The three-part BBC miniseries GUNPOWDER, retelling the events of the infamous Gunpowder Plot, is a reminder of the BBC's inability to produce decent costume drama in the last two decades. This is an extremely light production with a fast running time and almost nothing in the way of characterisation. The protagonists are one-dimensional at best, with Mark Gatiss' Richard III-alike coming off the worst as the cartoon villain, although Shaun Dooley is little better.
Kit Harington is given very little to work with and spends all his time looking worried; Guy Fawkes and his collaborators are indistinguishable from one another. Liv Tyler is here as the token American cast member (hello, BBC America) and out of place. The film does have some violent torture and execution scenes, but they're nothing that hasn't been done before, and the suspense is almost non-existent. The action also seems shoehorned into the story with random sword fighting and the like. This is certainly a fine-looking production, but writer Ronan Bennett's best work is still his 1997 screenplay for FACE.
Kit Harington is given very little to work with and spends all his time looking worried; Guy Fawkes and his collaborators are indistinguishable from one another. Liv Tyler is here as the token American cast member (hello, BBC America) and out of place. The film does have some violent torture and execution scenes, but they're nothing that hasn't been done before, and the suspense is almost non-existent. The action also seems shoehorned into the story with random sword fighting and the like. This is certainly a fine-looking production, but writer Ronan Bennett's best work is still his 1997 screenplay for FACE.