Gunpowder: BBC's Guy Fawkes drama features gruesome executions and nudity in the first episode

The BBC’s upcoming Saturday night drama, Gunpowder, has already started turning heads, publications noting how the period drama spares no details on the gore and nudity.

Starring Kit Harrington, the show follows Robert Catesby, the infamous terrorist who attempted to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Parliament in 1605.

Harrington — best known for starring in the similarly raunchy Game of Thrones — plays Catesby, while Liv Tyler portrays the Catesby's cousin Ann Vaux.

During the opening episodes, one man is “hung, drawn and quartered” for being a Catholic priest, the full gory details being shown. According to The Sun, the man is “chopped from the noose while alive - before the no-frills executioner cuts out his insides while his heart is still beating”.

The same episode, another Catholic — Sian Webber as Lady Dorothy Dibdale — is stripped naked and forced to lie down on a jagged rock. A metal slab is placed upon her, weights being put on top until the character is crushed to death.

The traumatic scenes are purposely made graphic to show why these characters attempted to blow up Parliament. As we all know, the plot was unsuccessful, Guy Fawkes – played by Downton Abbey’s Tom Cullen – being discovered stashing gunpowder beneath Westminster.

Gunpowder — which will run for three episodes — starts Saturday, 9.10pm on BBC One.