For almost 30 years, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 has been a forgotten headline. Now, the BBC are shining a light on the tragedy – leaving Connor Swindells lost for words.
December 21, 1988. A routine transatlantic flight from Heathrow to JFK ends in catastrophe. Pan Am Flight 103 explodes mid-air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack on US citizens before 9/11, yet for many – including some of the cast of BBC One’s gripping new series The Bombing Of Pan Am 103 – the tragedy has become a forgotten headline.
“I didn’t know much about it before,” says Sex Education actor Connor Swindells, 28, who plays a Scottish detective. “The filming process was really informative.”
His co-star, Suits’ Patrick J Adams, 43, says, “I was seven years old when it happened and living in the UK at the time. As soon as I heard a series was being made about the events, I thought, ‘How has this never happened before?’”
In the six-part series, also coming to Netflix, Connor and Patrick play opposing forces in the aftermath of the bombing. Connor steps into the role of DS Ed McCusker, the detective leading the case on home soil.
Patrick portrays his American counterpart and rival, FBI special agent Dick Marquise. As Scotland and the US wrangle for control of the investigation in a bid to seek answers, political friction and personal grief collide.
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The series doesn’t shy away from the geopolitical tensions that followed the bombing. While the FBI got involved assuming there would be cooperation, they were met with resistance from the Scottish authorities.
“I thought the FBI would be welcomed to any investigation,” says Patrick. “But this happened on Scottish soil – it belonged to them. There was friction despite everyone wanting the same thing.”
That complexity was front and centre for Connor, who found the emotional weight of his role intense. “This is a story that must be handled with care,” he says. “It’s been a real lesson in trying to do justice to the truth every single day, which is how it should be.”
Joining Patrick and Connor are Merritt Wever as FBI victim services director Kathryn Turman and Eddie Marsan as explosives expert Tom Thurman. Like Connor, Merritt knew little about the tragedy before filming.
“It wasn’t on my radar,” she says. “But once I started speaking to people, so many had connections.” Eddie, however, remembers it vividly. “It was a terrible moment in history,” he says.
Kathryn went on to reshape the FBI from the inside out once the investigation was closed. “She saw that, back in 1988, these big investigative institutions lacked a framework for putting families first in the wake of these disasters.
She helped transform the Department of Justice and FBI, essentially giving them a heart,” says Merritt. Writer Jonathan Lee hopes the series does justice to the enormity of the event – and its continued relevance.
“It was the biggest crime scene the world had ever seen at the time,” he says. “They had to piece together the communication lines across borders, beliefs and individual agendas. It’s a lesson we’re constantly learning and unlearning.”
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