Kit Harington will be hanging up his boots as Game of Thrones' Jon Snow for a while for this very different role in an upcoming BBC historical drama.
The three-part series will be called Gunpowder and will tell the story of the infamous British incident involving Guy Fawkes in 1605 - whereby a group of English Catholics attempted to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I in order to help restore a Catholic to the throne. The plot was foiled on November 5 that year when authorities at Westminster Palace found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Brits still celebrate Guy Fawkes Night every year on November 5th with bonfires and fireworks.
Harington will star as the man who devised the plan, which actually wasn't Fawkes but Robert Catesby, a 30-year old Warwickshire gentleman and committed Catholic at a time when Protestant England persecuted the church’s members relentlessly. A perfect role for him as he once said he was descended from Catesby.
Not only that, but Liv Tyler will also star as Catesby's cousin Anne Vaux, Sherlock's Mark Gatiss as spymaster-in-chief Robert Ceci and Top Of The Lake‘s Peter Mullan will play head Jesuit Father Garnet.
Gunpowder will be directed by J Blakeson while Harington will also executive produce alongside Ollie Madden for Kudos and Stephen Wright for the BBC.
There's no air date yet but shooting will begin this month so we'd imagine it will be late 2017.
