Picture Credit: BBC / Netflix
After airing at the BBC in 2025, 6-episode factual drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103, chronicling the Lockerbie air disaster and the subsequent international investigation, has landed at Netflix. Is it worth watching? Here’s our review.
On a winter’s night in December 1988, the world was shook by the mid-air explosion of Flight Pan Am 103 — a horrific act of terrorism that killed all 259 people on board the Boeing 747 passenger jet, and claimed the lives of 11 more victims where it crashed in the quaint Scottish town of Lockerbie. It is widely regarded as one of the worst aviation disasters in history. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack on British soil, and the most horrible act of terrorism prior to the September 11 attacks.
The nature of the attack triggered international alarm and immediate response. The flight took off from Heathrow Airport in London — carrying 190 Americans back to New York, United States — and crashed over Scottish soil. The subsequent, wide-ranging investigation into the bombing was an international effort so unprecedented that it took over a decade before the initial legal trial — and still the case has not been fully put to rest, with legal proceedings ongoing in 2026.
The BBC’s drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103 isn’t the only dramatization of the events. Incidentally, Sky and Peacock released a 5-part drama, Lockerbie: The Search for Truth, around the same time in 2025, chronicling the life of father Dr. Jim Swire (Colin Firth) as he seeks answers and justice after losing his daughter to the disaster.
Whether the BBC’s 6-part drama The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (now streaming exclusively on Netflix) is more worthwhile to watch depends on what you’re seeking. For a case as tentative and emotional as this, the series takes a rightfully dry approach, dropping all sensationalism and focusing entirely on the facts, emotional magnitude, and the subsequent, twisty investigation. If you come seeking a thrilling series, this is absolutely not it: it’s grounded, made with respect to the immense gravity of the incident. The way it plays out, crucially with heavy fact-dumping, often feels like a dramatized documentary — perhaps a little too often that forgets that it’s supposed to be a drama.
The cast is spearheaded by Connor Swindells, who plays Detective Sergeant Ed McCusker, the police officer on duty in Strathclyde at the time of the bombing. Calm, empathetic, but occasionally emotionally vulnerable himself, DS Ed McCusker is the central figure of the series from the beginning, and the glue that connects the ensemble of international investigators, from the FBI to the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
Picture Credit: BBC / Netflix
The other key figures in the investigative branch of this series include Patrick J Adams as the FBI’s Special Agent Dick Marquise, and Tom Thurman as their explosives expert. Meanwhile, the show often switches back to the residents of Lockerbie, notably through Phyllis Logan’s Moira Shearer, who takes on the task of sorting the victims’ myriad belongings and returning them to the families. She’s also joined by Merritt Wever’s Kathryn Thurman of the FBI’s Victim Services Division, who travels out to offer her support.
The series begins on December 21, 1988, chronicling the moments surrounding the aircraft’s horrific explosion. It successfully gets viewers emotionally invested; we see the passengers boarding, heading home for Christmas. It shows us firsthand that these are everyday people like ourselves: families, sons, daughters, and so on. These scenes are important to the juxtaposition we see later in the fallout of the explosion, we’re the show offers gut-wrenching visuals of devastation as the town of Lockerbie is plunged into in inferno.
From there, the series deftly staggers its timeline, jumping from hours after the disaster to days, weeks, and eventually years later. The sudden shifts in timeline are occasionally abrupt, but they’re necessary for the show to showcase the investigation in full and without compromise. It’s a forensic, international case, and the show is based on depicting every facet.
In the immediate response is the arrival of DS Ed McCusker (Swindells) and investigating officer DCS John Orr (Peter Mullan). The two are thrown into the case, dealing with a case where they’re in way over their heads. Their investigation sees them liaise with the American response team: they clash, they compromise, but they both force their way through differences out of mutual benefit. What makes this series particularly compelling are moving parts in the investigation, not least simultaneous movement, friction and momentum across different investigative bodies. Of course, this case is unique in a way that almost no other case can replicate: the idea of jurisdiction.
As our investigative cast dives into the case, the show gets wildly caught up on heavy info-dumping territory, which for some dramas would be irritating, but this one gets a slight pass because it’s one of the most complex and twisty cases of terrorism ever — the writers set out to leave no stone unturned as much as they possibly can.
Investigation is one thing, but the emotional impact the incident had on the families of the victims and the Lockerbie community is quite another — and that’s where the show shines brightest. It’s most powerful in the story of Scottish teenager Steven Flannigan (Archie McCormick), who lost his parents Tom and Kathleen Flannigan to the incident, as well as his 10-year-old sister, Joanne. Steven’s relationship with DS Ed McCusker serves as one of the most significant emotional anchors of the series. When they’re on screen together, the scenes are full of heart; they symbolize hope and the unwavering community spirit within Lockerbie.
From the emotional standpoint, and the stellar performance of Swindells at its core, the show is remarkably well-crafted and performed. You can instantly tell that it’s a labor of respect, never seeking to over-dramatize or sensationalize any elements. It doesn’t hide its inaccuracies, mentioning in a disclaimer from the get-go that some characters and specific scenarios have been invented for dramatic purposes.
Verdict
If we can forgive one series for getting caught up in obsessing over details and being as thorough as possible, it’s absolutely this one, but the pacing and drama does suffer as a result. When the series delves into its more emotionally-driven aspects, it’s heartfelt and powerful. The performances throughout are incredibly strong too. It’s a show that sets out to document an unbelievable, unthinkable real-life story — but for some, it could be difficult to get past the lack of drama.