Entertainment

See Kit Harington and Liv Tyler in Gunpowder for the first time

The stars of the BBC’s new historical drama appear in images and a trailer for the series.
The stars of the BBC’s new historical drama appear in images and a trailer for the series.

Kit Harington and Liv Tyler can be seen for the first time in character for a TV series about a key moment in British history, the Gunpowder Plot.

The Game Of Thrones actor plays Robert Catesby in the forthcoming BBC One drama Gunpowder, a Warwickshire gentleman who was the mastermind behind the plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5 1605.

Gunpowder Kit Harington
Kit Harington stars in Gunpowder (BBC/PA)

Guy Fawkes, the figure that many viewers will be more familiar with, is played by Downton Abbey’s Tom Cullen and can be seen alongside Harington in a first-look trailer.

The newly released promo shows a trail of gunpowder leading to a cellar where Fawkes is waiting, but when the camera pans further round it shows Catesby standing behind him narrating the clip.

He explains what has led him to create the drastic plot, ramping up the tension for what is sure to be a highly anticipated three-part series in the autumn.

Released alongside the trailer are three new images showing Harington as Catesby, Lord Of The Rings star Tyler as his cousin Lady Anne Vaux who also became embroiled in the plot, and Edward Holcroft as another of the conspirators, Thomas Wintour.

Gunpowder Liv Tyler, Edward Holcroft and Kit Harington
Liv Tyler, Edward Holcroft and Kit Harington in costume (BBC/PA)

Gunpowder will explore the events behind the famous plot and will also feature Mark Gatiss as Robert Cecil, the spymaster-in-chief of King James I (Derek Riddell) who pursued the conspirators in a cat-and-mouse game.

Gunpowder's Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler plays Catesby’s cousin (BBC/PA)

Peter Mullan (Top Of The Lake), Shaun Dooley (Broadchurch) and Robert Emms (Happy Valley) will also star in the series, of which Harington is a co-executive producer.

The three hour-long episodes will be shown this autumn on Saturday nights on BBC One.