You Know Nothin', Robert Catesby

[flashman1889]

Thank you Sir Theo.  I have been researching them thoroughly and I agree they are different shows.  I will end up watching both I am sure.  I think I might have also stumbled upon a way to watch the new show here in the States.  As, I am afraid if I mention how I will be brought before the bar I will keep that to myself for the moment. 

[manatic]

Quite enjoyed Gunpowder! Shame it was only three episodes.

[Sir_Theo]

Thank you Sir Theo.  I have been researching them thoroughly and I agree they are different shows.  I will end up watching both I am sure.  I think I might have also stumbled upon a way to watch the new show here in the States.  As, I am afraid if I mention how I will be brought before the bar I will keep that to myself for the moment. 

Deny everything!

Given the subject matter it's quite fitting though...

[Cat]

I don’t think there was any salacious intent to make torture porn on the part of the programme makers here - I think they were just trying to show what an alien, brutal world it was at the time - how different from our own.

That could well be their full intent.  But still not what I want to watch, so alas I'll pass on this.

[olicana]

Quite enjoyed Gunpowder! Shame it was only three episodes.

That's history for you - the rest was pretty boring

[Captain Blood]

That could well be their full intent.  But still not what I want to watch, so alas I'll pass on this.

Luckily it's not compulsory

[rivers3162]

Was impressed with the final episode (watched the whole thing as oner on iPlayer), especially the siege but a little bit disappointed with the series as a whole. I never quite got why they had to introduce things like the peine forte et dure (which was used against those who refused to plead but not on any contemporaries in 1605) when there was plenty of brutality and nastiness against recusants and any priests discovered in England. Fr. John Gerard certainly led a dramatic and charmed life but I did raise an eyebrow at Catesby helping him to escape the Tower!

That said, the casting was very good. Kit Harington was very good as Catesby as were Fawkes, Garnet James I/VI. I also liked Mark Gatiss as Cecil - definitely a much more nuanced villain than Waad/Wade!

[olicana]

I'm still to watch the second episode of the documentary (Elizabeth Is Secret Agents) that kinda sisters this show. It charts the careers of Elizabeth Is 'spy masters'. It sets a background to the workings of state spy networks very nicely and puts the anti-papal attitudes at the time of the 'English Reformation' into context.