Lockerbie: A Search for Truth: is it a true story - what happened to Jim Swire?

• Colin Firth plays Dr. Jim Swire in Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth.
• The five part show is airing on Sky Atlantic in the UK and NOW TV.
• It is based on the Lockerbie bombing in December 1988.

A major TV series based on the Lockerbie bombing has been released to start 2025. Sky - and Peacock in the US - are airing the show which stars Colin Firth.

The five part series is based on campaigner Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the 1988 attack. The show can be watched on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK from today (January 2).

If you are tuning into the show, you might be wondering if the series is based on a true story. Here’s all you need to know:

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Is Lockerbie: A Search for Truth based on a true story?

The new Sky series is adapted from the 2021 non-fiction book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice by Jim Swire and his co-author Peter Biddulph. It follows Jim’s quest for the truth after his daughter was killed in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.

The Pan Am transatlantic Flight 103 from London to New York was blown up while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, just 38 minutes after take-off. All 243 passengers and 16 staff on board were killed, including Jim Swire’s daughter Flora.

The book follows “Dr. Swire’s journey as his initial grief and loss becomes a campaign to uncover the truth behind not only a personal tragedy but one of the modern world’s most shocking events”.

What happened to Jim Swire in real life?

Following the death of his daughter Flora, Dr. Swire embarked on a three decade quest for the truth around the Lockerbie bombing. He is still alive, now in his late 80s, and published a non-fiction account of his journey in 2021 - which served as the inspiration for the Sky series.

In an attempt to demonstrate that security had not been improved in the wake of the bombing, Dr. Swine took a fake bomb on two flights in 1990.

The aftermath of the bombing was a very complex situation, due to Libya not having extradition treaties with either the UK or the United States. It made it tricky to prosecute any suspects - which is why the trial didn’t take place until 2000, more than a decade after the attack.

One proposed solution floated in the 1990s by Professor Robert Black of Edinburgh University was for the suspects to be prosecuted under Scots law. Dr. Swine became a lobbying voice for this solution, including visiting Libya and Egypt - with Camp Zeist in Netherlands eventually being selected as the site for the trial in the 2000s.

A report from the Guardian after the verdicts were read out in 2001 described him as “relentless” and said his campaigning had been “all-consuming”. According to the report he fainted shortly after the verdicts were read out.

Over the years, Dr Swire became a very vocal advocate for the retrial and release of the man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah were both taken to trial over the attack in 2000, but Lamin was found not guilty and acquitted.

al-Megrahi was sentenced to life, but Dr. Swire became convinced of his innocence. He first met with him in 2005 and in 2007 offered £500,000 to lawyers trying to prove it - it was reported at the time.

Dr. Swire campaigned for Megrahi to be released on compassionate grounds due to his cancer and founded the group Justice for Megrahi Campaign. He travelled to Tripoli in 2012 prior to Megrahi’s death to “say his goodbyes”, MSN reported at the time.

Have you watched the show, do you think it tackled the topic sensitively? Share your thoughts by emailing: [email protected].