Eddie Marsan explains truth behind his ‘Kentucky accent’ in devastating BBC drama

Eddie Marsan stars alongside Patrick J. Adams and Peter Mullan in The Bombing of Pan Am 103 (Picture: BBC)

Eddie Marsan has revealed the inspiration behind his Kentucky accent in the BBC’s gripping drama about the Lockerbie disaster.

On December 21, 1998, Pan American Airways flight 103 exploded over the small town of Lockerbie in south-west Scotland as it made its way from Frankfurt to Detroit via London Heathrow.

All in all, 270 people – including 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground – were killed as the plane fell from 30,000ft.

Soon after, investigators discovered that the explosion was caused by a bomb, making it one of the deadliest attacks to ever hit the UK and, at the time, the largest crime scene in the world spanning 845 square miles.

The horror of that crash and the efforts of individual law enforcement agencies to uncover what caused it is now the subject of a six-part drama on BBC One, called The Bombing of Pan Am 103, which stars Connor Swindells, Peter Mullan and Suits star Patrick J. Adams.

Marsan, who plays real-life FBI explosives expert Tom Thurman, discussed his preparation for the role and what attracted him to the project.

Marsan plays real-life FBI bomb expert Tom Thurman (Picture: BBC/World Productions) The series takes a look at the community’s effort to rebuild Lockerbie (Picture: BBC/World Productions)

Speaking at the Curzon theatre in Soho after a screening of the BBC series, Marsan – who has played Amy Winehouse’s father in last year’s Back to Black – was adamant that this is not a story about ‘one hero’.

‘It’s really not a story about just one hero, one lone person that solved all of this. It’s about the work of a community.

‘There’s also a collective response to this trauma, that was one of the things that really interested me about this project.

Touching upon the American accent he uses, Marsan added: ‘Well, I didn’t have any chance keep up with Peter Mullan doing a Scottish accent, so I thought I’d be the Kentucky detective with a twinkle in his eye.

‘No, seriously, I hope I did the accent well. Really, it’s like training to be a boxer.

‘You do it for an hour or two, then you break and do it all again. The good thing was that I had my dialect coach with me on set, so it was easy really. I didn’t have to think about it, I just did it and then she would tell me if I was doing anything wrong.’

Patrick J. Adams stars as Dick Marquise alongside Merritt Wever as Kathryn Turman (Picture: BBC/World Productions) Sex Education star Connor Swindells plays Ed McCusker (Picture: BBC/World Productions)

Following the release of Sky’s Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, starring Colin Firth, which takes a look at the efforts of Dr. Jim Swire who searches for justice following the death of his daughter Flora, the new BBC series takes a different perspective on the crash.

Written by Jonathan Lee and Gillian Roger Park, the series focuses on the never before seen efforts of US, British and Scottish law enforcement agencies working together to discover what happened.

However, the story is one that continued to develop throughout the shooting of the series.

In March it was revealed that the trial of Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, who is accused of building the bomb that destroyed the plane will be postponed after it was originally planned for May 12.

The Bombing of Pan Am 103 airs on BBC One on Sunday May 18.

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