Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement - best known for The Likely Lads, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Porridge - have devised the script for the film which looks likely to star Sean Connery.  

Dismissing any suggestion that the two writers may not be serious enough for the subject, Dr Jim Swire, a spokesman for UK Families - Flight 103, and said: William Shakespeare was a writer of comedies but he was a major contributor to English literature and thought. Dr Swire, father of Flora, who was killed in the mid-air explosion, said La Frenais and Clement had consulted him and other members of the organisation from the start of the project. "We were impressed by their responsible attitude and we were left with the impression that they thought their project would further the cause of truth and justice.  

"We realise it will have to be told in a context that people would want to watch but these 'docudramas' have been successful in the past - for example, Hillsborough - in getting people to look again.  

"Certainly the two writers are capable of very much more than just comedy. We have every faith in them."  

The film could star Connery, who has agreed to develop the project through his production company, Fountainbridge Films, which has taken a six-month option on the script and is likely to approach Disney or Twentieth Century Fox for funding.  

In the script, Connery would play a Glasgow detective who moves to the Borders hoping for a quieter life but finds him-self involved in investigating Britain's largest mass murder when a bomb blows up Pan Am flight 103, killing 270 people.  

His investigation leads to the discovery of a cover-up by US intelligence agencies.  

Three years ago the British and US authorities tried to prevent Maltese Double Cross, a documentary of the disaster and Alistair Duff, 

The lawyer who represents the two Libyans who have been accused of the bombing, has previously called for any films on the Lockerbie bombing to be shelved. 

Despite the apparent stalemate in the moves to bring the Libyans, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah to trial, the case against them is still active. 

This means that any film producer could run the risk of being in contempt of court.