It’s nearly 36 years to the day that Britain saw its deadliest terrorist atrocity, the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, when 270 people lost their lives.

On its way to New York’s JFK, the Boeing 747 exploded 31,000ft over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, four days before Christmas 1988.

One of the worst air disasters in history, now the story of fractured geopolitics and a father’s fight for justice is being made into a five-part drama – Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.

Here are five things you need to know about the show.

‘Catch up and keep up’

The bedrock of the drama is Jim Swire, a GP who lost his 23-year-old daughter Flora in the attack. A medical student, she bought her ticket at the last-minute to fly to the US to spend Christmas with her boyfriend.

Convinced there was a cover-up following the tragedy, he becomes the nominated spokesperson for the UK victims’ families. Now 88, he has dedicated his life to finding out who was responsible for his daughter’s death.

Played by Colin Firth, the Oscar-winning actor says he met Jim at his home ahead of filming, and loved his “alertness and intellectual agility” quickly realising he would have to “catch up and keep up”.

Firth went on, “Then realising what a huge thing to live up to was this was going to be. You always feel a bit out of your depth when you start a new job, but this really felt way out.”

‘I’d count the wrinkles’

Catherine McCormack plays Jim’s wife Jane, a grieving mother, trying to keep her family together after the loss of one of their three children.

McCormack says it was “rare” to find a part that developed over the course of 30 years, but admitted the 12-week shoot across both Scotland and Morocco was a challenge as it was filmed out of chronological order.

For example, the cast might film a scene from 1991 in the morning, then move onto one set in 2011 in the afternoon.

McCormack says she developed her own “map” of her storyline to keep track of the timeline, while Firth joked that he would “count the wrinkles they put on me” to work out where he was timewise.

The production built a massive replica set of Camp Zeist – the Scottish court in the Netherlands set up to try the suspects – to the exact details of the original which was visited by Jim, Jane and their son and grandson during the shoot.

The 15 seconds scene

One powerful scene in the first episode, features Jane, talking about the horrific nightmares she suffers following the death of her daughter.

McCormack explains that during her research she found that Jane would read up about the disintegration of aircrafts and the last moments of a person’s life if they were conscious as they fell to the ground.

Incorporated into a single scene that takes place in a cabinet official’s office, she feared she’d “completely messed it up”.

Even writer David Harrower says after he wrote the script he had second thoughts, believing some of the lines to be “hokey” and nearly took it out completely.

Luckily, the scene remained, and is “one of the most amazing scenes” in the show according to the show’s creators.

‘A fresh perspective’

Director Otto Bathurst, who has previously directed Peaky Blinders and Criminal Justice, says he was inspired by Jim Swire’s “relentless search for the truth”.

Refusing to be contained by one genre, the show is at various points a family drama, a conspiracy thriller, a courtroom drama, and a study in grief.

Although based on a real-life event, it remains a fictionalisation of the story, so has creative licence to consolidate and re-create some elements to make it work on screen.

Bathurst explains: “Somehow, as drama people, you can find a fresh perspective on something no amount of journalism or brilliant documentaries can… Fictionalising it, with the characters played by actors, tells a story people can respond to.”

What is the truth?

The tragedy ripped apart the lives of the 270 individuals killed, and that of their friends and families.

But while a large part of the drama is told from one point of view – Jim’s – it strives to tell all sides of the story.

While Jim believed there was a miscarriage of justice, other families affected by the tragedy had a completely different opinion.

The story is told from his perspective, but the show never explicitly says whether his version of events is correct or not. It presents corroborating evidence with contradictory evidence, allowing the viewers to make up their own minds.

TV with the power to change the world

Earlier this year, ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office not only became a hit with viewers and critics alike, but also helped bring justice to the victims after raising public awareness of the scandal.

Executive producer Gareth Neame hopes Lockerbie could have a similar impact.

He explains: “We would like to feel that as a drama, we have shone a light on this murky, murky subject that has never been adequately done in factual television or any amount of journalism.

“Hopefully, we’re in a slot in the time of year where people have some space to watch and consider the story and the facts quite deeply. That would be our ambition”.

All five episodes of Lockerbie: A Search for Truth are available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW from 2 January 2025.

Eurovision Song Contest organisers have announced a new code of conduct and duty of care protocols to “protect” artists’ wellbeing after controversies at this year’s competition.

Ahead of the 2024 final in Malmo, Sweden, thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators protested outside the arena against Israel competing amid the war in the Middle East.

Some Eurovision acts also said they had received threats, and there was controversy around some making political statements ahead of the final.

Nemo, the Swiss entrant, was crowned the winner – but said after lifting the trophy that the experience had been “intense” and they were “really sad” it had not just been “all about love and unity”.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) appointed an independent expert to review the contest.

Now, organisers have announced new measures for the 2025 event in Basel “to celebrate community and protect wellbeing”, which will include no filming zones within key artist areas, more closed-door rehearsals, and the introduction of a welfare producer “to ensure a safe, respectful, and supportive environment”.

They said in a statement: “The EBU is introducing a new code of conduct and duty of care protocol to ensure clear roles and responsibilities for all involved in the event.”

Agreeing to abide by the code of conduct will be a requirement for accreditation, organisers said.

“The duty of care protocol emphasises the shared responsibility of the EBU, host broadcaster, and participating broadcasters in safeguarding artists from unnecessary physical or emotional distress.”

At the 2024 contest, the Israeli delegation was criticised by contestants including Ireland’s entrant Bambie Thug, who has been outspoken about their pro-Palestine views.

They accused Israeli broadcaster Kan of a rule break, with claims of inciting “violence”.

Kan claimed it “faced immense pressure and an unprecedented display of hatred, notably from other delegations and artists, publicly and collectively, solely because of the simple fact that we are Israelis and that we were there”.

Israel’s contestant Eden Golan told Sky News ahead of the event that her focus was on representing her nation with pride and “nothing else really affected” her, as protests took place outside.

There was also controversy surrounding the Netherlands’ entrant Joost Klein, who was disqualified after allegedly making verbal threats to a female production worker.

Klein’s criminal case was dropped by the Swedish Prosecution Authority in August.

Martin Green, the new Eurovision Song Contest director, who was appointed following this year’s controversies, said: “We are United by Music – it’s up to all of us to ensure the Eurovision Song Contest remains an event that promotes unity, diversity and inclusion.”

Read more:
Protests and an expulsion: The controversy at Malmo
Eurovision responds to complaints from contestants

Earlier this year, the BBC announced that Sam Ryder’s manager David May is to head up the UK’s search for its next Eurovision contestant.

Olly Alexander, who took part this year, came 18th out of 25, with 46 points from judges – and “nul points” from the public vote.

The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest final is set to take place in St Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, on 17 May.

The cast of US sitcom Friends only met up once between the show’s final episode and the reunion special, Lisa Kudrow has said.

The actress, who played Phoebe Buffay in the hit show, said her and her co-stars Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry, rarely got together as a six after the show finished in 2004.

She said there was only one occasion a decade after the final episode had aired where the group had dinner.

After that, it wasn’t until Friends: The Reunion, which aired in 2021, that they were all in the same room together again.

“We only had dinner, the six of us, once before, since the show had ended,” Kudrow told Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his podcast Dinner’s On Me.

Despite reuniting 10 years after the show ended, the actress said she felt the group “didn’t miss a beat”.

“It was so great that it was like ‘we should do this more’,” the 61-year-old said.

Speaking about the reunion special, where the cast appeared as themselves and reflected on some of the show’s most iconic moments and famous sets, Kudrow said: “To have all of us together on the set, you never know when it will be impossible.”

‘It shook us up’

Last year Perry, who played Chandler Bing in the show, died at the age of 54 from the “acute effects of ketamine”. He was found dead at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.

Kudrow said the death of her former co-star was “a big jolt”.

“It shook us up, I have to say,” she said, adding: “He [Perry] said it won’t be a surprise, but it will be a shock, and that was exactly right. So smart, that is true – it wasn’t a surprise, but it was a shock.

“It was a big jolt.

“Personally, I think he died happy. I think in the days around his passing, I think he was happy and excited about what’s happening next.”

Kudrow said she began to rewatch old episodes of Friends to aid the grieving process.

“Schwimmer was hilarious, Matt LeBlanc was making me laugh out loud, Jennifer, come on, she’s so good, look what she just did,” she said.

“And Courteney, oh my God, you’re hilarious… And Matthew, of course, at the time he was blowing me away.”

Out of the 236 episodes of the show, Kudrow said there are still some she has not seen, as there is a “certain amount of anxiety around watching”.

“I’m afraid of what my takeaway is going to be,” she said.

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“When Phoebe got married and she’s walking down the aisle and has this huge smile on her face, I teared up because she was so happy, she was so honestly happy.

“It was really touching to me, she deserves to be this happy.”

Friends focused on a group of six twentysomethings living in New York and first aired in the US on 22 September 1994.

By the time it left screens a decade later, it was a pop culture phenomenon and remains one of the most popular shows on television.