Inside new BBC drama that will bring 'closure to Lockerbie' 37 years on, says Scottish director

The director of a new BBC drama charting the impact of Pan Am flight 103, which exploded over the town of Lockerbie, has said he hopes the series will bring “closure” to residents more than 35 years on.

Michael Keillor, from Dundee, who has worked on series including Line of Duty and EastEnders, said he had found that for some people in Lockerbie, the tragedy still “feels so immediate”.

He warned the town “does not want to be defined” by the incident, which killed 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 local residents.

READ MORE: Colin Firth says playing father of Lockerbie victim 'emotionally challenging'

The six-part series, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, examines the investigation into the attacks on both sides of the Atlantic and looks at the impact on people living in Lockerbie, including policemen and women who were first to the scene.

A joint Scottish-US investigation, including the FBI, was launched to find the perpetrators. In 2001, a Scottish court in the Netherlands convicted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of playing a central role in the bombing.

Mr Keillor said: “I'm hoping there'll be a bit of a closure to it. A BBC drama sometimes rounds off a story which has been around for such a long time. Also, because we celebrate the ladies of Lockerbie, the people themselves in Lockerbie, and what they suffered from the plane crashing there, and the devastation.

“The visceral reality and shock of that is quite credible. We want to remind people that this was a massive thing, this plane exploded on the ground there, and the reverberations are still there. For some of the families, it's like this happened this year. It feels so immediate for them.”

The crew opted to film in Lockerbie itself for just two days of the 16-week shoot, aware of the continued personal impact on local residents.

Mr Keillor found younger people in the town were less aware of the tragedy, but for the older generations, its impact clearly remains.

He said: “For them [the younger generation], it's the stained glass window in the town hall. It's something that happened in the past and I didn't feel they were defined by it. But for older people, I don't know how you ever shake it [the connection] off.

“We were mindful of that, especially for the people in Lockerbie itself. They don't want to be defined by this, even though it unfortunately is the case.”

Mr Keillor admits many locals were “nervous” and “reticent” about another drama focusing on the town.

The series, a BBC co-production with Netflix, is being released just a year after Sky’s Lockerbie series, starring Colin Firth.

“They had mixed feelings,” he said. “We went down into the town hall and spoke to locals and asked ‘what do you feel about this? Do you want us to be here at all or not?’ We didn't want to be somewhere we weren't wanted, and we didn’t want to offend people.

“They were supportive, but at the same time, they are reticent of another telling of Lockerbie coming out.”

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 will tell the story of the Lockerbie bombing. | CREDIT LINE:BBC/World Productions

Areas of Lanarkshire and Livingston doubled as Lockerbie, while US-based scenes were generally shot in Glasgow, as well as Toronto, Canada.

Filming of one of the most iconic scenes in the series - the moment the plane crashed into a row of houses - was kept well away from Lockerbie itself. Instead, the film crew utilised a disused shopping centre in Bathgate, where the scene was recreated. Using a gas flame, the row was set alight, creating a powerful image.

“Obviously, it's a big part of our show, but also quite a sensitive scene as well, so it was good to have a location that is very controllable,” Mr Keillor said, describing a huge blaze accompanied by hundreds of extras, multiple cameras and cast. When the flame was turned off, crew were forced to don head torches to be able to see.

Mr Keillor added: “When they turn it off, it’s completely pitch black and the whole street is covered in the actual debris. It made you realise what it must have been like for the emergency responders.

“A lot of people said this night has sat with them forever. Senior police we spoke to, who were quite young at the time, said it was defining of them as human beings, as police officers, in such a huge, horrific event. Even if they had later been homicide cops in Glasgow, there was nothing like this.”

The team was keen to be historically accurate. The production acquired a nose cone of an original 747 plane, after abandoning plans to buy an entire period aircraft. But some buildings which still remained in the same form as they were in 1988 could not be used, due to development in the vicinity. Others, like the high school in Lockerbie, had been rebuilt in recent times, with scenes set there filmed in Hutcheson’s Grammar in Glasgow.

Ensuring accuracy was not always easy.

“It was 37 years ago and people remember things differently,” Mr Keillor said. “I kept asking all the time ‘where was this piece of material? Where was it found, what actually happened?’

“It’s like a journalistic cross-examination. You had to have multiple sources to confirm things were correct. It’s a massive responsibility of a project like this. You want to tell the truth as much as possible.”

As a Scot who recalls the tragedy as a child, Mr Keillor was compelled to tell the story.

“There's lots of film production in Scotland, but it isn't often about a big Scottish story like this,” he said. “As a Scottish director, Lockerbie was a massive part of my childhood. When there's a story to be told about how Scots faced up to that and dealt with it - a part of a story I didn't really know - I felt there was no way I could turn it down.”

The series will look behind the scenes at the aftermath of the tragedy. | BBC/World Productions

“I would imagine that it has the same resonance in people of a certain age across the country. And for people younger, there's a bit of ‘this happened in Scotland?’. It's incredible that an American 747 crashed in a town in Scotland and there was this huge investigation for years and years.

“It's quite an incredible story. I'm hoping that for a younger generation, there's an engagement of that being part of our national history.”

Mr Keillor said he believes, however, the story behind the event will resonate with audiences across the globe, not just in Scotland.

“You don't have to know about Lockerbie,” he said. “You don't have to know the specifics of this and the residents in Scotland for the story we've told, which is about - how do people deal with the aftermath of such an event, and what does investigation really look like, and why does it take so long, and what do you make sure to get the evidence absolutely right so you get a conviction, and what that does to the people involved?

“And that, hopefully, is interesting as a drama.”

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 is on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from 9pm on Sunday, May 18, and will be on Netflix globally at a later date.