‘Gunpowder’ false to facts of Guy Fawkes’ plot

sir – The BBC claims that the graphic executions depicted in the new series Gunpowder are “grounded in historical fact and reflect what took place during the time of the Gunpowder Plot” (report, October 23). As the author of Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain, I know that this is quite untrue.

In the whole of British history, only one woman has ever been pressed to death and that was Margaret Clitherow in 1586. She was certainly not stripped naked and executed publicly. Showing a woman being crushed in this way in the drama was sheer prurience on the part of the producers. Simon Webb

Loughton, Essex

sir – It seems that many viewers were appalled by the level of cruelty shown to Catholics in Gunpowder. Many of them are the same people who will flock to fireworks displays all over the country and clap as the guy is consumed by the bonfire.

In the Forties and Fifties the religious divide in the country was such that Sunday night speakers at the Mound in Edinburgh sprayed their audience with their spittle‑fuelled hatred of all things Catholic.

Now, with one or two notable exceptions, those days are over. Not only do we mix socially, but our young people inter‑marry, and I can testify that weddings between Scottish Protestants and Irish Catholics can be very jovial affairs.

Is it now time to remove Guy Fawkes from the bonfire and replace him with a present‑day enemy? George Wilkie

Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire