Lockerbie bombing drama ‘in production’

A drama series about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie is in development at Channel 4, according to reports in the Hollywood Reporter.

Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald is in charge of the project, which was originally conceived as a film.

Glasgow-born Macdonald, who directed Last King of Scotland and State of Play, told the Hollywood Reporter: “We’ve decided to turn it into TV, as is the way of the moment.”

Channel 4 has not confirmed the project, which is understood to be written by Scottish playwright David Harrower.

The Pan Am flight from London to New York exploded 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, shortly after take-off from London on 21 December 1988. The 259 people on board the Boeing 747 were killed, along with 11 people on the ground.

Abdelbaset al-megrahi was jailed for 27 years in 2001 after being found guilty. The Libyan intelligence officer died of prostate cancer in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the TV series will dramatise the bombing and the various conspiracy theories surrounding it.

Last year he described the Lockerbie bombing as “one of those huge events that sort of casts a shadow over Scottish life”. The One Day in September director unveiled his latest film, a documentary about Whitney Houston, at the Cannes Film Festival last month.