Having watched all three episodes of the BBC’s latest hit drama series Gunpowder, I am absolutely flabbergasted by how good it was. First airing on BBC on Saturday 21st October 2017, all three episodes were released on BBC iPlayer the same night.
The historical miniseries, led by Game of Thrones‘ Kit Harington and Liv Tyler, known for her Hollywood roles in The Lord of the Rings and Armageddon, was a star-studded exploration of the notorious 5th November plotters, their motivations, and the investigation to capture them.
The drama has been criticised for its rather graphic depictions of torture and execution, which allegedly caused many viewers to turn over. I, too, felt queasy watching the scene in the first episode. However, the gruesome scenes were necessary to fully understand the horror and fear that Catholics in 17th Century England were living with, and how that would motivate the plotters to do what they did.
The historical flavour of the show was accentuated by great sets and costumes, and a good use of archaic English vocabulary and grammar which was not jarring nor too complicated for the audience to comprehend. The performances were great all round, notably Kit Harington displaying a range of passionate emotions and characteristics which we do not see often from his portrayals of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. I was very surprised by how much effort Harington put into this drama, considering he was part of the writing and production staff. It is made very clear that Harington is extremely invested in making this a great show. Interestingly, Harington is actually a distant relative of Robert Catesby, the plotter that he plays in Gunpowder, which may be one of the reasons why he put so much work into making it as great as it is.
In Britain, the plot’s failure is celebrated every year on 5th November with firework displays across the country, although many people do not know the full story behind it. In many ways, it is the British equivalent of 4th July for its festivities – although whilst Americans celebrate winning a rebellion, Brits celebrate crushing one! Nevertheless, this drama will serve to inform people of the story behind the 5th November, and perhaps this year more people will be more knowledgeable about what exactly they are celebrating.
Galaxy Fantasy Blog 