Watch Gunpowder, Treason & Plot For Free

That was an excellent one.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It might be useful to remember that on returning to Scotland, Mary had a past as Dauphine and Queen of France (wife, 1548-1560, of Francis II, son of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici, who died in 1560 after just one year of reign). Though Catherine de' Medici's court was quite a colourful place, it was surely not such a dreary place to be "in exile". And what about the Queen of Scots, ex Queen of France, jumping to the saddle and riding astride? In the end, it might be better to invent new names for loosely history-based figures of fiction, rather than proceed to these tiresome gaps and anachronisms which just tend to confuse spectators.

Clemence Posey stars as the young and beautiful Mary, Queen of Scots in this thrilling tale of murder, deceit and religion. Upon the death of her mother the young Mary travels back to her homeland of Scotland from France after 13 years in exile. Discovering that her religion is considered evil Mary tries to allow Catholics and Protestants to worship in there own way unbeknown to her, her half brother Lord James is conspiring with Mary's rival, the Protestant Elizabeth 1st to plan Mary's downfall and replace her as King of Scotland.When Mary marries the English, and powerful Lord Darnley, James begins to fear for his ambitions even more, when Mary becomes pregnant, and with the birth of her son, the future King James. Lord James realise his plans are destroyed.With her marriage becoming tempestuous and violent Mary seeks solitude away from her violent husband in the arms of her faithful guard Bothwell, a move which was to become her downfall, for the sake of her son Mary places herself in the hands of her enemy and abdicates.The series picks up again around 20 years later with James VI ruling Scotland and awaiting the death of the English Queen Elizabeth so he can claim her crown, when he does ascend to the throne all seems well, the people welcome him and except that they have a Protestant King, what he doesn't count on is a group of powerful Catholics, determined he will not destroy their faith and set to blowing up Parliament and the King. Learning of the plan James enlists the help of his adviser, the questionable Lord Cecill and his ill-fated spy Lady Margaret, to identify Guy Fawkes and his group and bring them to justice.

As soon as I saw the text "Written by Jimmy McGovern" flash up on the promos, I knew that this would be something special. Having watched the first season of McGovern's "Cracker" I knew that this would be history with true grit, venomous dialogue, and buckets of conflict. I wasn't disappointed.Judging by the other comments some people found McGovern's style too harsh, that he belittles the both Royal family and the Protestant and Catholic branches of church, and overuses sex and violence. It's a fair criticism, but so many over-starched interpretations of British history have been made that this gritty drama becomes a breath of fresh air.The show is evenly divided into two parts, both riveting stories. The first is the reign of Queen Mary I of Scotland, a French Catholic girl now ruling over Protestant Scotland. Clemence Poesy turns in a brilliant performance as the young queen faced with her conniving half-brother Lord James, Queen Elizabeth I of England, her misogynistic husband Lord Darnley, and her brash suitor the Lord Bothwell. The whole story is turbulent, as a state of war with the English gradually precipitates.The second part is much higher drama, though. It is concerned with Mary's son James I, a repugnant, bitter cripple, who promises the Catholics tolerance, and then reneges on his promise at the behest of the manipulative Lord Cecil, one of the most powerful men in England. This proves the catalyst for the famous attempted bombing of the houses of parliament on November 5, lead by the ruthless Spaniard Guy Fawkes.It is true that McGovern revolves the entire show about the us-and-them viewpoint of the Catholic and Protestant, BUT this works to great effect. Emphasising the conflict in this war really ups the ante for the drama, making for some very high-octane television. Add to this brilliant performances by Robert Carlyle, Tim McInnerny, Kevin McKidd, Sam Troughton, and Michael Fassbender (Playing Guy Fawkes as a silent Clint Eastwood type delightfully)This is, without a doubt, the greatest telemovie I've ever seen. However, if you're at all squeamish this definitely isn't for you: this is history with the filthy bits left in for a change...

Another entry in the revisionist-history-as-told-with-human-body-fluids school of European melodrama. Whereas "Elizabeth" showed the execution of the queen's enemies as a recreation of "The Godfather"'s wedding-cum-massacre scene, this anachronistic masterpiece revels in outdoing Quentin Tarantino in execrable behaviour, gratuitous gore, meaninglessness and sexual perversion. Not even enjoyable as sadistic pornography, this portrayal of James VI of Scotland (James I of England) as an R-rated video game Richard III will give you nightmares and the heaves. O times, O mores! I wonder how these films and mini-series ("Vatel", "The Affair of the Necklace", "Le Roi danse", "Saint-Cyr", etc.) get written. Do producers lure satanic literary failures with delusions of artistic misogyny and misanthropy and lock them up in unholy writing workshops, with promises of money and drugs, until someone comes up with a suitably repulsive script? Whatever the method for this madness, it works, the plays get produced and they make money. Some people even like them.You know there is something fundamentally flawed with this "historical" production when the list of stuntmen is longer than the list of speaking parts and the songs on the soundtrack are in Romanian...