Gunpowder: BBC's new Game of Thrones style show is so graphic it has left some viewers shaken

The opening episode portrayed the brutal, gruesome persecution of Catholics under James I

The BBC clearly wants a horse in the race to become the successor to Game of Thrones.

The broadcaster's new primetime drama, Gunpowder, has been sending shock waves through its viewership thanks to its graphic scenes of torture and execution, airing only minutes after the watershed on Saturday night.

The three-part series sees, ironically, Game of Thrones' own Kit Harington as Robert Catesby, the leader of the infamous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to assassinate King James I by planting explosives underneath the House of Lords.

Of course, no documentation of the lead-up to the foiled plot can gloss over what stirred its conspirators to act: the brutal, gruesome sectarian violence that took place at the time targeting Catholics, who were seen as traitors - owing their allegiance more to the Pope than to the King.

The opening episode contained close-ups of a young priest being hung, draw, and quartered while a woman was stripped naked before being crushed to death by a stone slab.

Viewers were swift to take to social media to express their discomfort, describing the show as "traumatic", while others praised its historical accuracy in such depictions.

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