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Colin Firth & Catherine McCormack Go Inside Heart-Stopping Lockerbie: A Search for Truth Scene
The team behind Lockerbie: A Search for Truth unpacks the emotional scene that closes Episode 1.
**SPOILER WARNING! The following contains major spoilers for Lockerbie: A Search for Truth!**
It's been 35-years since the tragedy of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on the evening of December 21, 1988.
For the people who lost loved ones that evening, the pain never goes away. But how do you remind the rest of the world what it feels like for those who lived through the aftermath and extended investigation which still hasn't been resolved?
Peacock's new limited series, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (all five episodes are now streaming right here) attempts to do that by telling the emotional story about what happened after the terrorist bombing, as seen through the eyes of Dr. Jim Swire (portrayed in the series by Oscar-winner Colin Firth) and his wife, Jane Swire (Catherine McCormack), who lost their 23-year-old daughter, Flora, in the disaster. Together, they became vocal advocates for exposing the truth behind what happened, and for securing justice for every family who lost a loved one on that flight, or on the ground.
RELATED: The Story of Lockerbie and Pan Am Flight 103, Explained
In a series full of incredibly moving moments, the end of Episode 1 features a standout scene featuring Firth and McCormack's characters at a staid administrative meeting with a U.K. official. It starts out as a frustrating governmental exercise in delay tactics, and then morphs into a gut-punch of a scene where Jane makes the bombing extremely personal for everyone.
In a recent Sky One/Peacock press conference for the series, Firth, McCormack, writer David Harrower, and director Otto Bathurst explained how that pivotal sequence came to be.
Making the Lockerbie: A Search for Truth scene that expresses how long 15 seconds feels
As the Swires get more involved in the investigation of the bombing in Episode 1, they pressure the U.K. government to launch its own independent enquiry into the attack. At the end of the episode, a meeting where they try to present evidence to an official is met with little sympathy or interest to pursue it.
Jane then shares her off-the-cuff research about what happens to people who experience a rapid drop in elevation like what happened with Flight 103. She documents the harrowing reality of dropping to one's death, which would take 15 seconds. She then counts 15 seconds down, in real time, to the silent room around her.
"The scene where Catherine counts changes the scene on a sixpence," Firth said. "Up to that point, my character is getting quite overwhelmed and frustrated with a rather obdurate government minister. Trying to get through to him with facts, and it just cuts through that."
RELATED: Cast & Characters of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth Explained
Surprisingly, Harrower admitted, "I thought it was too much when I wrote it. Because the writer is at home, writing it out and you say it out loud to yourself and it just sounded hokey. But then I realized it does several things at the same time. The way Colin plays the look to [Jane] thinking, 'I hadn't even had an earthly idea that you were thinking like this or been reading about this.' Suddenly, their aperture widens and I find that the most moving part about it."
Bathurst added that he and Harrower went so far as to have an argument about the scene, because the writer wanted to take it out. Obviously, the director won in the end.
Catherine McCormack thought she "messed up" the Lockerbie countdown scene
To prep for playing that moment in Jane's life, McCormack said she read the 2021 book that the limited series is based upon — The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph — which provided her much insight into Jane.
"He talks about Jane and how she would read up about the disintegration of aircrafts and the last moments, potentially, of someone's life if they were conscious," she explained. "I kept that with me as I went into it. I also watched documentaries and any little moment that I could get of her because I didn't meet Jane before. But there was such dignity and grace to her, and strength. And, of course, vulnerability. I recorded these little moments and often I would look at them. It was just to remind me, give me a sense of the qualities of Jane and who she was and that was sort of my guide."
RELATED: The Latest on the 2022 Lockerbie Arrest & Who Caused Pan Am Flight 103 Crash
After they completed the sequence, Bathurst shared that he got a despondent phone message from McCormack, where she said: "I've completely messed that scene up."
"I was like, 'Catherine, you completely and utterly nailed it,'" the director shared. "It was one of the most amazing scenes I've ever shot. She absolutely smashed it. All those performances, what I love is watching [the actors] who are sitting there just looking at her. They're just like, 'Where's this coming from?' Like, 'What is this moment?' It's an amazing performance and a great scene."
All five episodes of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth are now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
