Gunpowder

I started to watch but found it unbearably tense and then found the graphic depiction of state sanctioned sanctimonious viciousness too horrible for words. I'm so thankful to be alive today and not in those dark days.

Blinko, our society is free of those ghastly executions and torture, but if you believe such practices are not going on in nations with which we have arms deals, think again. The 'dark days' are still around - just not here.

I declined to watch this programme, I love history and I am very familiar with the story but I can't bear torture and gore. Sadly some of the most hideous aspectsof man's inhumanity to his fellow man is still with us in the more repressive regimes around the world and the depths of depravity that ISIS sank to were as barbaric as anything from those ghastly times in our own country.

I agree terri . Cannot cope with cruelty on this scale .

I started to watch it. Very dark and too much mumbling. I had 9 year old grandson here, so put it off when I realised how horrible the execution scenes were. I don't think I'll watch any more of it.

Kit Harington may be related to the Catesby family but he is not a direct descendant as Robert Catesby's son died without issue. Just one more inaccuracy in a dramatisation that owed more to Game of Thrones than the well-documented events.

I love history and find it fascinating especially medieval till 19th century, modern history interesting but not fascinating!
The discovery of the priest was gripping and DH and I were really holding our breath. The executions were grim to say the least, but that's exactly how it was, baying crowd and all! Robert Cecil was absolutely how I would imagine him both physically and mentally, spooky and sinister! Yes there is a bit of poetic license but by and large it was thumbs up for us.

I don’t think I will watch it after all, having recorded it.
I have enough problems hearing dialogue at the best of times, and the thought of a graphic depiction
Of hanging drawing and quartering gives me the shudders.

Not watching the graphic bits, but finding it interesting on Catch Up). Who is the bearded bloke in the big hat (the actor)?

I found it worth watching and thought it reflected the tensions of the time very well. But I was knitting a complicated Arran pattern throughout so I could avoid watching the more graphic bits!

Ignore previous found him. Plus I realised many men with beards and big hats!

I thought it was well done and, although I often complain about the sound on these TV dramas, I didn't think it was too bad on this one.

I think it was necessary to show the level of viciousness and cruelty that was used during those times.

From my recollection, Guy Fawkes featured more prominently on 5 November when I was a child, and burning a guy just seemed like a bit of fun. Even as I got older it didn't occur to me that to trivialise and celebrate acts of savagery was, as I now feel, pretty horrible.

Eleothan I am the same as you I really never thought about the idea behind the burning of the guy in my childhood bonfires and I m really sorry I joined in these shenanigans and even took my children to watch How awful, all these years it just been a replication of the baying crowds in that scene
I think we should watch these awful gory scenes ( even if it distresses us) to bring home to us how close man is to the barbarity we complain bitterly about still happening in other countries
I ve obviously heard of being hanged, drawn and quartered would he still have been conscious after his guts were pulled out though ? What was the name given to the type of killing of the mother?

I've read they often were conscious throughout Bluebelle and I believe she was pressed to death. I've never understood why people would want to watch. Perhaps it made them feel better about their miserable lot.

I think it’s a ‘all join together against the enemy’ thing same with the French gullitine and the Romans, the stoning in the Middle East even today, every time an enemy is killed a group will form to watch and applaud perhaps its relief it’s not them, perhaps it’s curiosity, perhaps it’s join the right side or it may happen to you or maybe it’s just getting pulled along by the crowd as ‘one’ Think of bullying today its the same thing
Absolutely shows the brutality of humanity as it was and is

You're right. Insecurity and fear of being picked on. It does show how easy it is for a bully, from school playground to president, to exert power over the masses. I understand Cecil just wanted priests to be quietly expelled from the country, not killed. He didn't want to stir up rebellion. Even the King thought that way to begin with, he didn't want to upset Spain.

The tv depiction of the hanging drawing and quartering was mercifully brief. In fact, it would be a far more horrible process, drawn out to please the crowds and does not bear thinking about. They would put the traitor’s head on a spike on London Bridge and send the “quarters” out into the country to be displayed as a deterrent to others.

I’m not going to watch it, but think it is right that such grisly part of history is not airbrushed out of such a story. Might as well ban Macbeth, most operas etc.

I thought it might be gory, and I really can't watch anything so cruel, so I thought I'd pop in here and see what's being said. Oh my word, so glad I haven't watched, it's bad enough on here.

Annodomini, true. I must admit I was thinking of Western society. We are all aware of the practices in other countries, and of course the ghastly ISIS.

Was looking forward to an accurate historic programme but couldn't bear the graphic scenes so gave up on it then. I've never been able to watch stuff like that and had to switch Braveheart off before the end, years back.

It will be interesting, at the end, to see whether they depict Guy Fawkes’ death accurately.

Apparently the torture depicted is historically accurate. Here's more info from Wikipedia:

The most famous case in the United Kingdom was that of Roman Catholic martyr St Margaret Clitherow, who (in order to avoid a trial in which her own children would be obliged to give evidence) was pressed to death on March 25, 1586, after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured Catholic (then outlawed) priests in her house. She died within fifteen minutes under a weight of at least 700 pounds (320 kg). Several hardened criminals, including William Spigott (1721) and Edward Burnworth, lasted a half hour under 400 pounds (180 kg) before pleading to the indictment. Others, such as Major Strangways (1658) and John Weekes (1731), refused to plead, even under 400 pounds.

Just a heads up for next episode - I’ve just watched episode 2.
There’s two bits of torture one by burning and the other by stretching.

Thanks Grannyknot .....thank God it was fifteen minutes not hours it must have been a long fifteen minutes perhaps she lost consciousness before then Terrible terrible stuff but so important we don’t cover it up that’s the only way it won’t be repeated