see Flora’s body. Jane declines to go with Jim. Upon entering the ice rink, Jim sees several roles of bodies covered with sheets. Dr. Francesca Gregory (Pauline Lynch) reluctantly escorts him to Flora’s body. He lifts the sheet and is shocked by what he sees. He identifies Flora by her feet. She gives him a lock of Flora’s hair. Murray visits Thundergarth Farm to question Grant about the crash investigators. Grant claims the men searched through the victims’ luggage. He says people said they were wearing FBI caps.

February 1989 47 Days After – In Bromsgrove, while holding Flora’s shoe, Jane imagines falling alongside debris. She places the shoe back where she found it. Jim arrives at his practice to find Murray waiting for him. Murray tells him the US Embassy in Helsinki received an anonymous call on December 5, 1988. He says the caller said an individual linked to a Syrian-based terror group would blow up a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt during the Christmas holiday. The US Embassy declared the call a hoax. Dumfries & Galloway police believe the bomb originated in Frankfort. Murray claims the US Embassy posted a memo warning its staff to avoid flying Pan Am over Christmas. Flight 103 was carrying 259 people, 16 of which were crew members, leaving 165 empty seats. Jim recalls Flora being surprised it was easy to buy a ticket. Murray questions if embassy staff had booked some of the embassy seats and changed their flights after the anonymous call. He tells him about the Autumn Leaves operation in which the German police raided the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian terror group, in October 1988. Officers uncovered a Toshiba cassette recorder containing explosives which was intended for commercial airliners. Murray says someone involved in the Lockerbie investigation claims to have discovered damaged pieces of a Toshiba cassette recorder and an instruction manual.

In Bromsgrove, Jim hangs a newspaper headlining the bomb threat, Flora’s photo, and a Department of Transport document on the wall. At the Department of Transportation, Jim asks Channon about the anonymous call made to the US Embassy. Channon says it was a hoax. Jim shows him a telex sent from Department of Transportation Aviation Security Advisor James Jack to heads of security at all UK airports. Channon tells him it was a mere general warning. Jim argues that it should have been publicized, so the public could decide. Thatcher later terminates Channon.

July 1989 7 Months After – At Russell Hotel, Jim and Jane attend a UK Families Flight 103 meeting. Elizabeth Dix (Savannah Stevenson) questions why the names are being withheld from the public. Jim suggests the investigation is being kept secret because Syria, Palestinian terrorists, and Iran are involved. He says the day after the BEA Flight 548 crash in June 1972, officials launched an investigation to identify the assailants. He says Lockerbie should do the same. The group prepares to appoint a spokesperson. At home, Jim gets dressed while explaining to Jane he has to look smart. She reminds him he’s going on the radio. During the radio show, James is introduced as the spokesman for the UK Families of Flight 103. Jim tells Jonathan that he’s lobbying for an inquiry. They’re interested in having independent inquiries into the response of the Department of Transport and the warning the British government received from the German police. They want to know why the warning wasn’t acted upon. Jim tries to meet with Mr. Parkinson who can’t see him because he’s sitting late in Parliament tonight. On television, Cecil Parkinson claims an inquiry would be counterproductive to Britain’s international standing in its fight against terrorism. At home, Jim tells Jane he’s exhausted and sick of his own voice.

Jane says she just found a letter from the University of Cambridge which accepted Flora to study postgraduate medicine. Jim didn’t know that she had applied. He thinks they should celebrate. As they celebrate, Jim says Flora would’ve done something incredible. Nine months later in September 1989, Murray tells Jim that Parkinson has finally agreed to a meeting. He also reveals his article about this should hopefully be in the Glasgow Tribune next week. Jim is given a sneak preview. Jim and the others meet Parkinson to ask him about the Helsinki warning and the German police warning following the discovery of Toshiba devices in the Autumn Leaves raid. Jim shows him a letter Parkinson’s department sent to Heathrow Management seemingly dated December 19. It included a German police photo of the radio cassette recorder in which they had found explosive devices. The department recommended placing anything suspicious within a piece of luggage in the hold.

Cecil says this was on the basis that most attacks on commercial airliners are hijackings. Jim also claims the letter only reached Heathrow after the plane came down because Cecil’s department couldn’t get photocopies made in time. Jim says he failed to alert the airport to three legitimate threats. He claims the passengers of Flight 103 were the only ones who didn’t know. Jane says she has nightmares almost every night. She talks about whether Flora would’ve been conscious at the time. Cecil agrees to take their request to the Prime Minister tomorrow. In November 1989, Margaret Thatcher announced that there would be no independent inquiry. Jane questions whether they’ll ever know what really happened. Jim promises they will because he will never stop until they have the answer to everything. In the future, Jim goes to the prison to ask Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Ardalan Esmaili) if he killed his daughter.

 

Lockerbie A Search For Truth Review

The execution doesn’t do the concept enough justice. The subpar editing and cinematography combined with the quick jumps between scenes alter the story flow. The special effects are hit-and-miss.

Scenes are bloated or dull and flat, there is no consistency. There are no breaks between the historical footage and dramatization footage. They run together and are difficult to differentiate between.

Character development is limited at best. It would have been nice for the series to tell about the other victims.

Story progression speeds up drastically after the crash. Before you know it, Murray and Jim are plotting together to expose corruption in the Department of Transportation.

The dialogue is at times repetitive, long-winded, and flat. The episode deserves a 5.6 out of 10.

Get more Lockerbie recaps here. See what others are saying about the series by clicking the link. Check out our advertising packages here. Support our platform by clicking the link.