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.
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.