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Gunpowder,
Treason and Plot in Romania: Robert Carlyle stars in new Jimmy McGovern
drama for ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO
Filming
has begun this week in Bucharest on a major new four-part drama
for ´óÏó´«Ã½ 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 ´óÏó´«Ã½ 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 ´óÏó´«Ã½ 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 ´óÏó´«Ã½ 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 ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO next year, is a
Box TV production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ 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 ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE and Boudica,
starring Alex Kingston, for ITV.
All the
´óÏó´«Ã½'s digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable. Freeview
offers the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s eight television channels, interactive services
from ´óÏó´«Ã½i, as well as 11 ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio networks.
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