Gunpowder, Treason & Plot
| Gunpowder, Treason & Plot | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Jimmy McGovern |
| Directed by | Gillies MacKinnon |
| Starring | Clémence Poésy Kevin McKidd Robert Carlyle Tim McInnerny Emilia Fox Michael Fassbender |
| Music by | John E. Keane |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Cinematography | Nigel Willoughby |
| Editor | Pia Di Ciaula |
| Running time | 205 min (2 parts) |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Two |
| Release | 14 March – 21 March 2004 |
Gunpowder, Treason & Plot is a 2004 BBC miniseries based upon the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her son James VI of Scotland. The writer Jimmy McGovern tells the story behind the Gunpowder Plot in two parts, each centred on one of the monarchs.
Directed by Gillies MacKinnon and filmed in Romania with a key Scottish crew, the first film dramatizes the relationship between Mary, Queen of Scots, played by French actress Clémence Poésy, and her third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell played by Kevin McKidd. Scottish actor Robert Carlyle stars as James VI in the second part of the series, which concentrates on the Gunpowder Plot, planned by Guy Fawkes, to blow up the Houses of Parliament in order to rid the nation of a Protestant monarch to be replaced by a Catholic one. McGovern had previously covered the Plot in the one-hour play Traitors for BBC2's Screenplay strand, transmitted on 5 November 1990.
Plot
Episode 1 opens with Mary, Queen of Scots, who is in exile in France returning to Scotland in 1561. Mary's first husband in Scotland is Lord Darnley who participates in the extra-judicial killing of David Rizzio. James I is born out Mary's first marriage. Mary's final husband is long-time paramour Bothwell.
The opening scene of Episode 2 is in Scotland in 1587 showing James I saying, "I have every right to hate you [his mother Mary]".
Cast
- Clémence Poésy as Mary, Queen of Scots
- Iona Ruxandra Bratosin as Young Mary
- Carmen Ungureanu as Mary of Guise
- Steven Duffy as Lord James, half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots
- Kevin McKidd as Bothwell
- Tadeusz Pasternak as David Rizzio
- Maria Popistașu as Lady Marie
- Catherine McCormack as Queen Elizabeth I
- Gary Lewis as John Knox
- Paul Nicholls as Lord Darnley
- Robert Carlyle as King James I
- Sira Stampe as Anne of Denmark
- Tim McInnerny as Cecil
- Emilia Fox as Lady Margaret
- Michael Fassbender as Guy Fawkes
- Richard Coyle as Robert Catesby
- Richard Harrington as Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) in episode 2
- Sam Troughton as Thomas Winter in episode 2
See also
External links
- Gunpowder, Treason & Plot BBC Archived from the original
- Gunpowder, Treason & Plot at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Fassbender
- Use dmy dates from December 2012
- 2004 British television programme debuts
- 2004 British television programme endings
- 2000s British drama television series
- BBC television royalty dramas
- BBC television dramas
- British television miniseries
- Gunpowder Plot
- English-language television programming
- Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I of England
- Cultural depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots
- Cultural depictions of Guy Fawkes
- James VI and I