The Looming Tower airs every Friday evening at 9:30pm on BBC Two and on the BBC iPlayer. The entire series is also available to watch on Amazon Prime Video after the series premiered in the US on Hulu earlier this year. The Looming Tower has achieved high critical acclaim with actors Jeff Daniels and Michael Stuhlbarg receiving Emmy nominations for their performances.
Is The Looming Tower based on a true story?
Yes, The Looming Tower on BBC Two is based on a true story.
The series is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright.
Wright documents how the rivalry between the FBI and the CIA during the 1990s may have inadvertently lead the way to the tragedy of 9/11.
The I-49 FBI unit in New York and CIA’s Alec Station in Washing DC did not share information with each other as they both battled to have ownership of intelligence.
WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SERIES OF THE LOOMING TOWER?
Lawrence in the book describes how the lack of co-operation between the agencies and other American government organisations prevented them from uncovering the 9/11 plot.
The book also traces how the militant organisation Al-Qaeda came into being and continued to grow in strength, something which is also documented in the miniseries.
Many of the tragic events in The Looming Tower are historically accurate, such as the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Dae es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.
The 1998 United States Embassy bombings occurred on August 7, 1998, where more than 200 people were killed.
In near-simultaneous attacks, two truck bomb explosions went off in Nairobi, Kenya and Der es Salaam, Tania.
These attacks brought Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda to the attention of the US general public for the first time.
As a result, bin Laden was put on the 10 most-wanted fugitives list.
THE LOOMING TOWER RELEASE DATE, CAST, TRAILER, PLOT
The FBI was able to uncover connects to Azerbaijan, after 60 calls were traced to a satellite phone by bin Laden to associates in the country’s capital Baku.
Hulu’s Looming Tower Twitter account posted a tweet about the significance of the book and series title which was taken directly from Quran 4:78.
Translated from Arabic, the tweet read; “Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower.”
Other translations are “Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in lofty towers.”
Underneath the photo was the text: “Lawrence Wright’s inspiration for the title of #TheLoomingTower came directly from the Quran. These words were reported to have also been uttered by Osama bin Laden to the 19 hijackers prior to 9/11.”
The series adapts Wright’s book and dramatises the events leading up to 9/11.
Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels plays the real FBI agent John O’Neill, the chief of New York FBI’s counterterrorism unit (also known as I-49).
O’Neill became increasingly convinced that America will be targeted by the growing terrorist group but his concerns are not taken seriously by his colleagues and the CIA.
Peter Sarsgaard portrays the fictional Martin Schmidt, the head of the CIA’s al-Qaeda unit.
Schmidt is based on Michael Schemer, a former intelligence officer for the CIA.
The Looming Tower airs Fridays at 9:30pm on BBC Two