Gunpowder is set in the 17th century during the reign of King James I, at a time of social unrest and in the midst of a war with Catholic Spain.

Despite many unsuccessful attempts to kill the new king, a plot was formed that went on to become one of the most notorious assassination attempts in English history: The Gunpowder Plot.

Although Guy Fawkes is the most legendary member of the group of English Catholics who planned the Gunpowder Plot, it is the group leader Robert Catesby (played by Kit Harington - Game of Thrones) who takes centre stage in the three-part drama, teased in the tagline of the trailer, "behind every plot is a mastermind."

Kit Harington, who also acts as an executive producer on the series, said, "so little is known about the lead up to the night of November 5, or what happened after it. In Gunpowder, we show the whole story."

"In so many dramas on TV today you see anonymous bad guys without a narrative, but what we’re trying to do is to tell the story from the plotters’ perspective as well, to try to understand what pushes people to do horribly violent things. We wanted to tell a story from both sides."

Gunpowder also stars Liv Tyler (Lord of the Rings) as Anne Vaux, Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey) as Guy Fawkes, Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) as spymaster Robert Cecil, Derek Riddell (Happy Valley) as King James I, and Edward Holcroft (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) as Thomas Wintour, Catesby's friend and co-conspirator. 

"Gunpowder is a fascinating interpretation of a time period so woven into the fabric of our modern society, but a story that we actually know so little about," said Tom Cullen. "It is a story of intolerance and reaction, two themes that we are still tragically all too familiar with."

The drama series will air on BBC One on 21st October. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer immediately after the broadcast of the first episode.