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The Bombing of Pan Am 103: Like a bus, you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once. Amongst countless examples, in 1991, we had Patrick Bergin’s Robin Hood, followed a month later by Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
But seriously, earlier in 2025, Sky brought us Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, and now BBC1 bring us The Bombing of Pan Am 103, making me wonder why, after over 35 years, two separate broadcasters were working on separate productions about the tragedy, resulting in them being broadcast within months of each other.
With the investigation led by Ed McCusker (Connor Swindells – William Tell) and adding in news footage from the time, as well as content from various authorities at the time, this also has the gravitas of After The Party‘s Peter Mullan (as Strathclyde Chief Constable John Orr) in charge of the investigation, who wants everything collected and put in evidence – including the black box, as well as Eddie Marsan (Reunion) as FBI explosives expert Tom Thurman, with Marsan’s American accent not really working for me.
Alas, The Bombing of Pam Am 103 all feels very by-the-numbers, and I can’t say I’m gripped by it. You see two characters have a conversation, and it just feels like plot-exposition time, as they just describe the basics of what’s happening, rather than having a realistic discussion.
Similarly, there’s a scene where an elderly woman brings a bible to the police that was found on the ground, but which hadn’t been collected. The female cop explains the process for trying to identify who owned it, and how difficult that is. The lady then asks if, eventually, it will be returned to their family, only for the cop to laboriously explain that they don’t have the manpower for such a task, so it’ll just sit on the side for however long.
So, like Sky’s Lockerbie drama, this also feels like it should be more engaging then it is, but just isn’t.
Thanks to our friends at BBC for the screener prior to release.
The Bombing of Pam Am 103 begins tomorrow night on BBC1 at 9pm, and will air on Sundays and Mondays for three weeks in total.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
With this series, each episode will only become available on BBC iPlayer after they’ve been broadcast, as opposed to all at once.
Director: Michael Keillor
Producer: Julia Stannard
Writer: Jonathan Lee
Cast:
Ed McCusker: Connor Swindells
Dick Marquise: Patrick J Adams
Harry Bell: Tony Curran
Tom Thurman: Eddie Marsan
Moira Shearer: Phyllis Logan
June McCusker: Lauren Lyle
Sandy Gay: James Harkness
John Orr: Peter Mullan
Michael Doyle: Alex Michael Stoll
Khaled Jaafar: Armin Karima
Jaswant Basuta: Avin Shah
Frank Cuilla: Alex Magliaro
Tim Burman: Cameron Mullane
Rose Grant: Rosie Yates
Lynne McCusker: Lyra Jackson
Alison McCusker: Gabriella Bell
Alison McCusker: Maeve Bell
Fiona McCusker: Etta Jackson
German Traveller: Andrea Zapp
Thomas Flannigan: Gareth Morrison
Steven Flannigan: Archie McCormick
PC Gibson: Ryan J Mackay
Pan Am Gate Agent: Isabele Derosa
Girl with Polar Bear: Isla Banks Thomas
Heathrow Mum: Belinda Owusu
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.