Colin Firth reveals why he battled to learn his lines for new Lockerbie bombing drama
Opening up about how the script was packed with technical and legal jargon, Colin Firth has admitted he fought to memorise his lines for a new drama about the Lockerbie bombing
Colin Firth battled to learn his lines for a new drama about the Lockerbie bombing as the script was packed with technical and legal jargon.
The 64-year-old ‘Love Actually’ actor plays real-life character Jim Swire in the show – the GP who helped fight for justice after the devastating Pan-Am 103 plane attack in 1988 tragedy that saw 243 jet passengers including his daughter Flora and 16 crew murdered.
Colin told Sky Atlantic about the process of getting into the role: “The thing I think was most striking to me was having to represent legalese and scientific data.
“There were a lot of monologues about that stuff because as time went on, this is what Jim was faced with.
“There was the politics, all of which has its own language somehow.
“Then there was a legal case being brought forward, which certainly had its own language. And then the whole business of evidence – I had to do a crash course in a lot of this and it was a pretty deep dive over the course of a few weeks.
“Any actor will tell you that technical stuff is some of the hardest to learn.”
Pan Am Flight 103 blew up in the sky 31,000 ft over Lockerbie in Scotland 38 minutes after taking off – with the attack shaking the world and sparking an investigation that has stretched over decades.
All 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed along with 11 residents on the ground, and after a three-year investigation by local police and the FBI, two Libyans were issued with arrest warrants for murder.
Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 after being convicted of 270 counts of murder.
But the Scottish government released him back to his homeland on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he died in Tripoli three years later in 2012 while protesting his innocence.
In September allegations surfaced a Palestinian terrorist code-named Abu Elias allegedly planted the explosives on Pan Am 103 under the orders of the Iranian government.
‘Lockerbie: A Search for Truth’, which also stars Mark Bonnar, Sam Troughton and Catherine McCormack, starts on 2 January on Sky Atlantic.
