Original subtitles

(tense dramatic orchestral music)

- Westminster, the heart of London.

For 1,000 years, it's been the centre of power.

It was here on a November morning 400 years ago

that a group of Catholic rebels

planned to blow up Parliament

and change the country forever.

It would become one of the most famous events

in British history, forever known as the Gunpowder Plot.

(flames crackling)

(dramatic suspenseful orchestral music)

But how much do we really know about the Gunpowder Plot

and the men behind it?

In this programme,

we'll uncover the incredible details of this shocking event.

We'll count down the months, weeks, and days

as the Gunpowder Plotters

planned their attack on Parliament,

and we'll reveal just how close they came to succeed.

(explosion blasts)

The plotters have got 36 times more than that.

- [Mark] Yes.

- [Xand] In this episode, we'll find out

what drove the plotters to plan mass murder.

- I mean, the sounds of the people

ripping the house to shreds.

It would be absolutely terrifying.

- [Xand] We'll discover the dangers they faced

from government spies.

- You never really know

whether the people that you are dealing with

might be double agents.

- [Xand] And reveal how an anonymous tip-off

almost exposed the gap.

- The plotters, Catesby and co,

have no idea that their cover has essentially been blown.

(guns blasting)

- This is the amazing story

(gun blasting)

of the Gunpowder Plot.

(explosion blasts)

(fire crackles)

(brooding dramatic music)

November 1605.

Elizabeth I is dead, and King James is now on the throne.

(purposeful dramatic music)

While London sleeps,

one man lies in wait in a cellar beneath Parliament,

surrounded by barrels of gunpowder.

His name is Guy Fawkes.

If all goes to plan, in nine hours,

he will ignite 36 barrels of explosive

and blow up the House of Lords, killing hundreds of people,

including the king and the entire government.

(tense uneasy music) (clock ticking)

It is the culmination of 18 months of meticulous planning.

And the success of it all lies in Guy Fawkes' hands.

(car horns blaring)

(explosion blasts)

To understand the origins of the Gunpowder Plot,

we need to travel back in time nearly 18 months,

to May 1604, and a meeting in a London pub.

The pub, which was called The Duck and Drake,

is long gone,

but it was one of several pubs that offered a safe place

for the Catholic rebels to meet in secret,

no questions asked.

It was in a back room behind a busy bar like this

that the plot was hatched by five men.

(tense thoughtful music)

That night, the five plotters in The Duck and Drake

came up with a plan to blow up the House of Lords

and all those in it, including the king.

They knew the risks.

What they were planning was treason.

If they were caught, it would mean certain death.

(tense suspenseful music)

The men had been picked by their ringleader, Robert Catesby.

He believed that the only way

to improve life for English Catholics

was to blow up Westminster and seize power.

One of his first recruits was aristocrat Thomas Percy,

who'd already served time for murder.

Now, Percy's job would be to oversee logistics,

and his aristocratic connections would be useful

in helping the gangs set up a base near their target,

the House of Lords.

Even more importantly, what the plotters needed

was someone with experience of handling explosives.

(explosion blasts)

Guy Fawkes had spent 10 years

fighting for the Catholic cause abroad,

and he knew all about gunpowder.

Fawkes had one other advantage:

Unlike Catesby and Percy, who'd had run-ins with the law,

he was unknown to the English authorities.

Thanks to his 10 years spent overseas,

he was virtually anonymous in London.

Together, these men would lead one of the most daring plots

in England's history.

(traffic rumbles)

The plan was filled with danger.

The gang intended to tunnel beneath the House of Lords,

plant a huge quantity of gunpowder,

and blow the most powerful people in England

to kingdom come.

And once the country's rulers were dead,

Catesby then planned to lead an armed Catholic uprising

and seize power.

The plotters had chosen the perfect moment to strike.

In nine months' time, the king and his ministers

would all be gathered at the House of Lords

for the state opening of Parliament.

The loss of life would be huge.

But Catesby and his fellow plotters were convinced

it was the only way to stop the persecution of Catholics.

(tense thoughtful music)

But what had driven these men to plan mass murder now?

Catholics had been persecuted for years.

Those who refused to go to Church of England services

were given enormous fines,

and any Catholic priest caught in England was executed.

As a result, top-secret networks sprung up

to help priests move around the country undetected

and hold services, but they were in constant danger

of being caught by government-employed priest hunters.

Historian Tracy Borman has gone to Worcestershire

to discover how wealthy Catholic families

went to incredible lengths to conceal priests.

- I'm meeting Phil Downing, the manager of Harvington Hall,

one of the most extraordinary houses in Britain.

So, Phil, how did the owners of places like Harvington Hall

help Catholic priests?

- Houses like Harvington would act as a safe space.

You'd build hiding places

in the event of a raid by the priest hunters.

- These hiding places were known as "priest holes."

It's a beautiful house,

but it's a bit of a hotchpotch, isn't it, from the outside?

- You'd be forgiven

thinking that that's been botched together.

The reason is, as priest holes become more ingenious,

they put them more into the middle of the house.

But then to confuse the priest hunters,

they fill the back wall with windows.

- [Tracy] That's very clever.

- It's really a bit like a real-life game of hide and seek.

If the priest is captured, though,

he would suffer horrible consequences.

So he could potentially be tortured.

He'd be then hanged, drawn, and quartered as a traitor.

- [Tracy] There were over 400 houses across the country

with specially designed hiding places for priests.

Harvington Hall has seven.

The risks were massive.

If caught, the owners could have ended up

in the Tower of London,

facing fines, prison, or even execution.

Well, I can't wait to find out more.

Should we go take a look?

- [Phil] So, if you'd like to follow me, then,

Tracy, we'll go up the stairs.

- Fantastic.

(footsteps tapping)

Well, I have to say, I am completely disorientated now.

I have no idea where in the house we are.

- That's the whole point. (chuckles)

- Right, so, it's designed that way?

- [Phil] Through here.

- Oh! I was going the wrong way.

- This is the smallest room in Harvington Hall,

but it houses the most ingenious hiding place in this house.

- If I push one of these bookcases, perhaps, or...

- No. - Okay, well, for me, then,

I mean, it has to be behind this somehow.

- No. There's a corridor underneath there.

- Okay. - What we're looking at here

is a book cupboard.

So, you'd have had two doors in front here.

You could just imagine the terror.

The priest hunters have arrived.

What you can see there, Tracy,

it just looks like a normal wall, doesn't it?

- Yeah, that's just a solid wall, surely, with the beams.

(hand patting)

- Until we get to the end.

(wood clunks) (Tracy gasps)

- Oh, my goodness!

That's the last place I'd have looked.

That's amazing. - Yeah.

So, this is eight-foot long, three-foot wide,

and five-foot high.

- This priest's hole was so brilliantly hidden...

Right, here goes.

This is so exciting.

That it was only rediscovered 300 years later

by a schoolboy.

Right. Okay, here it goes.

And you're doing this in quite a hurry, I presume.

Ah!

All right.

So, I'm in, and it's actually...

Well, it's not too bad.

It's a little bit bigger than I was expecting.

How many people would have actually fitted in here?

- Well, in here, you could have had as many as two, three.

Depending on how many priests are in the house,

you would go in in numbers.

It's just the safest way to do it.

So, if I try and-

- I'll make some room. (laughs)

- Squeeze in.

(wood clunks)

- I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of confined spaces,

but then imagining what it would've been like

in here, in the dark,

priest hunters crawling all over the house.

- It's unimaginable, really.

I mean, the sounds

of the people ripping the house to shreds,

it would be absolutely terrifying.

And you'd have to sit here in here in silence.

Any noise could be your death sentence.

- So, how long would the priests have been in here?

- Priests could be in here for a matter of hours,

sometimes over a week.

- A week?

- As long as that. Over a week.

- It would have been pitch black.

And you're in here all alone.

I mean, it's like being encased in a tomb, isn't it?

(tense dramatic music) (objects clattering)

(priest hunters chattering)

- Some priests died in these hiding places,

and it was this kind of ruthless persecution

that made Catesby and his gang so determined

to fight the Catholic cause and blow up Parliament.

(explosion blasts)

(tense uneasy music)

It was now four days

since the plotters met in The Duck and Drake,

and their dangerous plans were starting to take shape.

They were risking everything.

If they were caught, they'd be executed for treason.

But there was no going back.

(explosion blasts)

(tense suspenseful music)

It's May 1604, and the Gunpowder Plot is well underway.

Just four days after the plotters met

for the first time in a London pub, they swung into action.

The gang's logistics expert, Thomas Percy,

had used his aristocratic connections

to get himself appointed a gentleman pensioner,

a fancy title that meant he was now part

of the king's bodyguard.

And crucially, this position

meant that he had a cover story.

He was expected to have a home here

in the heart of Westminster.

With his new role, Percy moved quickly.

On the 24th of May,

he rented a small house close to Parliament.

This would become the gang's safe house

from where they would launch the attack.

(sparse tense music)

The Palace of Westminster,

home to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

It's one of the most famous buildings in the world,

but in fact, this grand palace

was built 250 years after the Gunpowder Plot.

Parliament, in 1604, looked very different.

Back then, it was a jumble of buildings,

dating back to the 1200s.

The House of Lords was located at the southern end,

right next to the plotters' safe house.

And that location was really important

because their plan was to dig a tunnel

from the basement of the safe house

to underneath the House of Lords

and blow it up from beneath.

(explosion blasts)

In late May 1604, the gang began their preparations.

(tense thoughtful music)

But it wasn't long before they hit trouble.

They hadn't even started digging

when their safe house was suddenly commandeered

by the government for important state business.

The tunnel would have to wait.

It was a devastating blow.

The plotters had no choice but to put their plans on hold

while they waited for the safe house to be free again.

But the clock was ticking.

The gang had a deadline.

The plan was to attack the state opening of Parliament

on the 7th of February, 1605, almost nine months away.

But the longer their safe house was out of action,

the less they would have to dig the tunnel.

(purposeful dramatic orchestral music)

I'm inside the Houses of Parliament

to find out exactly why Catesby had chosen that date.

It is an absolutely extraordinary building.

In a funny way, being here is actually quite intimidating.

So, here we are in the central lobby

at the heart of Parliament,

Just over there, that's the House of Commons.

And opposite through those doors,

that is the House of Lords.

(lively orchestral music)

I'm meeting someone who knows a thing

or two about state occasions.

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt,

who played an important ceremonial role

at King Charles III's coronation.

I want to know why the Gunpowder Plotters

chose the state opening of Parliament for their attack.

What is the state opening of Parliament do?

What's its purpose?

- Simply, it is where the sovereign

reads out what the government is trying to achieve

in that session of Parliament.

The state opening is very significant

because it is one of the only occasions

where you have the three branches of Parliament

meet together in the same place.

So, that's the monarch, the House of Commons,

and the House of Lords.

Normally, they don't mix,

but they are all together in one chamber

when the speech is read out.

- Today, it's attended by over 2,000 people,

and this ceremony has remained largely unchanged

since the 1500s.

Is the Gunpowder Plot kind of present in your mind

during the day?

- No one has tried anything quite as spectacular

as that plot for a very long time, I'm pleased to say.

However, there is a tradition

the night before the state opening,

where the Yeomen of the Guard

will come and symbolically search the cellars of the palace

as a nod to what happened in the Gunpowder Plot.

And they do that with lanterns,

and it's rather nice, I think, that it's still kept.

I always use it as a moment to just think about

those that are keeping us safe in doing what we do here.

(rousing orchestral music)

- Catesby's genius was to understand

that there was only one opportunity to attack,

and that was the state opening of Parliament.

Because, just like today, the state opening

is the one moment in the Westminster calendar

when MPs, lords, and the monarch

are all together in one place.

It was the perfect opportunity to strike.

If the attack succeeded,

there would be no one left to run the country.

The king, his government, Members of Parliament,

even the bishops in charge of the Church of England

would all be dead,

and the stage would be set, Catesby hoped,

to seize power and return England to Catholic rule.

(tense brooding music) (clock ticking)

But for now, mastermind Robert Catesby

had to keep his powder dry.

All through the summer and the autumn of 1604,

the safe house continued to be used by the government.

The plotters couldn't begin to dig,

but they put the time to good use.

In October 1604, they decided to use the delay

to begin stockpiling gunpowder.

They met at Robert Catesby's house

on the South Bank of the River Thames.

Now, that house no longer exists,

but it was located right around where I am now.

I have a picture of it.

If you have a look here, it's possible to imagine

Catesby looking out one of these windows,

across the river, right at his target, the House of Lords.

It was inside Robert Catesby's house

that the gang planned to keep the gunpowder

needed for the attack.

Now, Guy Fawkes had worked out the quantities to do the job

and the amount was staggering,

36 barrels of gunpowder.

That's 2 1/2 tonnes of explosive.

Over the coming weeks,

the plotters began carefully stockpiling gunpowder

in Catesby's house.

(tense uneasy music)

In the 1600s, wooden barrels were used to store everything,

from wine and beer to flour and salt,

so the sight of them being moved in

and out of houses was nothing unusual.

But all the gunpowder in the world would be no use

unless the gang could dig a tunnel beneath Parliament.

As winter approached,

the safe house was still out of action,

and with every passing week, the gang's deadline,

the state opening of Parliament on the 7th of February,

got ever closer.

And if they didn't start digging soon,

there would not be time to complete the tunnel

and plant the explosives.

But then, on the 6th of December,

the plot's ringleader, Robert Catesby,

received the news he'd been waiting for.

At long last, the king's advisers had left the safe house.

Finally, it was theirs to use.

The setback had cost them six months,

but they now had access to the safe house

and could finally begin work on the tunnel.

And this is where Guy Fawkes' military expertise

really came into play

because, during his time fighting in Europe,

he had become expert in tunnelling under enemy positions.

(sparse tense music)

At last, the gang could start work,

but the delay had cost them dearly.

Now they only had two months to reach their target.

Digging a tunnel was slow and dangerous.

There was the constant fear of being discovered

and of it collapsing, burying them alive.

Not only that,

tunnelling just a few feet below ground was noisy,

so they worked in the dead of night.

Slowly but surely,

they inched their way closer to their target.

It was a race against time.

If the tunnel was not ready, the plot would be a failure.

Then they got a lucky break.

After a fortnight of frantic digging,

Catesby received some information.

The state opening was to be postponed until autumn.

It was a huge relief.

The delay was welcome news, but it came with risks.

The longer they waited, the greater the chances

the authorities would discover the plot.

(rocks clinking) (tense orchestral music)

As they continued tunnelling through the winter months,

the fear of being caught was always with them.

One February evening, they heard noises

and they seemed to be coming from directly above them.

(footsteps tapping)

Luckily, they hadn't been discovered.

Incredibly, they had tunnelled under a cellar

directly beneath the House of Lords.

Parliament in 1604 was much more open than it is today.

People could wander in and out.

It was actually packed full of shops,

and many of the rooms were available to rent.

So when Fawkes inquired about that cellar,

he was told it would soon be vacant and available to lease.

It was an incredible piece of good fortune.

(suspenseful dramatic orchestral music)

They no longer needed to dig the secret tunnel.

Instead, on the 25th of March, 1605,

the gunpowder gang rented out the cellar

under the House of Lords as legitimate businessmen.

But if they thought things would get easier,

they couldn't have been more wrong.

The plotters now faced their most dangerous mission to date.

They had to get the barrels of gunpowder

from Catesby's house on the South Bank

across the river to the cellar beneath Parliament.

It would be extremely dangerous

For a start, there's the constant danger

of accidental explosion.

But as well as this,

they face the ever-present threat of capture.

But if they succeeded,

they'd be able to place their explosives

within a few feet of their target, the House of Lords,

filled with the most powerful people in the land.

(intense dramatic music)

To avoid suspicion, they decided to transport the gunpowder

under cover of darkness.

The men needed nerves of steel.

The gunpowder was stable enough to be moved

when it was encased in a barrel,

but the tiniest spark or flame

would be enough to ignite it instantly.

And because they were on the busy River Thames at night,

they needed lanterns with flames to navigate and be seen.

It was incredibly dangerous.

Concentration was critical.

A single moment of carelessness would lead to disaster.

It was not unheard of for ships on the Thames to explode

if the gunpowder they were carrying accidentally ignited.

It took many terrifying trips to get all the gunpowder

safely across the river and into the cellar.

They could have been captured at any moment

or blown to pieces.

(explosion blasts)

(tense uneasy music)

In the summer of 1605,

the plotters were busy moving their explosives into position

in the cellar beneath Parliament.

Transporting gunpowder across the Thames

in the dead of night was fraught with danger,

but by the 20th of July, the barrel was in place.

(tense suspenseful music)

They had now assembled a massive arsenal:

36 barrels of explosives

directly beneath the House of Lords.

Fawkes then disguised the gunpowder

behind bundles of firewood, furniture, and barrels of booze

to make it look like a storeroom.

Anyone who came sniffing around the cellar

would, Fawkes hoped, see nothing but a room

stocked with typical household provisions.

They'd have no idea of the devastating weaponry

concealed in plain sight.

To find out just how destructive

the gang's arsenal would be,

I've come to the Royal Gunpowder Mills

to meet pyrotechnics expert Mark Winn Pedder.

Mark. - Xand.

Very, very nice to see you.

This is quite exciting.

- [Mark] Right.

- [Xand] What's in the barrel?

- 100 pounds of gunpowder.

- That's what I thought you were gonna say.

So, are we ready to go?

- We're ready to go. Ready to fire.

You want some ear protection?

- Yeah, I think so. Do I need...

I need ear protection? - You need ear protection

for this, yeah, yeah.

- I'm feeling more like a gunpowder plotter.

Like, I'm sort of getting in the mood.

(sparse tense music)

- Effects are hot.

Firing in five, four,

three, two,

one!

(explosion blasts)

(debris clattering)

(tense dramatic music)

- That's unbelievable.

It was like getting hit in the chest.

That was very, very,

not just loud, but like a powerful wave.

And the plotters have got 36 times more than that.

- Yes, they have. Yeah.

- [Xand] I now have a sense of the scale of the damage.

- It would have done the intended job,

absolutely all day long.

- Really? - Yeah, yeah. - I'm shaking.

I feel like I've been slapped across my whole body.

- [Mark] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And this is just in a field.

Once you put that into a cellar

and the force can't go out the sides,

it can only go up, totally different.

- That you almost have a sort of focused column

of escaping gas and fire roaring upwards.

- [Mark] Absolutely. Yeah.

- I can't believe how powerful that was.

- [Mark] Yeah, big bang.

- [Xand] Can we go and have a look at what it's done?

- [Mark] Yeah, of course, of course.

- So, it's quite dramatic.

I mean, you can definitely see where it was.

If I imagine now we're standing in the basement

in the cellar of the House of Lords,

and you're thinking about looking upwards,

and these 36 barrels have gone off-

- There'll be nothing left.

- You're standing at...

You know, there's no cellar.

There's no House of Lords.

Everyone's dead. - Absolutely.

(explosion blasts)

(debris clattering)

(tense brooding music)

Back in Westminster,

I'm taking a look at what would have been the blast zone

had the Gunpowder Plotters

lit the fuse on their huge arsenal.

When we blew up just a single barrel of gunpowder,

the shrapnel was flung over a vast area.

So the thought of Guy Fawkes blowing up 36 times as much

is truly terrifying.

Now, one study suggests

that everything within 40 metres of the blast, over there,

would have been completely razed to the ground.

But in fact, buildings within 110 metres of the blast,

that's Westminster Abbey over there,

that eastern end would have been

at least partially destroyed.

And, in fact, buildings up to 900 metres away,

that's here, at the end of Whitehall,

would have sustained damage or had their windows blown out.

The devastating blast would have been heard

as far as 20 kilometres away,

and thousands of people would have been killed or injured.

I've worked as a doctor in conflict zones around the world,

and I've seen first-hand the kinds of injuries

that explosions can cause.

Now, of course, there would have been a huge loss of life

in the instant of the explosion,

but beyond that, there would have been

massive numbers of casualties caused by shrapnel wounds

from flying timber that had been shredded in the explosion,

crush injuries from falling masonry.

And remember, back then,

there were no ambulances, there's no emergency care.

The injured would have been fending for themselves,

and without modern medicine,

over the following days and weeks,

many, many more people would die.

We think that if the plotters had succeeded,

this would have been the bloodiest attack

on British soil, even today.

(explosion blasts)

(tense dramatic orchestral music)

In just 22 days' time

Robert Catesby's gang planned to blow up the king

and his entire government.

But destroying Parliament

was just the start of Catesby's plan.

Once the king and his ministers were dead,

he hoped to launch an armed uprising and seize power.

And to make that happen,

he needed weapons, money, and more men.

So Catesby enlisted new members to the gang.

All were devout Catholics,

and all were friends or relations.

On October the 14th, Catesby recruited a 12th man,

his cousin, Francis Tresham.

Tresham was wealthy

and brought in the cash that would be needed

to lead the Catholic revolution after the attack.

He also had form.

He'd done time for his part in a rebellion

against Protestant Elizabeth I four years earlier.

But Tresham had his doubts about the plot.

He worried that innocent Catholic lords

would be killed during the attack.

Yet, despite his misgivings, he joined the gang.

(tense suspenseful music)

By the 21st of October,

Catesby's team of 13 men was finally complete.

The gang knew only too well the danger they were in.

Every new recruit increased the risk

of the plot being discovered.

The plotters knew only too well the danger they were in.

King James I was deeply paranoid.

His father was murdered when he was just a baby,

and there had already been numerous plots against him.

To hunt out any further threats,

he had a ruthless network of spies

and double agents working for him.

At the Tower of London,

Tracy is meeting historian John Cooper

to discover the dangers facing Catesby's gang.

- So, John, as Catesby is recruiting

more and more people to the plot,

that's actually quite risky, isn't it?

- That's right, early 17th-century England

is a very dangerous place to be a Catholic.

You never really know

whether the people that you're dealing with

might be double agents.

- Can you give me a sense of just how sophisticated

the spy networks are by now?

- The government is responding

to this very present threat of plot and conspiracy

by creating what's sometimes been called

the first example of the English Secret Service.

One of the most extraordinary things is to recruit

and turn Catholic priests.

And, of course, they're particularly devastatingly effective

because they know the secret networks,

they know how Catholic clergy move around the country.

- So there are fake priests, essentially.

And, really, you can trust nobody.

- I think that's right.

It's increasingly difficult, I think,

for the plotters to stay one step ahead

of what's, really, a pretty well-organized machine

in terms of the Secret Service.

Up until now, Catesby has relied very much on his close kin,

his friends, and his own family.

But he needs money, essentially,

and that's why he begins to extend the network

to other people.

The danger is maybe they might be compromised

in their own loyalties.

So, yeah, it's a difficult decision for him to make.

It's a risk he has to take.

(sparse tense music)

- With such a sophisticated spy network in place,

it's extraordinary the Gunpowder Plotters had got so far.

But the gang's luck was just about to run out.

With just over a week to go, disaster struck.

(man blowing)

Someone had tipped off the authorities.

A letter was sent to the home of Lord Monteagle,

a Catholic member of the House of Lords,

and it hinted of an attack

on the state opening of Parliament.

(fountain gushing)

I've come to the National Archives in Kew,

where I'm meeting records specialist Euan Roger

to find out more.

- So, this is perhaps one of the most important letters

in our collection.

It was sent ten days before the state opening of Parliament

on the 5th of November, 1605.

- It's maybe not what I expected.

It's quite an unassuming piece of paper.

- So, this is the original letter

that was handed anonymously

to the servant of Lord Monteagle, a Catholic lord.

- So, it hasn't got a signature.

I don't think it's even got a date.

What does it say?

- So, it reads, "I have a care of your preservation.

"Therefore, I would advise you, as you tender your life,

"to devise some excuse

"to shift off your attendance at this Parliament."

- He doesn't just say, "Don't go to Parliament."

It's like, "You've gotta think of an excuse.

"You've gotta come up with a good reason not to be there,

"but your life is in danger."

- Yeah. It's not something to be taken lightly.

He says, "For though, there be no appearance of any stirs,"

so there's no signing anything now,

"yet I say they shall receive

"a terrible blow this Parliament,

"and yet they shall not see who hurts them."

Don't underestimate the threat here.

- It's very chilling, actually.

It almost gives you goosebumps,

imagining someone getting this letter.

Who do we think might have written it?

- The best candidate is a man called Francis Tresham,

who is related to Monteagle.

He's one of the last plotters to be recruited to the cause,

and he's never really certain about what they're doing.

He's never really fully committed to the plot.

So it seems like he might be a likely author

for this letter.

- So, what does Monteagle do?

He's faced with a very difficult choice at this point.

Even holding the letter implicates him somehow.

- Yes, very much so.

This is a real dangerous document

to have in your in your care.

He ultimately decided to take it to the authorities.

The plotters, Catesby and co, have no idea

that their cover has essentially been blown.

- The letter was passed to King James' right-hand man,

spymaster in chief Sir Robert Cecil.

But despite the contents of the letter,

he didn't act straight away.

It's likely that he wanted to gather enough information

to uncover the entire plot and catch everyone involved.

But it didn't take long for news of the tip-off

to reach the gang.

(tense ominous music)

On the 28th of October,

two days after Cecil got hold of the letter,

a man named Winter, one of the gang members,

met with Catesby.

(hand knocking on door)

Winter begged the gang's ringleader to call off the attack,

but Catesby refused.

The plotters were getting nervous.

(door slamming)

Four days after the tip-off,

Guy Fawkes checked on the gunpowder

hidden beneath the House of Lords.

He was looking for signs

that the gunpowder had been tampered with

or the room had been searched,

but everything seemed to be as he left it.

He was confident that the authorities weren't onto them,

that the explosives had not been discovered.

So as far as Guy Fawkes was concerned, nothing had changed.

The attack could go ahead as planned.

But the gang's fortunes were about to turn.

(tense dramatic music)

On the 1st of November,

Cecil finally handed the anonymous letter to James I.

Convinced this was proof of a clear threat

to blow up Parliament and himself,

he ordered a search of the House of Lords

and the surrounding buildings.

While King James absorbed the news

about the threat to his life,

the leader of the Gunpowder Plot, Robert Catesby,

was beginning to think that one of the gang

may be a traitor.

His prime suspect was his own cousin,

the 12th member of the gang, Francis Tresham.

Lord Monteagle was Tresham's brother-in-law,

and Tresham had been concerned

that innocent Catholics would be killed in the attack.

Catesby decided to confront him.

(tense brooding music)

He asked to meet Tresham, not in London,

but somewhere much quieter, Epping Forest.

If Francis Tresham had any inkling

why Catesby wanted to meet in the woods,

he didn't show it.

When he arrived, Tresham was met by Catesby

and fellow plotter Winter.

When they reached a suitably quiet spot,

Catesby turned and confronted Tresham,

accusing him of writing the anonymous letter.

He assured his cousin

that unless he could persuade them otherwise,

he and Winter would hang him from the nearest tree.

What Tresham said next would mean the difference

between life and death.

(explosion blasts)

(purposeful dramatic music)

Just days before the attack on Parliament,

someone tipped off the authorities

with an anonymous letter.

Gunpowder plotters,

Catesby and Winter, believed they'd been betrayed

by fellow gang member Francis Tresham.

On the 1st of November, they interrogated him.

If he was guilty, they planned to execute him on the spot.

But Tresham pleaded his innocence.

He must have known that Catesby

and Winter were deadly serious.

The letter had almost exposed the plot,

and if they were caught, they would all be executed.

Tresham was now begging for his life.

(birds chirping) (tense uneasy music)

Finally, after hearing his cousin's pleas,

Catesby accepted that he was innocent.

But if it wasn't Tresham who'd given them away,

who could have warned Lord Monteagle?

Fear and paranoia were spreading through the gang.

(birds cawing)

(explosion blasts)

(tense brooding music)

(clock ticking)

Two days later, and with just 48 hours to go,

Robert Catesby called his team together.

Six of the plotters,

including logistics fixer Thomas Percy

and explosives expert Guy Fawkes, were present.

Tresham was nowhere to be seen.

(flame whooshing)

Fearing that the conspiracy may have been exposed,

some of the men tried to persuade Catesby

to flee the country,

but rather than make a run for it,

he planned to ride north to Warwickshire,

where he would lead a Catholic uprising.

Despite the risks, he urged his fellow plotters

to stick to the plan.

(dramatic suspenseful music)

Everything now depended on one man:

Guy Fawkes.

At dawn on the 4th of November, 1605,

he made his way to the cellar beneath the House of Lords.

This is where he would wait until the next morning

to light the fuse to the gunpowder.

The timing of the explosion had to be accurate.

Fawkes needed to blow up Parliament

when the king was present.

Too early or too late and he'd miss his target,

but he also needed enough time to get clear of the blast.

The entire fate of the plot

now rested on Fawkes's explosive skills.

(explosion blasts)

(tense dramatic music)

While Fawkes lay in wait,

the gang's mastermind, Robert Catesby,

headed north to Warwickshire.

(horse hooves cantering)

If all went well, he would launch phase two of the plot,

a Catholic uprising the following day.

(horse whinnying)

But Catesby's power grab could only work

if the king and his ministers were dead.

He had to hope Guy Fawkes's mission would be a success.

But was Catesby's plan about to unravel?

Unknown to him, three of the king's advisers

had begun a search of Parliament.

It had been three days since King James had read the letter

warning of the attack,

and only now had his men begun combing nearby buildings.

It was the afternoon when they arrived outside a cellar door

beneath the House of Lords.

When the guards entered the cellar,

they found a lone man surrounded by furniture

and piles of firewood.

Fawkes had been discovered.

He would have to think very quickly

if he was to talk his way out of this,

and that's exactly what he did.

He told the guards that he was a servant named John Johnson

and that his master, Thomas Percy, was renting the cellar

to store provisions, including firewood.

Fawkes's story appeared to check out.

The king's men knew that Percy had leased the cellar

and that he had a servant named John Johnson.

(light inquisitive music)

Guy Fawkes's heart must've been racing.

All the guards had to do was look around the cellar

a little more closely and the plot would be exposed.

But incredibly, they bought John Johnson's story and left.

No doubt Fawkes sighed with relief.

But as the guards searched nearby rooms,

they questioned why John Johnson needed so much firewood

(tense uneasy music)

They decided to report their suspicions to the king.

(clock ticking)

Fawkes remained in the cellar,

waiting, completely oblivious to what was going on.

The slow fuse was in position,

and the 36 barrels of gunpowder lay ready to detonate.

(dramatic orchestral music)

After 18 months of smuggling gunpowder,

digging tunnels, recruiting plotters, and evading the law,

it was now all down to a single man:

Guy Fawkes.

In just a few hours, he would ignite the fuse

that would change the course of British history forever.

The countdown had begun.

Next time, Fawkes is caught red-handed.

One of the guards threatened to draw his dagger

but thought better of it.

He knew the king wanted the suspect alive.

We discover the brutal role the Tower of London played

in extracting Guy Fawkes's confession.

You're manacled in by your wrists and ankles

as you're stretched almost pulled limb from limb.

And we follow the desperate attempts

to catch his fellow plotters before it was too late.

- That's it. Keep going.

(guns blasting)

- Whoa. (laughing)

- Well done.

- You can feel that.

There's quite a recoil on that.

(rousing dramatic orchestral music)