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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0445  Tuesday, 17 February 2004

From:           Richard Burt <rburt@english.ufl.edu>
Date:           Sunday, 15 Feb 2004 18:35:02 -0500
Subject:        "Gunpowder, Treason and Plot" (2004) (mini) UK TV

IMDB lists the film as being in post-production. See
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0377184/

"Gunpowder, Treason and Plot" (2004)  (mini)

Directed by
Gillies MacKinnon

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot in Romania: Robert Carlyle stars in new
Jimmy McGovern drama for BBC TWO

Filming has begun this week in Bucharest on a major new four-part drama
for BBC TWO by award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern about Mary Queen Of
Scots, James I and the Gunpowder Plot.

Starring Robert Carlyle as James and French newcomer Clemence Poesy as
Mary, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot also features Kevin McKidd, Emilia
Fox, Tim McInnerney, Catherine McCormack, Richard Coyle, Daniella
Nardini and Paul Nicholls.

Gunpowder is a Box TV production for BBC TWO directed by Gillies
MacKinnon, whose credits include such films as Pure, Regeneration,
Hideous Kinky and Small Faces.

He also directed Jimmy McGovern's 1990 BBC TWO drama Needle.

Filmed entirely on location in Romania with key Scottish crew,
McGovern's script concentrates on Mary's short-lived reign and the
battles she had to fight with both her Protestant subjects and the
English Queen, Elizabeth I (Catherine McCormack).

She conspired with the Earl of Bothwell (McKidd) to assassinate her
miscreant husband Lord Darnley (Coyle).

The story continues with her son James VI of Scotland (who on
Elizabeth's death became James I of England) and the plot against his
reign masterminded by the influential Catholic Robert Catesby (Coyle) a
plot planned by Guy Fawkes (played by newcomer Michael Fassbender) to
blow up the Houses of Parliament in order to rid the nation of an
oppressive Protestant monarch.

The drama reunites McGovern with producer Gub Neal. The pair created
Cracker together and were also responsible for the award-winning
drama-documentary, Hillsborough.

The executive producers are Robert Cooper, Head of BBC Northern Ireland
Drama, and Gareth Neame, Head of Drama Commissioning.

Robert Cooper said: "Gunpowder, Treason and Plot is a signature drama
from one of Britain's most accomplished television writers, who is known
for exploring such universal themes as injustice, prejudice and
intolerance in Sunday, Liam, Hillsborough, Priest and Cracker.

"In Gunpowder, he explores the nature of power and kingship with a drama
inspired by historical characters and events, in much the same way as
Shakespeare interpreted the past in the history plays. It's a personal
vision, a dramatic interpretation of history."

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot, which will be shown on BBC TWO next year,
is a Box TV production for BBC Northern Ireland.

Notes to Editors

Gub Neal is an award-winning producer, former Controller of Drama for
Granada TV and former Head of Drama at Channel 4.

His credits include Cracker (which he co-created with Jimmy McGovern in
1993), Prime Suspect, Band Of Gold, Moll Flanders, Hillsborough, Queer
As Folk, Longitude, Teachers, and Sunday.

He left Channel 4 in 2000 to set up his own production company Box TV,
which has most recently produced Trust for BBC ONE and Boudica, starring
Alex Kingston, for ITV.


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