Review: Peacock’s Tedious ‘Lockerbie’ Wastes Star Colin Firth

On December 21, 1988, a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, traveling from London to New York, breaking it up and sending it to Earth. Flora Swire, a 23-year-old Englishwoman, was one of the 270 killed (including 11 on the ground). His father, physician Jim Swire, became a spokesperson for the families calling for an investigation and later, an advocate for the investigation. In 2021, he published a book, co-written with Peter Biddulph, “The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice”, which has now become a five-part Peacock miniseries, the less personally titled “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth,” in which he is played by Colin Firth.

This research continued for more than 30 years, in fits and starts, with imperfect resolutionBut aside from the question of whether Swire has used his time well – something his on-screen understudy will have reason to question – there is the less complicated question of whether a five-hour miniseries can sustain the a viewer’s interest in his quest.

The first episode, in which the Swire family sends Flora (Rosanna Adams) on her fatal flight, is breathtaking, first because we know what will happen and second because the accident, such as it is experienced from the ground, when the plane crashes into pieces, is well done and terrifying. The same goes for the drama of panicked parents searching for information – which is maddeningly slow to arrive – and then for bodies. But before long we’re faced with a long parade of expository scenes in which Swire and an interested reporter (Sam Troughton) exchange not-always-good, usually second-hand information; Indeed, aside from Swire’s emotionally and information-heavy scenes with his wife, Jane (Catherine McCormack), much of the rest of the series consists of characters catching up with each other on current events. Although Swire will travel extensively – to Scotland and the United States, to Libya, where he will meet twice with Moammar Kadafi (Nabil Al Raee), and to the Netherlands, where a trial will eventually take place – there is very little information on the subject. last four episodes that could be described as action.

As a story of the slowly turning wheels of justice, or injustice, it turns slowly. Time passes, decades pass as the cast ages with new hair and makeup, from 9/11 to the War on Terror to Wikileaks and the War on Secrecy. Contemporary news clips make you want to find a documentary on the subject – there have been many, including the BAFTA 2023 award-winning documentary series “Lockerbie”, in which Swire also features – or “read further” , as the expression says. (Another Lockerbie docudrama(if you want to continue this path, will be released on Netflix later this year.) Like many historical dramas based on a participant’s point of view, it is shaped according to its theory of the case, with controversial situations and characters featured accordingly. You’re willing to buy Swire’s version as it evolves, but many other people don’t.

Likewise, “In Search of the Truth” never becomes the conspiracy thriller it suggests lurks beneath the public record, limited by history. It has possibilities as a story of an unlikely relationship between Swire and accused suicide bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Ardalan Esmaili), but as a domestic drama it’s one-note – or rather two-note notes, as Jane alternates between exasperation and support. The show doesn’t pay more attention to Swire’s family than it seems.

Firth is on screen throughout, but because the story is fragmented, moving forward years at a time, he lacks the space to create a full-fledged character. (Others fare even worse.) Except at the beginning, before the bombings, and at the very end, when a bit of enlightenment breaks in – a person he cares about after observing that death lasts long but that life is for living – Firth’s stuck acting patterns of depression and restlessness which, true as they are to Swire’s lived experience, become repetitive and tedious. Even his grief is smothered by his monomaniacal need to turn the page: “It’s not about revenge,” he told Kadafi, pinning a campaign button on his lapel. “The truth must be known.” You may be less sure.