The Gunpowder Plot | Guy Fawkes Documentary | Reel Truth Science

[@jamesyounger743]

Great documentary. I always watch this shortly before bonfire night.

[@flashcracker1]

This is an excellent production combining both factual history and the satisfaction of witnessing the power of explosives. Guy Fawkes was the only man ever to enter Parliament with honourable intentions.

[@aryaaswale7316]

Terrorism is hardly honourable

[@richardlongmore9301]

@@aryaaswale7316 politicians deserve it

[@bosola7168]

@@aryaaswale7316 One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

[@tobyjo57]

What a true statement. I wonder how many people would like to blow it up now.

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

He was a theocratic terrorist

[@genticles9981]

I’m watching Richard Hammond talk about the gunpowder plot at 1:30 am. What even is my life?

[@PibrochPonder]

Genticles 1:55 am here ;)

[@juttuikaverit]

3am, all hope is lost.

[@BadBoyV1]

3:46 am here lol

[@trynoepic7313]

This is life

[@alistairgosling5266]

2.45am hoping this will help sleep!

[@75mmSaintChammondMondragon]

And suddendly Jeremy Clarkson emerges from the explosion saying the words: "Hammond, you IDIOT"

[@boo-boo5764]

Alejandro Quiroga Mansilla idot

[@gavinpritchard9471]

Or "and with that, it's back to the studio"

[@spideywhiplash]

🤣🤣🤣

[@marcleslac2413]

LOL

[@Stussmeister]

Or James May saying, "Bigger than I was expecting."

[@meowmiaous]

im watching this for my history assessment, thanks dad for bringing me along on the top gear train cuz this is way more enjoyable now

[@AngryBoob]

become an engineer dude ! (sorry for my english ^^, i'm french)

[@DJBEANZzROADTO1K]

angry bob ton anglais est très formidable

[@getthefekir5040]

Have you finished the assignement? Hope you pass!

[@meowmiaous]

Brad Wilton I passed with flying colours thanks for asking :))

[@getthefekir5040]

@@meowmiaous niiiiice. Well done

[@markdennis7038]

"Slow down, it's bad form to crash into explosives factories!", Words to live by!!!

[@freddoflintstono9321]

What I find fun about the British is that they celebrate this every year. I love their wry, dry sense of humour. That aside, this is one of the most interesting bits of historic/modern documentaries I've ever seen. Well done.

[@pastytit]

@Chris Perkins you think politicians are innocent?

[@Jonathan-fz8di]

Yeah, always seemed strange to me that this is such a big thing in the year to 'celebrate'. Its more a case of enjoying the fireworks, bonfire, food and all the other things, while the original reason becomes more of a back story. I saw this a few years back, thought it was great. Would have preferred another presenter, but at least Hammond is enthusiastic about it.

[@mystero9714]

When we celebrate bonfire night we are celebrating that the gunpowder plot failed and that guy fawkes was executed, hence why we burn guy fawkes dolls on bonfires.

[@logangallagher7050]

@@mystero9714 originally it was an effigy of the pope we burnt because it was a Catholic plot, however it changed to guy Fawkes because burning an effigy of the pope was outlawed by future Catholic monarchs

[@logangallagher7050]

King James the second

[@elidames6889]

It took the building apart at every single seam it ever had, in a gentle wave, and then decentigrated all of it. The sheer amount of force in that is just insane

[@bluebelle8823]

I don't even know how this ended up on my youtube home screen but I'm glad it did. It is so satisfying to watch someone combine the history and the what if of the ending. Knowing more of the history side helps but I'm glad it isn't crammed in here.

[@Finding457]

Most entertaining thing l’ve watched in 6 months

[@patrickmaris]

3:53 I am not allowed to actually tell you where it is. Well I can, here it is: RAF spadeadam The information I had was: - it's in cumbria, England - the sign said electronic warfare tactics range - Hammond said 'it is a 21 century warfare range (the busiest in europe) So that's how u find things on the internet

[@oldbowdy1712]

Well this show was broadcast in 2005 probably made around 2004 so would of been slightly harder for the average viewer back then, than it would have been for you in 2020. But you've got a point. Richard Hammonds made a career out of making things sound more exciting than they are!

[@MRFORD-nc5wg]

It’s so weird seeing Hammond talk about something not involving cars.

[@chilton7853]

When I was younger I can remember seeing Hammond on loads of kids science programmes, but maybe I'm thinking of someone else

[@KayZeeFx]

Never watched brainiac as a kid??? Or Total WIpeout? He wasn't called the king of day-time tv for nothing

[@thom7853]

I could watch him explain my daily schedule and enjoy it.

[@Finallybianca]

Hey at least something blows up and catches on fire so its not to far off his normal

[@lukemcellin8736]

Or crashing them

[@tracyhodgkins7516]

I think the most important thing to remember is that though Fawkes didn’t come up with the plot, it couldn’t have happened without him. After Fawkes was arrested the conspirators made their way to Holbeche House, which is now a nursing home in Dudley, but in those days would have been considered to be in Staffordshire. Whilst there, the plotters realised the supply of gunpowder they’d taken with them was damp, so they attempted to dry it in front of an open fire, with obvious results. It just goes to show that Catesby might have had charisma, but the whole substance of the plot depended on Fawkes. Without him the plotters would have been clueless.

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

British History is a cartoon

[@masterskrain2630]

It's fascinating to watch the roof "unzip" in slow motion...

[@gezzarandom]

I like when Richard says, “We light these for a blast that never happened.” Well thanks to ITV, it has now. 😂

[@OnlyOneKenobi]

The BEST documentary for Guy Faulkes night 🥰 O.O.K 👌🏼💙

[@jamesedens8245]

I am amazed that a feature film has never been made about this incident. With all of the remakes that keep coming out, this would be an intriguing original subject.

[@bombercountyblues]

Amazon put out a 3 parter recently called gunpowder... not bad.

[@philaypeephilippotter6532]

@@bombercountyblues Referencing the *Guy Fawkes* incident is the 1943 *British* comedy movie *My Learned Friend,* which is worth seeing anyway. It's not public domain yet.

[@SklLLLY]

@@bombercountyblues thnx for tip!

[@celladorestark2047]

Watch v for vendetta

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

​@@bombercountybluesThe Kit Harington, one right?

[@jaganr7788]

It's not old Top Gear that made Hammond, Clarkson and May famous. It's their narration that makes everything feel interesting, which includes Top Gear. Irreplaceable, these 3..

[@aliencyborg3660]

I can't agree more with this 👍

[@leejk3926]

James' Japan series on Amazon Prime also shows this

[@shananagans5]

They are like the Beetles. They are all great on their own but when you get them all together, there is a little extra magic.

[@patrickdoyle9369]

Over paid idiots. Stupid to boot.. But then again so were the people responsible for paying them.

[@celtoloco788]

Hammond has a great series, Egineering Connections, its pure quality. He plays dumb on the TG and Amazon show, but he's not.

[@AndrewJamesWilliams]

An impressive documentary of what might have been. Though as they said at the end even if the gunpowder gone off and the King and Parliament killed the plot wouldn't have worked. The largely protestant population would have just gone mad with rage and brutally killed every single Catholic they found.

[@BunkyBunk1]

“Tonight on Bottom Gear: James drives away, I call people “blithering idiots”, and Richard blows up a replica of parliament”

[@lorenclarke7815]

I think I have a new favorite explosion. The cement truck from Mythbusters has been demoted.

[@lunabluevinemassacre6182]

No, but it's close

[@willmfrank]

That's Sidney Alford for ya; he "wants Big Boom" more than Jamie does.

[@plunder1956]

I have been involved in some very big concrete pours of pilecap segments. But 650 tons in one continuous pour is huge. Even organising the pumps so you don't have a failed pump ending the event is hard. The only thing you can do is pour slowly & keep going, to keep the batching plants in pace with you.

[@celtoloco788]

sounds like a serious job

[@howwwwwyyyyy]

That's interesting, how do you harden that much properly and get the air out?1000 vibrators?

[@nathaliewade752]

best ever documentary

[@teeteringonthebrink.305]

When I was a child, nearly every home had a bonfire and fireworks display in their backyard. You could enjoy not only your own celebration of Guy Fawkes Night but that of others in the street as well. Very spectacular it all was too. We wondered whose fire would be the last to die out. That is no longer the case, these days, with Bonfire Night now being an organised event, as strangers gather together at big venues to share in the annual commemoration. All in the name of health and safety of course and rightly so. But I have fond memories of back in the day, when each family celebrated with their own personal Bonfire/Guy Fawkes do.

[@craigpimlott204]

Yep building your bonfire with mates from where you lived .then going on manoeuvres to steal wood from other bonfires then getting in punch ups defending your own bonfire .I miss them days .no pain in the April whining about fireworks .even the animals were tougher back then I don’t know of any of my mates dogs or mine being bothered by fireworks ..

[@howwwwwyyyyy]

What happened hey, authoritarianism rules the west, and they get away with it "it's for your own safety"as the Nazis used to say

[@alirazaali6101]

Keep it up.I love science.

[@adminashofficial3522]

Absolutely superb documentary and experiment.

[@markrunnalls7215]

That was great ..thoroughly enjoyed that.

[@martinobrien4882]

I sometimes wonder if there was any connection between the plotters and Dublin In Ireland? Surely they may have been inspired to use Gunpowder after Dublin was partially destroyed by a Gunpowder explosion in 1597? In Dublin the explosion was caused by 104 barrels of Gunpowder,and if it could cause so much damage to a small city,surely the Gunpowder plotters would have learnt from this?

[@gezzarandom]

The only real connection between the plotters and Ireland was a few tried to flee there after the plot was exposed.

[@celtoloco788]

im sure it gave them the idea, would have been major news at the time

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

Something that invigorated them, probably

[@KrisAdamsTV]

When Richard was walking into the old building, and it was silhouetted, and he said, he needed some boring dude who knew a lot of boring stuff... I really thought / hoped the shaggy haired man he was walking with was James May! That would have been amazing, and I am sure James knows this stuff 😂

[@sparkyfromel]

I imagine the thought of the operating officer going back home .." did you had a good day Dear ?" ..... "excellent , I blew up parliament ! "

[@OnlyOneKenobi]

Watch this every year! 💥👌🏼 The best 💙

[@Strothy2]

54:26 that's what killed many many soldiers on warships back then, when the floor is pushed so fast your body can't compensate, they literally got their bones shattered by the acceleration... gruesome shit

[@mikelheron20]

I love the fact that the soldiers are wearing hi-vis waistcoats over their camouflage jackets. 😂

[@nickyjlyons]

😂😂😂

[@g.w.7893]

The physics of a great explosion. There's nothing quite like it.

[@tris07]

“It was a stupid plan” is a perfect summary of the gunpowder plot

[@CasperScott-qq6ip]

The plot it's self could have easily happened. It nearly did. Night before the plot is discovered is a pretty close call. What is stupid is to think it will lead to a Catholic resurgence. More likely a witch hunt

[@mfuller1093]

Hammond '' I can't tell you the location of this place'' Then he wears a hard hat with the company name on it. Priceless TV cock up ! 🤣🤣🤣

[@christophersmith7714]

We need more Guy Fawkes's

[@LanguageEasy]

Very interesting video!!

[@kwickeb99]

Love watching our history..x

[@Gestwood]

The bomb expert is definitely off his rocker XD 21:05 “don’t eat the stuff man, what are you doing?!”

[@Eideric]

Decayed gunpowder refers to the fact that gunpowder separates over time; not whether it becomes clumpy or not with water. Gunpowder stored in barrels was known to separate, with the saltpetre in particular rising to the surface of the barrel. For this reason, gunpowder barrels were turned over every couple of weeks. However, with the postponement of the opening of Parliament from July 1605, the conspirators split up with Guy Fawkes heading to the Netherlands. So nobody would have been left to tend to the barrels of gunpowder meaning that it very likely separated in the months until Fawkes returned to London.

[@TransmissionEpicts]

Interesting observation! How might this have affected the explosion, potentially?

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

​@@TransmissionEpictsInstead of the fires of hell it'd only be the fires of hades

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

John Grant disagrees

[@MrMonkeybat]

I thought corned gunpowder stopped the separation of the ingredients. Clumpy gunpowder is just bigger corns.

[@chrishanlon02]

I think he probably told them to turn the barrels whilst he was gone

[@adidnac]

Secret location lol ... electronic warfare tactics range + Cumbria = RAF Spadeadam

[@thenameisgsarci]

Yeah, I think he gave out some obvious clues already. XD

[@Lulu-nf4hx]

Great Arup security contribution to this programme. Well worth a watch

[@alexc7857]

2:25 honesty I thought it was James May till he opened his mouth ahaha

[@sophiemorgan_]

omg aha same🤣

[@jellisquared1702]

Haha! Me too 😂😂😂

[@Vladpryde]

Dr. Sidney Alford (OBE, 2015) passed away this year on the 27th of January, at the age of 86. RIP.

[@KingIjazMalik]

So Bye Than

[@cromwellg60]

He seemed like a fantastic old British eccentric. They dont make them like that any more. RIP

[@bradmiller7486]

The man waz a genius with explosives, and came up with materials, applications, and devices that going to be classified for DECADES.

[@mikecleasby709]

Richard Hammond does “Mythbusters” at Eskmeals range…. Topped off with some hiking round the Lake District…. Perfect!! 😊

[@jeebuschristos8423]

7:43 Who now wants to see a Guy Ritchie movie covering this planning and plot?

[@paulhammons7077]

Killed it!

[@jamesblanton9364]

I think that had Guy have lit the fuse, it most probably would have been the single biggest explosion in the world at that time.

[@nathanballard4355]

**edit - man made

[@nathanballard4355]

The question I would love answered is, how would it have changed the present.

[@bradmiller7486]

​@@nathanballard4355ooooo ... that IS a very good "alternate history" takeoff point!

[@Z-Engineer]

These days, we need a Guy Fawkes in every country in Europe. That would fix many things, including corruption on the highest level.

[@williamjones7163]

As an American, this is the only bit of English history I really know. But what a bit it is. They are still making bon fires and burning effigies to this day. I try to explain it and how significant it is to history but this video does it right. If this thing went through, we would not have the King James Bible.

[@copperdragon9214]

That explosion would make mythbusters blush.

[@Boomcheeks]

I dunno, that cement truck they did was pretty crazy if I remember right.

[@copperdragon9214]

Boomcheeks true, but the cement truck vaporized. This got dismantled in a linear motion.

[@Boomcheeks]

@@copperdragon9214 Yeah I just watched the truck again and have to admit this was probably the more pleasing explosion.

[@nicolascurioni3977]

his face at the end tho LOL

[@TombstoneHeart]

Guy Fawkes - the only man to enter the Houses of Parliament with honest intentions! lol

[@sahhull]

And a means to carry it out

[@a44489]

​@@sahhull bk then try today

[@markguho6294]

As a Catholic I condemn the Gunpowder Plot. But I understand why they did. It is natural to retaliate against your oppressor.

[@gordonpeden6234]

So you can sympathise with ISIS? IRA? Good Queen Bess?? (She killed a few non-Catholics)

[@gordonpeden6234]

Oops, Scratch Good Queen Bess! Insert Bloody Mary.

[@cambs0181]

My father is a Catholic. We still had the fireworks in the garden when I was a kid.

[@CasperScott-qq6ip]

In todays day and age guy Fawkes would probably be given a pardon being a ground breaking explosive expert and put to work for the state

[@publicdomain4890]

was the original gunpowder mixture corned? Corning gunpowder by first wetting it and then drying it then breaking it up again into coarse granules increases the powders explosive potential by quite a bit.

[@bradmiller7486]

Also, keeps it from separating into basic components, over time.

[@Military24-7]

I love it when tests like this are done a closely as possible to real history! Specifically, in this case, the use of real gun powder instead of another "comparable" compound! Great job - excellent documentary!

[@howwwwwyyyyy]

Dyu think the original plotters had enough !😂-ironic that getting more was their downfall

[@leggomygopro8219]

As a person who played around wi... ...uhhh, *_experimented_* with black powder in various forms of containment in his youth, I expected a large blast, but... *Holy **_Guacamole_** !!* This reminds me of the Tianjin blast, probably the largest DDT (Deflagration to Detonation Transition) in recorded history !! Also, I'm curious to know how much this one-shot experiment cost.

[@ThePuschkin1986]

production of the entire show cost 1 million GBP, with the parliament building set alone 200k.

[@leggomygopro8219]

@@ThePuschkin1986 Hey Wow !! Thanks for the reply !!

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

Worth it

[@davidwoods8181]

This Sidney bloke is a right character haha

[@grdprojekt]

I wonder how many scientific papers that have come out from this. The project is ginormous and had lots and lots of technical facts briefly mentioned and considerably compressed by Richard Hammond in front of the camera, so the viewers wouldn't get bored and hopefully doesn't break the immersion from the story. Which they've managed to do. I mean, when they blasted only a barrel of gun powder, they had to then give the raw results to explosion experts, indicating that it had never done before. So there's no paper they could use as the 1/36th basis of what they were going to do. This is just so big. I've watched some of Richard Hammond's own documentaries before, which also had some scientific demonstrations. But they're all mostly scaled down version of the real thing that's built/done, so there are papers they could refer to and just scale it down. This though, they did it for real. Had to rent (I guess?) a classified research area for weeks, hire a construction company to build quite a large building (honestly, the initial sketches tricked my brain, looked like a typical brick house), using up all the cement mixer trucks in a county, divert air traffic, possibly halting military exercise around the facility and the research facility itself. For an hour long TV show. I couldn't imagine a TV station in my country would spent the same amount of money for a year.

[@abdihassan7208]

One of the best documentaries ive seen by one of my favorite presenters

[@allute]

Why does a 720p video look like it was recorded in 1990.

[@spacexfan1281]

All of top gear, unless 18-23 episodes looks like 90s

[@t.wcharles2171]

The BBC and ITV still used the same cameras they had in the 90s.

[@DannyHeywood]

(The Intro) Be careful with that bloody lantern!

[@barryjive1104]

Ah yes, I think we're all familiar with medieval construction techniques that involve a queue of a dozen cement trucks. That's the attention to historical detail I demand from my documentaries.

[@onlyme219]

Totally agree

[@TheSMR1969]

You miss the point entirely

[@TrainsOfDorset]

Watched this in History class earlier, was quite good. A real shame my friend was in isolation

[@nathanirby4273]

Man the concussion off that must have been intense, I do civil war reenacting and know what a few pounds of black powder can feels like going off, but I can't imagine one tonne

[@bradmiller7486]

A 3-lb ship's gun (pirate re-enactors) firing wad only feels like a hard body punch at 50+ meters.

[@lenodh]

I like the idea to recreate the Guy Fawkes plan and how it would end,

[@CasperScott-qq6ip]

Its an interesting point that even if the plot had actually gone off academic opinion doubts it would have led to a catholic restoration. It would have produced a vengeful backswing of opinion against Catholics. Events like this near mixed delayed catholic freedom of worship 300 years and even then it only narrowly passed into law. I dont want to think how long it would have taken if the plot had gone off. It isnt just the political establishment that would have been killed but given that london was predominantly wooden the collateral casualties would have been more than 9/11. A conservative estimate is 30 thousand

[@clarkejoseph49]

50:10 HAMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOND!!!!!!!!!!

[@jongarratt5383]

1 metric ton of gunpowder... And they're wearing hard hats

[@o0o-jd-o0o95]

You know what I find interesting is that I just watched V for vendetta yesterday which is saved to my hard drive not a website and yet here it is, on KZbin, showing up in a list that shows up on my home page, a documentary about guy fawke..... hmmmm

[@MsrAlaindeFerrier]

Pleasant looking powders, esp the white one

[@YouMineNL]

Heard it smells real good too

[@nicktrueman224]

The reason for secrecy is it is classed as a explosive and it truly is that. Static friction, electrical current or hot sparks/flame can ignite it. Friction detonation is far more risky if it's in contact with a ferrous metal. I would not want to be the driver of that truck and it must be packaged in a particular way so as to counter how hydroscopic it is and accidental discharge.

[@K1W1fly]

RAF Spadeadam... Where they tested Blue streak rockets back in the day...

[@sydclark5581]

I'm from the UK and this would have been on TV during my late teenage years, but I've never seen it nor heard of it until now. Anyhoo..... They left one side of the building open which would have reduced the blast a tad, wow.

[@dwayne_dibley]

From memory, it was 2005, so the same year as the bombings. Put a few people off as I recall.

[@gfeast4518]

Lmao I’m watching this at 1.25 speed and it makes Hammond sound like an elf 😂💀

[@robsmith6281]

We need a modern day Guy Fawkes for today's government.

[@mattheere2732]

Only reason I clicked on this was cause of Richard lol

[@a44489]

London looked so nice before not after

[@richardmesser388]

The part that was missed was that the people of the country never actually wanted to celebrate the plot being stopped, it wasnt important to them, so the king enforced it by making threats to the nation. Great way to make them love you lol

[@howwwwwyyyyy]

Wasn't he the same nutter that wrote the malificus macarum?

[@colinnewton5254]

Come back Guy Fawkes all is forgiven!

[@aronyak1]

I'm disappointed we didn't get to see the ITV news.

[@noobyboi6324]

Holy crap that was beautiful

[@pedr0g0mes1]

imagine if they had the super frame rate cameras that we've got nowadays...fantastic !

[@theculturedthug6609]

Can someone do it now please more than ever.

[@icommentalots]

I'm waiting for Hammond to try to demonstrate the plot and accidentally actually blow up parliament

[@oof_its_dom2659]

"While i search up a place to blow up a building" 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@platotpt9528]

What was the budget for the show?

[@renyputman7118]

Probably a lot more than would be possible today for a documentary

[@renyputman7118]

According to Google it was 1 million Pounds, $1 247 245 or € 1 146 301

[@gezzarandom]

ITV spent £1 million on it, worth every penny. 😂

[@BigSteve_Gaming187]

Watching this again. Been a min since. The pressure from the blast would have shattered bones and well organs well... yeah... Crazy... As for most people that have been victims of land mines and so on it's the pressure of the blast that had done most of the damage.

[@Ooo-when-i-came-down]

Does anyone know the name of this series?

[@mariafarrugia1192]

CA BOOOOM. EXCELLENT

[@BennyLlama39]

Hammond: "The searches were ordered reportedly on the wisdom of the king." Me: Air-quotes "wisdom." Sounds more like someone dimed out the lot of 'em.

[@gezzarandom]

One of the plotters wrote a letter warning a catholic lord to stay away from the opening of parliament, which was then passed onto the authorities. So you’re right, someone did dime them out.

[@oldsol2012]

James I -- was uncannily intelligent. He interpreted the hidden meaning in the note. "As soon as it takes to burn this note, you will be out of danger". He Took the meaning to be "it" would be over in a flash. Gunpowder.

[@vivekraychowdhury4348]

However, the Chinese discovered that 'decayed' gunpowder is more powerful than powder gunpowder. The Chinese granulated the gunpowder to get more powerful explosion for use in cannons and rockets.

[@shoazdon7000]

And it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.

[@WJS774]

Nonsense, coarser powder isn't more powerful, it just burns slower. That means that you can use more of it to propel a projectile down a longer barrel, but pound for pound it is no more powerful.

[@cherihayward350]

That explosion made me cry 😂😂😢😮

[@SpoopyGamer]

Hammond sounds like he's on helium the whole show XD

[@Raz.C]

I find that sign rather amusing - "Danger! Non ionising radiation!" Non ionising radiation doesn't have the energy required to be harmful to living beings, so there's no danger. Except perhaps to your electronic devices! The sign might as well have said "Danger! Your social media devices might not function properly beyond this point!"

[@TheDrewker]

Hmm... so is the Kit Harrington show about Catesby any good? Anyone out there stanning for Gunpowder?

[@dkcy5748]

I enjoyed it. Also theres a book called Autobiography of a hunted priest, gives you an insight why they wanted to get rid of parliament

[@bucksdiaryfan]

Good documentary, but I hate the contrived drama. I'm sure they would have secured their source of gunpowder well before they began erecting the huge replica Westminster... but everything needs a plot I guess

[@edwardking8629]

Fantastic but I wonder just how expensive setting the whole thing up cost , like the explosion sky high