LOCKERBIE: A SEARCH FOR TRUTH
Dramas about real events - particularly those involving potential miscarriages of justice - are risky ventures.
Taking complex cases and turning them into movies or TV miniseries often forces directors and screenwriters to make narrative compromises.
That makes their work vulnerable to accusations of bending the truth and occasionally of disrespecting the victims.
It was, therefore, inevitable that directors Otto Bathurst and Jim Loach and screenwriter David Harrower's five part drama about the killing of 270 people in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 was going to be closely scrutinised.
It has also come as no surprise that a miniseries exploring the possible innocence of the only person convicted of the bombing, the Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has faced harsh criticism.
Bathurst, Loach and Harrower's miniseries has been lambasted by victims' families for its harrowing depiction of the bombing which some people have claimed amounts to "tragedy porn".
Others have criticised the show for amping up the emotion in a sequence where Ardalan Esmaili's al-Megrahi is declared guilty by Scottish judges at the end of his trial in the Netherlands, arguing there were no such emotional outbursts in the courtroom as depicted in the drama.
But how does the miniseries measure up as a drama? Very well.
Colin Firth is terrific as Swire, a grieving father who campaigns for al-Megrahi's trial, only to become disturbed by the evidence presented at it and increasingly worried that they have convicted the wrong man.
Consumed by a quest for the truth, his unpopular stand on al-Megrahi distances him from other bereaved families and threatens to destroy his marriage to Catherine McCormack's Jane Swire.
McCormack is equally impressive as a mother coming to terms with the loss of her daughter, Rosanna Adams' Flora and often uncomfortable with the journey her husband goes on.
Ably supported by Esmaili as al-Megrahi, Selwa Jgalef as his wife Aisha, Tara Abboud as their daughter Ghada, Sam Troughton as a dogged Scottish reporter Murray Guthrie, Simon Delaney as American victims campaigner Bert Ammerman and Mark Bonnar as a Glasgow lawyer Roderick McGill, 'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth' is a stirring drama that makes a convincing case that the established narrative around the bombing should be questioned - even it's not as conclusive as you might expect.
Bathurst, cinematographer Ashley Rowe and film editor Dan Roberts do an impressive job in the opening episode, conveying the full horror of a bombing which claimed the lives of 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 Lockerbie residents.
Loach, Bathurst, Roberts and fellow editor Melanie Viner-Cuneo also ensure the pace of the drama never relents throughout its five episode run and the impact of the slaughter is never forgotten.
Will their miniseries convince viewers that al-Megrahi's conviction is worth revisiting? Maybe some but the question they ask is undoubtedly worth posing - no matter how difficult that might be for many people to swallow.
With a six-part BBC drama by Michael Keillor about the Lockerbie bombing investigations due to air later this year with Connor Swindles, Merrit Weaver, Eddie Marsan and Peter Mullan, Harrower's miniseries has set a high bar but has also starkly exposed the huge sensitivities around the case.
('Lockerbie: A Search for Truth' was broadcast made available on Sky Atlantic and NowTV in the UK and Ireland on January 2, 2025)
BRIAN AND MAGGIE
It takes one hell of an actor to better Steve Coogan when it comes to portraying a real life figure.
With the exception of Michael Sheen, no other actor in Britain has excelled at playing real people from Tony Wilson, Martin Sixsmith and Paul Raymond to Stan Laurel and Jimmy Savile.
Yet here we find Harriet Walter outgunning Coogan in 'Brian and Maggie' - a two part drama about the friendship between the former Labour MP turned broadcaster Brian Walden and the groundbreaking Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Directed by Stephen Frears, the two part drama penned by James Graham of 'Dear England,' 'Quiz' and 'Sherwood' fame races through a friendship forged over 13 years of Margaret Thatcher's leadership of the Conservative Party including 11 years as Prime Minister.
Regarded as Thatcher's favourite interviewer, Graham's drama focuses on the friendship she built with Walden - a friendship that spectacularly fell off the rails following a 1989 ITV interview that hastened her political demise.
Coogan depicts Walden as a working class lad made good - an Oxford educated MP turned journalist who stumbled into politics and never quite toed the Labour Party line.
In spite of his Labour roots, Walter's Thatcher sees him as a kindred spirit - someone who has had to battle the establishment to rise to the top of his profession and who instinctively understands her desire to help the most talented working class realise their potential and rise through society.
Impressed by Walden's mastery of the long form political interview and his willingness to take her seriously as Leader of the Opposition when others didn't, she comes to view him as a friend and confidante - a privilege he enjoys, even if it occasionally makes him feel uncomfortable.
Inevitably given their chosen professions, it leads to confrontation and ultimately a feeling of betrayal.
Walter is superb as Thatcher - nailing the timbre and cadence of the first woman Prime Minister, she goes beyond mere impersonation by delivering a nuanced performance that is flirtatious at times, occasionally obstinate and sometimes surprisingly vulnerable.
Coogan seems more straitjacketed in the role of Walden and he is not helped by an uneven script that occasionally lands a punch and but also contains some really clunky dialogue.
One minute the viewer is treated to Karan Gill's researcher Vinay Ahmed's perceptive observation that under Thatcher Britain's working class has moved from having a strong sense of community to just having more "stuff".
The next, we are treated to a rather ear scraping claim from Tom Mothersdale's producer David Cox that Walden isn't a good interviewer, he's "an exceptional interviewer".
Directed with typical gusto by Frears, Graham's script nevertheless feels rushed in places - failing to dig deep enough into the establishment figures that feted Thatcher but eventually ousted her from office.
While Paul Clayton impresses as Thatcher's press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham, you cannot help but wish Graham had given more depth to Ivan Kaye's Nigel Lawson, Simon Paisley Day's Ian Gow or Paul Higgins' Sir Geoffrey Howe.
This is a rare case of a two part drama that could actually have done with having a third or even a fourth episode.
('Brian and Maggie's was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland between January 29-30, 2025)
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