‘It hit me’: The role that made Colin Firth feel way out of his depth

Colin Firth, who has been lauded with awards as one of the world’s best leading men for two decades, concedes he’s never quite felt so much out of his depth and affected by the challenge of his latest role.

The 64-year-old Brit, who starred in the BBC’s 1990s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and blockbuster movies The King’s Speech, Bridget Jones and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, still remembers hearing the late-night news about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Colin Firth as Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter died in the Pan Am crash. Credit: NBC Universal / Carnival

Until September 11, 2001, the tragedy, which has become universally known as the Lockerbie bombing, was the largest terrorist attack on US civilians in history. Four days before Christmas 1988, all 259 passengers and crew on the plane from Frankfurt to Detroit with stopovers in London and New York died. Of the victims, 190 were Americans and 43 were British.

As a result of the terrorist attack, 11 people also lost their lives when the Boeing 747 exploded 31,000 feet in the air and parts landed on homes in the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The crime scene extended across more than 2000 square kilometres. The bombing, allegedly carried out on behalf of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, killed citizens from 21 countries.

“It’s 35 years now … and it’s impossible to think that’s how long,” says Firth. “It feels, to me, far more immediate than that. But when you think at what has happened since … if you’re 30 you weren’t born.”

In his first British-produced TV miniseries since Mr Darcy catapulted him to fame almost 30 years ago, Firth plays Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was on board the plane and died, aged 23. She was a medical student who bought a last-minute ticket to spend Christmas with her boyfriend in America.

Colin Firth’s search for truth as Dr Jim Swire. Credit: NBC Universal / Carnival

Swire became the spokesperson for the UK victims’ families and has dedicated his life to finding out who is responsible for the tragedy. The series is based on Swire’s 2021 book, Lockerbie: A Father’s Search for Justice, which he wrote with researcher Peter Biddulph.

“You always feel a bit out of your depth when you start a job, but I really felt way out of my depth,” says Firth. “There are times I walked onto a set and saw what they’d created and had to gather myself because it had so much impact on me. It wasn’t this huge leap of the imagination. It hit me.”

Only one man – the intelligence operative Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from Tripoli – has ever been convicted in connection with what amounts to the biggest homicide in modern British history. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after he was diagnosed with cancer and died three years later in Libya.

But for years Swire, unconvinced by the evidence he heard 22 years ago at Camp Zeist, the Scottish court set up in the Netherlands for the trial, has argued that the Lockerbie bomber is innocent. He believes Iran – and not Libya – downed the flight. Al-Megrahi’s family believe he suffered a miscarriage of justice. Appeals against his conviction have been rejected.

Colin Firth in the TV miniseries Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.Credit: NBC Universal / Carnival

The series has once again pitted Swire against the families of other victims – who accept the official story that Libyan spies planted a bomb on the plane.

Before beginning filming, Firth spent time with the real-life Swire, now 88, and his wife Jane, played by Catherine McCormack (Slow Horses, Brave Heart and Sherlock), at their home. He needed to be confident in the project because he sensed it could have a similar impact on the public as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which transformed understanding of the Post Office scandal.

“That wasn’t really a research meeting for me,” Firth says. “That was just getting to know each other, to see trust hopefully build a little bit. You can’t meet them without feeling a warmth and respect, and then realising what a huge thing to live up to this was going to be.”

Firth says he was struck by Swire’s “alertness and intellectual agility”, adding that he had to “catch up and keep up”.

The crashed Pan Am flight 103, a Boeing 747 airliner in a field near Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Credit: AP

“I suppose, looking back on it, that must have gone into the hard drive. This vigilance, this readiness to respond to new ideas, that was very apparent in that first meeting,” he says.

“I don’t want to brief everyone on private conversations, but Jim got straight to the point. He started to ask me questions, and there wasn’t a lot of small talk before we went into it. It wasn’t all about this, you know, he also made me laugh. We did talk about other things.”

One of the difficulties of the 12-week shoot was scenes being shot out of chronological order. The story is set over three decades, and so they had to adapt quickly. McCormack, 52, says she created a “map” that helped her navigate the jumping between timelines.

She makes a remarkable impact in an early scene. In a meeting with Cecil Parkinson, the UK Transport Secretary, her character counts to 15 to demonstrate how long her daughter Flora may have been conscious after the explosion.

She said she found in her research that Jane would seek out information on the disintegration of aircraft and what the last moments of someone’s life could have been like.

“I sort of kept that with me as I went into it,” McCormack says. “I didn’t meet Jane before, but from information out there I found there was such a dignity, grace and strength to her and of course, vulnerability.”

Scottish writer David Harrower, known for the play Blackbird, almost removed the scene after reading it on the page as he felt it could be seen as “hokey” but it is likely going to become a standout inclusion. Lead director Otto Bathurst, who won a BAFTA for BBC period crime drama Peaky Blinders, says the expressions on the other actors in the scene said it all.

“What was going on had us all, jaws slackened; there was no acting required,” Firth says.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is on Binge from January 2.

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