Dr Jim Swire has tirelessly campaigned for decades for justice for his daughter Flora, the victim of the UK’s deadliest terror attack. He describes a new series based on his book as ‘publicity beyond value’
Oscar winner Colin Firth is playing the bereaved father of a victim of the Lockerbie bombing in a powerful new series.
The actor is taking on the role of Dr Jim Swire, who has campaigned for justice since his daughter Flora was killed in the 1988 bombing, one of 270 people who lost their lives.
Colin, 64, visited Jim and his wife Jane at home as part of his preparation for the show, saying he had been ‘just overwhelmed by the relentless sadness of Jim’s journey’.
Speaking at a screening for Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, the star said: “It was less the legal investigation or thriller element of it and far more how it made me feel, seeing this representation of Jim and Jane and their family and their journey of having carried this for so long and still carrying it.”
The retired medic told the BBC he had hoped Firth could play him before his casting was announced. “Lo and behold, they rang me up one day and said: ‘I’ve got news for you Jim, we’ve got Colin Firth, he’s going to play you’,” he said. “I felt a surge of relief when I heard that because I’d admired his acting in the past.”
Jim said the actor had been a ‘pillar of strength’, saying: “I don’t think he’d say I was misrepresenting him if I said that he became more involved than he ever dreamt that he would.” He was invited to see the programme being filmed and said ‘I believe it is an accurate representation and that is publicity beyond value’.
The new five-part series on Sky is based on the retired GP’s book with Peter Biddulph called The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice. Jim and Jane’s daughter had been travelling to visit her boyfriend in America for Christmas the terror attack occurred and her father went onto become the spokesperson for the UK victim’s families.
The deadliest terror attack ever to take place in Britain, a bomb exploded on the Pan Am flight 103 38 minutes after it took off from Heathrow on its journey to New York. Every passenger and crew member onboard was killed, along with 11 people on the ground below, in the Scottish town of Lockerbie.
Libyan national Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the attack in 2001 and released on compassionate grounds in 2009, protesting his innocence up until his death from prostrate cancer in 2012. American and British governments say the bomb was a potential retaliation for the US bombing of Libya’s capital Tripoli in 1986 but Dr Swire became convinced Iran was really behind the attack, believed al-Megrahi was used as a political pawn.
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth premieres on Sky and NOW today
