The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend
| The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend | |
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The title screen for The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend
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| Genre | documentary |
| Created by | Darlow Smithson Productions, Ltd. |
| Directed by | Mike Slee |
| Presented by | Richard Hammond |
| Theme music composer | Richard Attree |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Richard Battin |
| Producer(s) | Mike Slee |
| Location(s) | UK, Spain |
| Editor(s) | Ross Bradley |
| Camera setup | Lee Butterby Peter Allibone Chris Bryant Mike Craven Todd Dave Baillie (aerial photography) |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| First shown in | 1 November 2005 |
| External links | |
| Production website |
itv |
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding The Legend was a British television show, hosted by Richard Hammond that recreated elements of the Gunpowder Plot in which Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords.
First aired on the ITV Network in 2005, this £1 million programme centres on a reconstruction of the Houses of Parliament as they were in 1605 (the current ones had not yet been built at the time of the Gunpowder Plot), constructed using period equivalent methods wherever possible. This was stocked with mannequins to represent notable commoners, members and the king before the bomb was detonated. The programme was made to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the plot.
The programme explores through partial dramatization the plot itself, and the persons involved. It also answers the question of whether the plot would have actually worked: the Houses of Parliament would have been completely obliterated, and most of the windows in nearby Westminster Abbey would have been shattered.
The first hurdle to overcome was the actual recreation of the 17th-century Houses of Parliament. As the buildings were demolished to expand the current structures, Simon Carter, the Parliamentary Curator provided drawings of the original structures for the recreated structure to utilise using 650 tonnes of concrete. Explosives expert Sidney Alford helped to determine that thirty-six barrels containing one cubic ton of gunpowder were used in the plot. Alford further proved that the "decayed" powder was classified as such because it was unsuitable for infantry use, but could still detonate.
The dramatic experiment, conducted on the Advantica Spadeadam test site and overseen by Arup, proved unambiguously that the explosion would have, at the very least, killed all those attending the State Opening of Parliament in the Lords chamber, including, according to historical consultant Justin Pollard, King James I and VI of Scotland, Archbishop Bancroft, Lord Northampton and the philosopher Francis Bacon.
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