"Gunpowder" - BBC

[LurkingHusband]

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05j1bc9

Anyone looking forward ?

Thankyou contessabonetta...that was one of my favourite books when I was a kid...I grew up in Derbyshire near where it was set and I often think of that book but couldn’t remember what it was called for the life of me! I’ve just now ordered it for dd (for me really ) for Christmas.

Yes I remember the Rufus Sewell one, I turned over at that bit.

I had to stop watching really quickly, knowing that pretty Jesuit priest hiding ineffectually in a window seat (the real priest holes were a hell of a lot more difficult to find) = him being horribly executed fairly soon.
I can't stand this approach to history, all good guys/ bad guys.
Only (yes, I know one is too many) one woman was ever executed by pain fort et sure and she wasn't stripped naked and it didn't happen in public.
I really don't know how anybody could watch it, knowing that these things happened to real people.

I really don't know how anybody could watch it, knowing that these things happened to real people.

...surely it's worse to watch (and cheer on ...) the real thing ?

Of course! But it's degenerate to be entertained by a recreation of it. IMO

'degenerate'?

absolutely.

'having lost the physical, mental, or moral qualities considered normal and desirable; showing evidence of decline.'
seems to fit

Strong (and weird) word to use.

Everyone who watched this and didn't clutch their handbags at the torture scenes then has no 'normal' moral qualities and is in some kind of decline?

Perhaps you were born a bit too late. That kind of approach would, I imagine, have got you to the top in the 17th-century religious/moral police line of work.

I think it's the right word.
Is it 'pearl clutching' not to like recreations of torture? Or think they're unnecessary?
or - to turn it round - why are they needed?

Quite chuffed at having realised I'm degenerate. DS will be impressed.

Calling it 'degenerate' is a bit Mary Whitehouse isn't it? I mean, it's historical drama.

I've seen this stuff depicted in many films - Elizabeth and Braveheart for example.

'needed' is obviously a very conditional word as it's a telly show and how much of any of it is 'needed' in any meaningful way; but yes, I'd say they're needed –or anyway that they make sense – to give a sense of what sort and levels of danger Catholics in that time faced and just why the Gunpowder Plot ever happened.

I mean, if you don't like them don't watch it. But to sniff about other people being 'degenerate' because they DO wish to watch it is pretty shitty.

I did wonder if the stone pressing execution had happened in that way, interesting that it was not an accurate portrayal.

I think it's shitty to see torture as entertainment.

Ah, it's not shitty. Its watching a depiction of things that have happened. Sorry, but it's not that bad - I went to the London Dungeons in the 80's , and there were some fairly diabolical things in there.

*I mean these things are bad - but it's not shitty or degenerate to watch dramas about them.

Many a drama has been made about the most unspeakable things - both real and imagined.

Degenerate

Thanks for the Elizabeth I’s Spies recommendation upthread - very interesting viewing!

Ive always wanted to be a bit of a bad girl so being degenerate is just fabulous.

Thanks for the Elizabeth I’s Spies recommendation upthread - very interesting viewing!

I really enjoyed it as well.

Thank you

Thanks for the Elizabeth I’s Spies recommendation upthread - very interesting viewing!

I especially liked learning that "Honest Man" (the brewer intercepting the letters to Mary) was not only paid by Cecil and Mary simultaneously, but hiked the price of his beer too.

But then again, one of the first recorded uses of the telescope was to engineer profiteering by using advance knowledge of ships movements to set goods pricing.

If watching portrayals of historical acts that include torture and execution is degenerate, surely reading about such is just as degenerate, so anyone who studies History is degenerate?
There is a world of difference between watching to be entertained and watching to be informed.

I don't think Lucy even watched it as she 'had to stop watching really quickly'.

anyone who studies History is degenerate?

There appears to be a growing band of people who believe so ... unless they are studying the right history of course.

Many a drama has been made about the most unspeakable things - both real and imagined.

Exactly.

And 'a bit Mary Whitehouse' captures this attitude PRECISELY.