Originally published February 19, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Liv Tyler (The Leftovers), Peter Mullan (Top of the Lake) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) have signed on to star in the upcoming three-part historical thriller series Gunpowder from the BBC.
Scripted by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy), who devised the project with Harington and Daniel West, the series will explore the true story behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, where a group of English Catholics attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I in order to restore a Catholic to the throne. The plot was ultimately foiled when Guy Fawkes was captured guarding the explosives.
Harington is set to play Robert Catesby, the man responsible for devising the plan, and the driving force behind the plot (who also happens to be a direct ancestor of Harington in real life). Gatiss will portray King James’ spymaster-in-chief Robert Cecil, with Mullan as Jesuit Father Garnet and Tyler as Catesby’s cousin Anne Vaux.
Production on Gunpowder begins this month, with J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, The 5th Wave) directing.
