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Fireworks. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:04 | |
They've been enthralling us Brits for centuries. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:08 | |
Ooh! | 0:00:09 | 0:00:11 | |
But the use of fireworks for entertainment really got going | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
By far the most spectacular of these displays | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
took place at Kenilworth Castle in 1575. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
Onlookers described seeing thunderbolts and lightnings of fire | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
that surged the waters and shook the earth. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
So, it was certainly a night to remember. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
In this programme, we're going to return to Kenilworth Castle in an | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
ambitious attempt to recreate that display | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
in all its Tudor glory. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
The fireworks were part of a three-week extravaganza, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
including bear-baiting and dancing and feasting, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
but the fireworks were the centrepiece. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
It was all designed for one very special member of the audience - | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
Queen Elizabeth I. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
THEY SHOUT AND CHEER | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
For Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
the fireworks were his last throw of the dice | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
in his attempt to win the Queen's hand in marriage. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
To pull off our re-creation of what his lavish display of love | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
and affection might've looked like, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
I'll be scouring historical documents for clues. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
And I'm enlisting the help of artist and materials scientist | 0:01:28 | 0:01:32 | |
Doctor Zoe Laughlin. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
-Oh, look at it go! -Wow! We put too much! -Yeah! | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
Her job is to rebuild the Tudor fireworks that no longer exist, | 0:01:37 | 0:01:41 | |
using 400-year-old techniques. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
-Ooh, a stiff Christmas cracker. -It's a Christmas cracker from hell. -Yeah. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
From the manufacturer of Elizabethan gunpowder from buckets of urine... | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
It was incredibly valuable. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
..to the construction of a huge dragon that spits fire | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
from every orifice... | 0:01:57 | 0:01:58 | |
-He's got flames gushing out of his bottom! -Yeah! | 0:01:58 | 0:02:03 | |
..the display has the potential to be as dangerous | 0:02:03 | 0:02:06 | |
as it is spectacular. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
It's made out of gunpowder, after all. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
I also want to look under the surface of the spectacle to discover | 0:02:14 | 0:02:19 | |
why fireworks played such an important part in Tudor life. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
They wouldn't have been used to seeing lavish fireworks, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
so they would've caused a bit of wonder and awe and fear. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
We're trying to reconstruct an event that had the potential to change | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
the history of England, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
with the help of scattered evidence | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
and some very experimental science. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
If we get it wrong, | 0:02:43 | 0:02:44 | |
our display will just be a smouldering hole in the ground. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
If we get it right, though, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
we'll have recreated one of the most magnificent nights | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
in Tudor history, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
and a firework display fit for a queen. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
The firework display at Kenilworth Castle | 0:03:14 | 0:03:17 | |
put on by Robert Dudley in 1575 | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
has gone down in history as one of the earliest | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
and most impressive ever seen. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
Unfortunately, direct evidence for what the firework display looked | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
like is a bit thin on the ground, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
but we aren't completely out of luck. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
This is what claims to be an eyewitness account | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
by somebody who was there in the audience with Queen Elizabeth I. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
A friend of Robert Dudley's called Robert Laneham. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
"Lightnings of wildfire shoots at the thunderbolts | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
"and it was all so terrifying and violent that the heavens thundered, | 0:03:47 | 0:03:52 | |
"the waters surged and the earth shook." | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
Sounds like we've set ourselves quite a challenge. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
But this isn't the only piece of evidence for the display, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
and we need to go searching for clues. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
To track down these scraps of evidence, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
Doctor Zoe Laughlin and I are going on an historical treasure hunt. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:13 | |
We'll be grilling historians of science | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
and experts in historical pyrotechnics. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
That is a wheel of fire. What the Italians called a girandole. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
Where we don't have the answers, we'll be relying on the expertise | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
of Zoe, with her skills as both scientist and artist, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
to formulate experiments of her own, in our attempt | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
to recreate a night to remember. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
-Whoa! -Whoa! | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
And what I also hope from this journey is something more - | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
a chance to have a better understanding | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
of the Elizabethan mind. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
I want to find out why fireworks | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
were such a vital part of Tudor life, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
and why this particular display at Kenilworth | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
was the pinnacle of power and pageantry in the Elizabethan era. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
To set Zoe on her way, I'm taking her to the British Library. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:11 | |
Tucked away in its vaults, there's a very special book. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
Look at this! | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
Now, what you've got there is the first edition of a book called | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
Pyrotechnia, which is the first proper English book | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
about how to make fireworks. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
"By John Babington, gunner and student." | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
-He's a man who knows how to make things go bang. -Yeah, yeah. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
Not only is Pyrotechnia packed with scientific detail, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
it contains something even more useful. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
Oh, what a treat. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:45 | |
Every area has something sparking or fizzing. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
This is the earliest plan of a British firework display | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
fit for a monarch, | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
and historical records suggest it probably had the same attractions | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
as the display put on for Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
-I like the wheels. -Do you think these whizzed around like that? | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
I do think... Yeah. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:07 | |
In fact, this one's even got sparks coming out of it, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
implying that it's going round and round. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
This one's really important... | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
The plan laid out in Pyrotechnia is full of fireworks forgotten | 0:06:14 | 0:06:19 | |
in the mists of time. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
There are gerbs, which produced fountains of sparks, | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
locket boxes that launch fireworks simultaneously | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
and terrifying-looking horizontal spinning wheels. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
I love this. Look, there's a ginormous... | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
-Look at the front. -He's a whopper! He's massive! -What a big boy. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
That's ginormous. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
So, here's the big question - | 0:06:39 | 0:06:40 | |
do you think you can make something along these lines? | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
Will it work? Will it be safe? | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
Are we all going to die? Will it be spectacular? ZOE GIGGLES | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
This is really exciting. This is a great starting point. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
This is something that we can use as a master plan. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
While Zoe's getting to grips with Babington's instructions, | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
Laneham very usefully tells us how the display kicked off. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
He says that there was "a great peal of guns, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
"and lightening by firework." | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
He says that "the noise and the flame could be heard | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
"and seen 20 miles off." | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Sounds like we're going to need some cannons. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
As this is the only major element of our display that Zoe isn't planning | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
to reconstruct from scratch, | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
I want to source one for myself. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
It turns out that it's not that easy to get your hands on | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
a working Elizabethan cannon. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
I'm hoping that these gentlemen might be able to help. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
A MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
BLAST | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
Surviving cannons, and even period replicas, are something of a rarity, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
as their antiquated design means they have a tendency to explode. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
HE SHOUTS AGAIN | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
Let's hope experts in Tudor artillery, | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
Nat Bond and Alex Compiani, have a solution. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
-Hello! -Hello, there! | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
Lots of guns you've got here. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
What we've actually got is a kind of timeline of guns, showing the | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
evolution. This gun here is what's referred to as a gungeon gun. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
This is a copy of one that was recovered off the deck | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
-of the Mary Rose. -Ah! So that's 1540s. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
-It is. -That's a bit early for me, is it? -Well, this period | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
is a transitional period where these guns are becoming | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
obsolete, where the new corned powder is coming into use, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
and the corned powder burned much faster, with much more power. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
What happened if you put the new powder into the old gun? | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
Chances are it would explode and kill you and your crew. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
Oh, dear! | 0:08:37 | 0:08:39 | |
Moving on the line, though, you've got what is called a rabonet. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
These were just coming in in the Elizabethan period, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
so this is fairly new technology for the Elizabethan period, because it's | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
-a cast iron barrel. -Mm. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
The longer the barrel is, the more room there is for those gases to | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
expand and the faster the ball flies. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
And would you be able to hear the sound of it 20 miles off, | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
which is in the description of the entertainment at Kenilworth? | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
You would. This one actually has quite a sharp crack to it. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
-Gunners refer to it as the voice of the gun. -The voice? -Yes. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
So, if you were 20 miles away, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:06 | |
you could hear that it was your gun talking to you? | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
-An experienced gunner who'd fired the gun a lot, yes. -Oh! | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
Did the guns have names? | 0:09:12 | 0:09:13 | |
This one's called Jennifer. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
I named it after my wife! | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
What about this one, then? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
Big Red fires a large six pound cast-iron cannonball. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
You could just about touch the two-mile range with this gun. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
By the time you heard it, you'd already be hit. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
-Oh! -If you want to impress people, this one. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
The big bazooka. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:36 | |
-If I was hosting Elizabeth I... -Mm. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
..I'd want to show off just how wealthy and how well-armed I was. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
-Is he more expensive than her? -Oh, yes. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
This is the equivalent of having a gold-plated Aston Martin | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
on your driveway. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:49 | |
-Search the piece. -Clear. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:52 | |
Swab. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
So, if we're talking Tudor bling, there's really only one choice. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
Place the charge. | 0:09:57 | 0:09:58 | |
And if you're going to invest in the Elizabethan equivalent | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
of a gold-plated Aston Martin... | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
HE SHOUTS A WARNING | 0:10:03 | 0:10:04 | |
..you might as well give it a test drive. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
That at the end. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:08 | |
Lift! FIRE! | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
BANG | 0:10:13 | 0:10:15 | |
It's OK, everybody jumps! | 0:10:17 | 0:10:18 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
Brilliant! So, it's this cannon, Big Red, | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
which is set to open our festivities. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
As a cannon, it's, of course, different to the other, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
more spectacular, fireworks we're hoping to reconstruct | 0:10:31 | 0:10:35 | |
for our display, but it does have one vital element | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
in common with them - gunpowder. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
Learning about the secrets of gunpowder | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
is Zoe's first step on her quest | 0:10:44 | 0:10:45 | |
to recreate our Tudor fireworks. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
According to some of the old text, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
lesson one in becoming a successful pyrotechnician | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
is know your gunpowder. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
In its day, it was considered a bit of a dark art, but today | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
I'm going to unravel some of the mysteries. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
Also, it's the same composition we use now. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
Nowadays, we think nothing of buying our own ready-made fireworks from | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
the supermarket, but in Tudor times, | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
owning a firework began with the process | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
of sourcing and refining the ingredients, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:17 | |
which could take years. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
-Wood and heat. -And heat. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
And as a job, it was potentially lethal. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
With the help of chemist Andreas Tretiakov | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
in the safe confines of the science lab, I'm going to explore | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
the process, and make gunpowder to the Elizabethan recipe. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
So, I'm done on the gas. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
OK. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:38 | |
Firstly, we're turning wood into charcoal | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
in our home-made micro-kiln. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
That's what you can see burning orange now, are the gases coming out | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
-of the can. -Yes. Those gases are toxic, like carbon monoxide, | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
-carbon dioxide and methane. -Mm. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
-It's really going some now. -Really going, yes. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
Restricting the oxygen as it burns produces almost | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
pure carbon in the form of charcoal. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
Beautiful, pure nuggets of carbon. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
This is the first element in our recipe. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
Here's our charcoal. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
The most important ingredient in gunpowder was saltpetre, | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
but we now know that as potassium nitrate. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
To the Tudors, saltpetre was really difficult to make, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
and required this ingredient - urine. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
It was incredibly valuable. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
They had to get whole households peeing into buckets | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
and gathering the stuff up. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
Tudor gunpowder-makers combined the urine with soil and manure, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:36 | |
and hoped for a bacterial reaction over 18 months, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
leading to an end product of saltpetre. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
Nowadays, we can take a short cut, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
mixing premade industrial chemicals. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
Right, so we're making an ice bath so that we can rapidly cool this, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
and help the potassium nitrate crystals form. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
-Oh! -Oh... I can see something. -I can see them! OK. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
Look at that. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:05 | |
This is potassium nitrate that would have been produced | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
from hundreds of people's urine. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
This is the Tudor saltpetre. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
Now we're refining raw sulphur. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
I can now see a thick tier | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
of red sulphur | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
trickling down the nozzle. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
-Look. It is rubbery! -Yes. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
It's almost like something you'd find in the sea. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
Wow. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:34 | |
With time, this plastic sulphur | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
will solidify, and can be crushed into a fine powder. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
So, now, we have the three ingredients we need for gunpowder. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
The charcoal, the sulphur, | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
the potassium nitrate. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
All that's left for us to do now is grind them into a fine powder. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
The magic comes from how these three ingredients | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
all work together when mixed. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
The charcoal is the fuel. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
-Right, next up, potassium nitrate. -Potassium nitrate. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
The potassium nitrate provides the oxygen for the fuel to burn. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
And finally the sulphur. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
The main role of sulphur is to be a catalyst, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
lowering the temperature needed to ignite the mix. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
-Is this the dangerous part? -Potentially, yes. -OK. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
Right, glasses on. Right. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
Mixing them will give us gunpowder, | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
and that's when things get really dangerous. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
Right, 15% charcoal. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
A tiny spark could literally blow the whole lot up. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
I feel a bit nervous. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
It's really important that we're using a wooden stick for this, | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
because we just do not want to generate anything | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
that will ignite this mixture. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
It's very soft. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
Ooh. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:57 | |
THEY CHUCKLE SOFTLY | 0:14:57 | 0:14:58 | |
Let's give it a test. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
Are you going to light one end and I'm going to light the other? | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
That's a very good idea. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:07 | |
OK. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
-OK. -One, two, three. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:12 | |
Yes! | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
-Oh, look at it go! -Ah! | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
-Wow! -Wow! -Quite a lot of smoke. -Wow! | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
-And it's still burning. -We made gunpowder! | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
-We did it! -Wow! | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
What's incredible is I was expecting a bang, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
-but obviously it's not in a confined space. -No. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
So it's not going to create a kind of classic firework bang, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
but that has got some oomph to it. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
SHE COUGHS | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
Mission accomplished. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
Following an archaic recipe, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
we have created Elizabethan gunpowder. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
And quite a lot of smoke! | 0:15:49 | 0:15:50 | |
So this is the first step on the road to recreating | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
those Tudor fireworks, and we've proved it's possible. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
We've now created gunpowder, | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
the power behind the first element in our display, the cannon. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
Together, these two elements played a vital role | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
in the wars fought by Tudor England. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
From sea battles with the Spanish Armada | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
to fighting in the Netherlands on behalf of the Protestants, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
the Elizabethan era was an age of conflict. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
And it was here, within the walls of the Tower of London, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
where you'd find the marriage of pyrotechnics and the art of war. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
There's really a lot at stake in this period. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
It's very, very tense. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:40 | |
There would have been thousands of people around here, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
all trying to make this work to get these ships supplied, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
to get the army supplied and fight these battles. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
Makes you think of Bletchley Park in World War II or something. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
-Everybody working together. -Exactly. It's a really crucial centre. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
It's like an arsenal and a Ministry of Defence all rolled into one. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
Who were these gunners, then? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
There were about 100 people who were referred to as gunners, and they | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
were the people who learnt how to shoot this new technology, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
which is gunpowder, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
fireworks and cannon, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:13 | |
and some of the first books on gunnery and fireworks | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
appear at this time. This is a fire lance, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
a rocket attached to the end of a pike, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
and you fire it in the face of the enemy close-up, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
so it's really nasty. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:27 | |
What's a ball of wildfire? | 0:17:27 | 0:17:29 | |
Well, they would put metal balls filled with gunpowder | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
and incendiary liquids into a crossbow and fire them at you. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
That's not something you want to be hit by. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
Do you think once they'd finished their serious business of inventing | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
new weapons, the gunners thought, | 0:17:42 | 0:17:43 | |
-"Right, let's have a bit of fun now"? -Yes, exactly. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:46 | |
So, they're not just going out and shooting and firing the cannon, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
they're also creative artists. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
They were interested in using fireworks for peaceful means, | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
for pageants and plays and festivals, from very early on. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
This is quite a pattern throughout history, isn't it? | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
Like battlefields turning into jousting. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
Something very serious and deadly becomes ritualised | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
and made into a sort of play version of itself later on. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
Yes, that's right. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:12 | |
That's something that the gunners are really proud of. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
So, one of them wrote a book where he included a self-portrait, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
and there's a little motto at the top | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
and it says "Arte et Marte". | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
So, art and war, and the idea is that these are two sides | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
of what he does - the peaceful and the military. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
So, it was at the Tower of London, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
home to the endlessly inventive gunners, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:39 | |
where firework-making for entertainment really took off. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
They had everything they needed to experiment and create their own new | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
and exciting pyrotechnics. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
It's now up to Zoe to see if she can match them and come up with | 0:18:50 | 0:18:55 | |
some magic of her own. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:56 | |
But firework-making is a specialised and dangerous art, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
so Zoe's going to need some expert help. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
-Hello? -Hello! -Hi, are you Don? -I am, indeed. -Hi, I'm Zoe. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
-Hello, Zoe. Nice to meet you. -Hello, Zoe, I'm Mike. -Mike, hello. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
-And this is John. -Hi, John. Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
I've heard you're the crack team that I should come to | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
if I want to get some bespoke fireworks made. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
Don, Mike and John are artisans, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
devoted to handcrafting pyrotechnics for modern-day events, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
with a sense of adventure to take on any pyrotechnical challenge. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:32 | |
And so this is the kind of display that we're attempting to recreate. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
There's obviously these fantastic rockets. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:38 | |
I love the fact that there's an absolutely giant beast of a rocket | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
-at the front. -A huge one there, yeah. -That's going to be taller | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
than me, probably. And then these kind of Catherine wheel type ones. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
-Is that something we can have a go at? -Yeah, we'll certainly have a go | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
at it. I mean, horizontal wheel, | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
we don't really use in displays that much any more. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
It throws up tonnes of sparks. So, if you imagine, | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
you've got fireworks all around you, the last thing you want | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
is tonnes of sparks flying around your display site and setting fire | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
to everything else, so not ideal. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:04 | |
Creating a truly authentic display is going to expose us to the risk | 0:20:04 | 0:20:09 | |
that it could all go up in flames, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
but our best hope is working with these experts, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
who are willing to take on this challenge, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
all in the name of history. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
The display that Zoe and these chaps will be attempting to put together | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
was part of a three-week pageant said to have cost Robert Dudley, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
Earl of Leicester, the modern equivalent of £24 million. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
But who was this man who was willing to spend a fortune | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
in his attempt to woo his queen? | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
Well, he was her adviser, friend, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
very possibly lover. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
There were lots of rumours at court about this, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
despite the fact that he was married. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
This is what the Spanish ambassador had to say. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
"Her Majesty visits him in his chamber day and night. | 0:20:56 | 0:21:00 | |
"People talk of this freely. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
"They go so far as to say that his wife has a malady | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
"in one of her breasts, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
"and that the Queen is only waiting for her to die | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
"so that she can marry Lord Robert." | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
Dudley's wife, Amy, did die. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
She fell down some stairs in mysterious circumstances. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
Some people said that Dudley was responsible. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
But even once they were both free, | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
the Queen didn't take the final step of agreeing to marry him. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:29 | |
You can see the three weeks of festivities and fireworks | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
at Kenilworth Castle as a sort of last roll of the dice | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
for Dudley in this long-running game of trying to get | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
the Queen to marry him. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
But why was it that Dudley put so much faith in fireworks | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
as a way to win the heart of his queen? | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
Well, he was living in the Golden Age of English history, | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
with a flowering of music, literature and theatre. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
Perhaps I can get to the bottom of the emotional power of our display | 0:22:04 | 0:22:09 | |
from the greatest dramatist of this, or indeed of any other, era. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
Farah, what can the Globe Theatre tell us about Tudor pyrotechnics? | 0:22:14 | 0:22:19 | |
Well, in Shakespeare's original Globe of 1599, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
he would've staged plays, like Julius Caesar and Macbeth, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
which actually had stage directions that call for fireworks. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
Set off within this wooden thatched building? | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
Yes, and, miraculously, it didn't burn down, at least not until 1613. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:36 | |
They were that committed to fireworks | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
that they actually burned down their theatre and destroyed it? | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
Accidentally, yes. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
I think the most famous scene with a storm is the opening of Macbeth, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
isn't it? Act I, Scene I? | 0:22:47 | 0:22:48 | |
Yes. There's a stage direction there that calls for... | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
"Thunder and lightning." | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
"And then enter the witches." | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
So, how did they actually do that? | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
You can see there's a trap in the heavens there, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
and there's a reference in the period to sort of stagehands | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
being up there lighting squibs so that it looks like you get flashes | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
of lightning coming out of the heavens. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
Or they might have used swivels to create other kinds | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
-of storm or cosmic events. -A swivel? | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
Well, there were manuals that instructed people how to make | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
fireworks in that time period. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
So the example that I have here is The Mysteries Of Nature And Art | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
by John Bate, published in 1634. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
But a lot of the techniques he talks about in here would have been around | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
for a long time. Medieval theatre | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
used a lot of these techniques, as well. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
And a swivel is simply a rocket that sits on top of a rope | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
that's tied between - here it's showing two trees but, actually, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
-it could be the two pillars on the stage. -Oh, it could have | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
-zipped across here, then? -Exactly. -It travels along, does it? | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
Yes, once you light it, it just zings across, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
and it looks like some kind of flying fire, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
like a comet or some kind of lightning effect. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
-So, if I were a Tudor person sitting out there... -Mm. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
..I live in a very quiet world, there are no cars or loud noises. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
I live in quite a dark world, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
-lit mainly by candlelight and firelight... -Yes. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
..and then I hear this amazing rolling, rumbling thunder, | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
I see a flash of lightning coming out of there, then I see possibly | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
-three witches coming up from the underworld. -Yes, in a puff of smoke. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
-It must've been terrific! -It would've been, it would've been. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
So, if members of the audience for our display at Kenilworth | 0:24:20 | 0:24:25 | |
had been to the theatre, seen a Shakespeare production, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
they would already have this in their minds | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
that when you hear or see thunder and lightning or flashes of light, | 0:24:31 | 0:24:35 | |
it's a very powerful moment. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:37 | |
It's like the universe is moving in some way. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
Absolutely. And Shakespeare knew this very well, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
which is why it becomes part of the poetry of his plays as well. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
And what's the significance in Shakespeare's plays | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
when something like that appears, a comet, a shooting star? | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
Well, often, it is about prophecy. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
In that time period, they read the heavens or the cosmos as having | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
great meaning. And, so, God was trying to send them messages. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
So, one of the messages of Robert Dudley's display to the Queen | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
could have been, "Our love is written in the stars." | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
Literally, yes! | 0:25:12 | 0:25:14 | |
Coming back to the Globe at night, | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
it's hard to appreciate what London must have been like | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
4.5 centuries ago, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
to the people walking along the banks of the Thames after having | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
experienced one of Shakespeare's masterpieces. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
It was a very different world, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
compared to how it's all lit up today. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
I think, in Tudor times, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:49 | |
we'd have to picture the sky being pitch-y black, | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
maybe just the moon picking out the rooftops, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
maybe the occasional gleam of a candle in a window. | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
Which means that the pyrotechnics | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
that the original audience would have seen at the Globe | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
must have made a profound impression upon them. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
And it's that impact that I hope to experience, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
if we manage to light up the night sky over Kenilworth Castle. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:21 | |
If we can evoke these emotions of awe and wonder, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
then we will have got to the heart and soul | 0:26:26 | 0:26:29 | |
of a genuine Tudor firework display. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
It will all come down to how well we manage to recreate the fireworks | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
that have been lost to history. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:42 | |
And Zoe's getting down to work, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
beginning with the most versatile of the fireworks in our plan, | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
the fountain, or the gerb, as it's known in the trade. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
The gerb is the unsung hero of any Tudor display. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
It produces a beautiful fountain of sparks, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
and I'm determined that every step I take in building it | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
is as authentic as it can be. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
In Babington's guide, the old firemaster offers us | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
a series of instructions on how to make the tools for the job. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
Mike and I are making them out of wood, | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
according to our Tudor specifications. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
So, what's the first step? | 0:27:21 | 0:27:22 | |
Right, so we need to turn it down into a cylinder shape. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
Our gerb tool comprises two wooden cylinders. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
One is used to create the shape of the firework's paper tube... | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
I've used a lathe lots of times but I've never made a firework on one. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
This is exciting. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
..the other cylinder has a spindle on it. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
When the paper tube is packed with gunpowder, | 0:27:41 | 0:27:44 | |
the spindle leaves a small void | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
in which combustion takes place. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
There we have it, our first gerb tool. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
Excellent, that's absolutely perfect. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
-That is a perfect nipple. -Thanks very much! | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
Precision is everything. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
These tools must fit together perfectly | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
if they're going to be used to make fireworks in Babington's style. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
So, this is like the rammer? | 0:28:07 | 0:28:09 | |
Exactly, this is the drift that's going to compress all the powder | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
into that gerb tube, so that should match up. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
So, does your thing fit in my slot? | 0:28:15 | 0:28:16 | |
I can't when you say that! | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
Armed with the right tools for the job, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
we can now start to roll the paper casing | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
that will house the gunpowder in our first firework. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
-No pressure. -No pressure. -No, I mean lots of pressure. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
It's like baking meets... | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
some sort of cigarette-making process. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
Actually, this is going... | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
-This is really good. -This is going quite well! | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
Modern firework-making is a simpler process using wet paper, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
which is more manageable. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
But we're staying authentic to Babington's guide. | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
So dry rolling is the Tudor technique? | 0:28:54 | 0:28:56 | |
-Yeah, that's right. -More difficult. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
When you've dry rolled the tube, what we're going to do | 0:29:00 | 0:29:02 | |
-is we've got to crimp this tube. -So, to make a kind of collar in it? | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
-Exactly, that's going to be our choke. -In fact, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
in Babington's guide, | 0:29:07 | 0:29:08 | |
there's this picture here of a tube with this collar. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:11 | |
-So, is that the choke? -That's the choke, yeah. -Right. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
The choke helps the gerb produce its spectacular fountain effect. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:19 | |
So, in use, it'll be that way up. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
You want a fountain of sparks coming out of the top? | 0:29:23 | 0:29:25 | |
Yes, very much so. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:26 | |
And this collar helps you produce, you know, a nice arc of sparks? | 0:29:26 | 0:29:30 | |
Yes. Think of a garden hose squirting water out. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
If you've just got the hosepipe, the water just wells out, | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
but if you then restrict the end of that hose and tighten it, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:38 | |
it turns into a tight jet and goes harder and faster, | 0:29:38 | 0:29:41 | |
so that's exactly what that's doing. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
We're going to get some string, and we've got to pull it | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
really tight around that cardboard, | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
and the only way to do this is body weight. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
-That's what's happening here? -That's exactly what's happening there. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
People are using their body weight to pull on the string? | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
Right, if you want to... | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
Thank you. That goes onto one end. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:00 | |
I'm going to tie you onto a post so that you can pull against... | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
-He's stood there? -So, he's got that higher, | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
and he's sitting into it. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:08 | |
-Keep going, keep going, that's it. -There! | 0:30:08 | 0:30:11 | |
Oh, I'm making... It's like a really... | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
-stiff Christmas cracker. -The Christmas cracker from hell. -Yeah. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
-Right. -Yeah? -And another bit there. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
-And then you can pull out your... -There we have it. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
There's our choke hole. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
All that's left now is to fill it with gunpowder. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
-Funnel goes on top. -Yep. -Literally that much is plenty. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
And, unfortunately, it's at this point you're going to | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
-have to walk away. -Oh. This is the dangerous bit? | 0:30:37 | 0:30:39 | |
-This is the dangerous bit. -Fair enough, OK! | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
Fireworks factory manager Don Mansfield is going to use | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
the cylinder from the gerb tool | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
to compress the powder into the tube, | 0:30:46 | 0:30:48 | |
which will make it burn evenly. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:50 | |
Can we watch? | 0:30:50 | 0:30:51 | |
The problem is, compressing the gunpowder with the mallet | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
introduces energy which could ignite it. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
-And this is dangerous because...? -It could explode. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
After all, a firework is, essentially, | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
a bomb with a paper casing rather than a metal one. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
As a pyrotechnician with years of experience, | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
Don knows that every strike of the mallet is potentially lethal. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
-Right, so that's that full, you can come in now. -Lovely. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:26 | |
Twist that and pull that off. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
There we go. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:29 | |
-There's our gerb! -Yep. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
-Whoa. -It's all ready for use. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:33 | |
Now is a milestone moment in our mission. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
Our first firework, made to Tudor design. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
-We're pretty close. -We are. You'll be fine. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
Will it work? | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
I'll just go here. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:50 | |
-How are you firing it? -Just a normal battery. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
Three, two, one, firing. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
FIZZING | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
That's fantastic! | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
What a great colour. Really rich orange. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
-I love it! -It's very pretty, isn't it? The iron's lovely, it sparkles. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:13 | |
Our first firework! Yes! | 0:32:13 | 0:32:15 | |
-Well done. -Oh, I'm really pleased. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
-We're on our way. -More to make. -Yeah. Better get hammering. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
So, we've successfully made a firework fountain, | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
or gerb, as Babington called it. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
Next are the frightening-looking horizontal spinning wheels. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:37 | |
Now, Simon, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:39 | |
-Zoe is off making fireworks... -Mm. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:41 | |
..but she's given me this page from Babington's book, | 0:32:41 | 0:32:45 | |
and she's set me the task of finding out a bit more | 0:32:45 | 0:32:49 | |
-what that one is there. -Right. Well, that's a fantastic firework, | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
so that is a wheel of fire, what the Italians called a girandole. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
And it's basically a cartwheel, | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
it's a big wheel that's got fireworks | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
put around the perimeter, and then you put it on to a pole, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
and you either put it horizontally or vertically, | 0:33:04 | 0:33:07 | |
and then it spins around, | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
and it shoots out flames and sparks, and stars, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
and it's really exciting to see. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
It shoots out sparks into the crowd? | 0:33:14 | 0:33:16 | |
Well, yes, exactly. So, it's, quite close, you know, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
you're quite close up to these fireworks, and, uh, | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
so it's a really impressive effect. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
And then it could be quite dangerous. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:25 | |
Do you think that these English gunners writing about fireworks | 0:33:25 | 0:33:29 | |
perhaps read this Italian book? | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
They may well have done. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:33 | |
One of them refers to these wheels as girandole, | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
so they use the term that the Italians used, | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
and the Italians were famous then, as now, for their fireworks, | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
so it's quite possible the English gunners might have looked | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
to them as a model for how to do their practice. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
And then they reproduced them in their displays. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
But if you want to find out about it, | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
-you're going to need to go to Italy. -Oh, do I need to go to Italy? | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
-What a shame! -Well, someone's got to do it. | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
As per Simon's strict instructions, | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
I'm in Italy - | 0:34:10 | 0:34:12 | |
firework capital of Europe in the Middle Ages. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
Now, this might not be your idea of the gently rolling | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
Tuscan countryside, | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
but there's a reason that you might very well build | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
a fireworks factory in the middle of a desolate plain, | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
with no other houses nearby. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
There's a risk that it might blow up. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:34 | |
-Ah, buongiorno! -Buongiorno. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
You must be Paola! | 0:34:46 | 0:34:48 | |
-Paola. -Oh, very lovely to meet you. -Welcome, Lucy. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
I've come here to just outside Pisa | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
to meet a small, family-run fireworks firm | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
that's been going for four generations. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:00 | |
And girandole, things that go round, are in their blood. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:05 | |
Now, I hear you've been researching the girandole firework? | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
-Si. -For many years? | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
That's him! | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
No way! That's 17 children? | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
Three wives? He had three wives, he had 17 children! | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
He was a pyrotechnical man, in his work, in his life. PAOLA LAUGHS | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
He had the world's biggest mortar, | 0:35:43 | 0:35:45 | |
and this is his notebook of firework recipes. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
-So, this is the recipe to make the fountain of the girandole? -Si. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:56 | |
That's the light part? | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
They're jumped! | 0:36:04 | 0:36:05 | |
-You push it down? -Yeah. -Yeah. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:11 | |
Let's go! | 0:36:20 | 0:36:21 | |
The girandola. Vecchia. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
Firework from the '60s. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
OK. And where does...? Are these the fireworks? | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
So they go? | 0:36:48 | 0:36:49 | |
I think we want many. | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
-Si. -Multi, multi, multi! -OK! | 0:37:00 | 0:37:02 | |
-OK? -OK. What sort of shape is it supposed to make? | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
What's it supposed to look like? | 0:37:07 | 0:37:09 | |
A willow? | 0:37:13 | 0:37:14 | |
That's rather beautiful. It's supposed to look like | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
-a white weeping willow tree? -White. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
I can't wait to see you burning it up later on! | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
The anticipation, as Paola and her team use the skills | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
that have been in her family for four generations, | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
to resurrect a firework from history, | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
is really rather overwhelming. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
How will this antique perform? | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
There's a reason you don't see so many of these girandole in displays | 0:37:56 | 0:38:01 | |
any more, because sparks literally fly. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
They come whizzing out in this horizontal plane, | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
right into the spectators. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:09 | |
-So, when we press fire, we're going to run? -Yes. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:11 | |
Are we ready? | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
-Shall we go? -Yeah. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
-BOTH: -Three, two, one... | 0:38:15 | 0:38:17 | |
Fire! | 0:38:17 | 0:38:19 | |
IT SIZZLES | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
THEY CHEER | 0:38:24 | 0:38:26 | |
Seeing the girandola in action, | 0:38:46 | 0:38:48 | |
it's not quite such a mystery why you don't see them any more. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
Any show with a girandola risks setting off everything else | 0:38:53 | 0:38:57 | |
with its huge arc of beautiful sparks. | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
So, in our display, we'll have to handle this rare firework | 0:39:05 | 0:39:09 | |
with extreme care. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:10 | |
The next star of our show is the rocket. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:17 | |
These were the flying favourites of the Tudor firework display. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:23 | |
-How are we doing, Mike? Are we all set up? -Very good. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
It's all set up and ready for you. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
The rocket is essentially an upside-down gerb, | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
but with one slight difference. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
It's made with a long channel running through the gunpowder. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
This creates a greater combustible area inside the tube. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
More powder burns more quickly, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
generating thrust to drive the rocket upwards. | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
To make that channel, we need the help of a Tudor tool | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
with an extra long spindle. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
So, we're just going to make a sort of pointy stick, aren't we? | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
A pointy stick, exactly right, out of brass, so it's non-sparking. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
And that's the spindle? | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
That's the spindle, that's right. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
So, we put the spindle in first and then pack the gunpowder | 0:40:07 | 0:40:10 | |
-in around it... -That's it. -And then take it out to leave that void? | 0:40:10 | 0:40:14 | |
Perfect, yeah. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:16 | |
-Yeah, that will do for the first cut. -That's enough? OK. -Yeah. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
Here it comes. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:21 | |
Yes! Look at that, what a beauty! | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
Our perfect spindle, love it. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
So now we have the spindle, the rest of the process | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
is identical to making a gerb. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:34 | |
Dry-rolling paper to fabricate a tube. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
-Right. -There we go. -Ta-da, a tube! | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
And this is where our spindle comes in. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
So this is what makes the difference between the rocket | 0:40:44 | 0:40:46 | |
-and the gerb? -Yes. -Terrific. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:48 | |
So, when we pack this in and take it out, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
we'll leave a void that will increase the surface area inside, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
and then create more gas. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
-A perfect stick for you. -Lovely. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:03 | |
Thank you. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:05 | |
-Nice. -Terrific. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:07 | |
Right. How do we know if this is the right length? | 0:41:07 | 0:41:08 | |
Right, so there's a balance point, and the balance point is always | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
-where the exit of the motor is. -OK. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:13 | |
So, if you put your finger on there, is it balanced? | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
-No. -Not in the slightest. So, we need to chop some of the stick off. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:20 | |
Yeah, more, please. Without a perfectly balanced stick, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
the rocket could careen out of control. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
There we have it, a perfectly balanced rocket. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
And, in theory, this should fly straight and true. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:33 | |
There's only one way to find out - testing in the field. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:42 | |
No, literally, a cow field. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:44 | |
We've set up our first Elizabethan rocket to put it through its paces. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:50 | |
Right, a firework we've made following Babington's | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
design and referencing other manuals of the day | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
is now primed and ready to go. | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
It's about 30 metres from us, that way. | 0:41:59 | 0:42:01 | |
Rockets with sticks are now considered too dangerous | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
for public displays in the UK, | 0:42:05 | 0:42:07 | |
so safety goggles and a 30-metre exclusion zone | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
are absolutely essential. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
After all, we are making what is effectively an Elizabethan missile, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:18 | |
based on a 400-year-old instruction manual. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:20 | |
The honest truth is we don't know what's going to happen. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:24 | |
This is a test, and the only way we're going to find out | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
-is by setting it off. -Great, so, I've armed it, it's ready to go... | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
-Yep. -..all you have to do is press the button. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:32 | |
Right. Three, two, one... | 0:42:32 | 0:42:36 | |
-Whoa-ho-ho! -Ooh! | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
Oh, my God! | 0:42:39 | 0:42:40 | |
-It...it... -It blew up! | 0:42:42 | 0:42:43 | |
-It didn't lift much. -Nothing went up! | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
It didn't even make it off the launchpad. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:52 | |
Luckily, we rigged multiple high-speed cameras | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
so we could figure out the science behind what went wrong. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
-Oh! -Oh! -THEY LAUGH | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
-Very quick. -Yeah. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
This is a thousand frames a second, | 0:43:07 | 0:43:09 | |
and, within about a second, it was... | 0:43:09 | 0:43:12 | |
-Blown to smithereens. -..dust. -Yeah. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
You can see, it ignites, and then it starts to lift, | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
-it's literally two inches off there. Boom. -And it goes, yeah. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
The pressure was just building up so much in that case. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
We think the rocket blew up because the channel made by the spindle | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
was just too long. This means that too big a surface area | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
of gunpowder was exposed, | 0:43:36 | 0:43:38 | |
resulting in an excess of hot, expanding gases, | 0:43:38 | 0:43:41 | |
vainly attempting to escape through the tiny choke. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
The rapidly expanding gases | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
simply blew the casing to pieces. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
To counteract this, we need to make the channel shorter... | 0:43:58 | 0:44:01 | |
exposing a smaller surface area of gunpowder inside the rocket. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
The last one was, let's face it, a bit of a disaster. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:14 | |
So, we've made some adjustments and, hopefully, | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
this one will hit the spot. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
-Let's give it a go. -Give it a go. -Ready? | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
Three, two, one... | 0:44:23 | 0:44:25 | |
Ooh! Oh! | 0:44:27 | 0:44:29 | |
And it's still going! | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
-Wow. -I think that was a big improvement. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
With our design modifications, | 0:44:37 | 0:44:39 | |
we've achieved our goal and created a rocket | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
that flies straight and true. | 0:44:42 | 0:44:44 | |
Now, that's a confident takeoff. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:47 | |
That's a confident takeoff, that's a nice jet of gas coming out. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:51 | |
I think that's quite a good effort. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:53 | |
I think we've cracked it. We have a working rocket. | 0:44:57 | 0:45:00 | |
And very much in the spirit of the traditional Babington firework. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:05 | |
That is an entirely handmade Tudor-style rocket. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
It's a spectacular achievement, | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
and it must have delighted and terrified | 0:45:11 | 0:45:13 | |
Dudley and his audience to see something flying so high | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
into the skies above. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
What was the meaning of a rocket to the Tudor viewer? | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
Rockets are what they called artificial meteors. | 0:45:24 | 0:45:28 | |
These effects are considered to be portents, | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
they're considered to be signs sent by God. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
I learnt about this from Shakespeare. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:36 | |
If you see a shooting star or a comet, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
it means that something very profound is about to happen. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:43 | |
Exactly. Now, imagine taking that outside | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
and putting it into a display on a huge scale. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
This is a combination of the theatre and the military, | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
so you go in the field, you have rockets, | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
you can send these things up, you know, high up into the air, | 0:45:56 | 0:46:01 | |
and that's going to have a really big effect on people. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:03 | |
So, I think that's something that Elizabeth might have appreciated | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
from her suitor. | 0:46:07 | 0:46:08 | |
Three! Two! | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
One... | 0:46:12 | 0:46:13 | |
The elements of our display are coming together. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
We've built our first rocket, | 0:46:17 | 0:46:19 | |
we've found our cannon, | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
we've made the gerb | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
and tracked down the girandola. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
THEY CHEER | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
Now, here, at the centre of Babington's plan, | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
are some rather ambitious-looking fireworks. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
The name says it all. | 0:46:34 | 0:46:36 | |
It's a simple but effective idea. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
You take a rocket, then fire a box of them all at the same time. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:43 | |
As with the girandola, details of how it works are scarce, | 0:46:48 | 0:46:52 | |
at least in the UK. | 0:46:52 | 0:46:54 | |
To find out, Zoe has travelled to the other side of the world, | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
to South Korea. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:00 | |
It's the only place where you can still find the Hwacha, | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
a multiple rocket launcher, | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
developed in the Far East over 600 years ago. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:11 | |
And it's remarkably similar | 0:47:11 | 0:47:13 | |
to the rocket boxes in our Tudor display. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
For its time, it was an exceptionally advanced piece | 0:47:16 | 0:47:20 | |
of military weaponry, | 0:47:20 | 0:47:21 | |
firing up to 200 rocket-powered arrows simultaneously. | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
I've come to an explosives factory | 0:47:30 | 0:47:32 | |
in a remote western province. | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
Dr Chae? | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
..where I tracked down one of the best authorities | 0:47:37 | 0:47:40 | |
on ancient Korean rockets. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:42 | |
So, we're making a traditional rocket, is that the singijeon? | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
Singijeon. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:49 | |
-Singijeon? -Yes. | 0:47:49 | 0:47:50 | |
It's been used since the 1400s? Wow. | 0:47:58 | 0:48:02 | |
And this is a weapon more than a firework. | 0:48:02 | 0:48:04 | |
-This is to fire at your enemies. -Mm-hmm. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
Look at these tools. These tools are amazing. Are they steel? | 0:48:11 | 0:48:15 | |
These are... | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
The spitting image of the tools | 0:48:19 | 0:48:21 | |
we've seen in Babington's manual. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
Yet they're made of steel. | 0:48:24 | 0:48:27 | |
We are now thousands of miles from Britain, | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
and the same objects are being used, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
albeit in a different material, | 0:48:31 | 0:48:33 | |
but the principle is the same. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
These are the tools you need for making fireworks, | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
and they have been so for hundreds of years. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:39 | |
Ooh! | 0:48:41 | 0:48:42 | |
You're making me nervous! | 0:48:49 | 0:48:51 | |
OK, so, here comes the gunpowder. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
Uh-huh, this is gunpowder. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:54 | |
This is when I stand back. | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
OK. That's good idea. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:57 | |
This is the dangerous part, | 0:48:58 | 0:49:00 | |
when they start filling the rocket with the gunpowder and compacting | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
it down. Now, they are using steel tools, | 0:49:03 | 0:49:05 | |
this is something we would never do in Britain because steel tools can | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
generate a spark and that spark can ignite the gunpowder. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:12 | |
But they have assured me it's safe because we are in 80% humidity | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
and that means the gunpowder is slightly damp and can't set on fire. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
But...I'm still going to stand back. | 0:49:19 | 0:49:21 | |
Ooh! | 0:49:24 | 0:49:25 | |
God! | 0:49:25 | 0:49:26 | |
It's like an instinct, just to feel anxious at this moment. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
That hammer just tapping that metal rod then, | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
that could set the whole thing alight | 0:49:38 | 0:49:40 | |
and we would have an explosion on our hands. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
So it would have had a large arrowhead on the end, | 0:49:50 | 0:49:53 | |
but we're using smaller, | 0:49:53 | 0:49:55 | |
blunter tips for these arrows. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:57 | |
Imagine a snooker cue coming at you at 100mph. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:01 | |
That's... Yeah, deadly. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:02 | |
So, now we're using string to bind the engine, | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
the gunpowder-filled chamber, onto the arrow. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
OK. Yeah. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
Here we have it, our singijeon. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:17 | |
And these are going to fly out of our hwacha. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:20 | |
So this is where fireworks cross over to the battlefield. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
Doctor Chae's team have one of just 20 working hwachas in existence. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
So now we're privileged to see what the enemy would have faced four | 0:50:33 | 0:50:38 | |
centuries ago. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:39 | |
When the hwacha deploys, it's a fearsome sight. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:50 | |
I definitely want these in our display, | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
although I'm getting rather nervous. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
If a stray spark finds its way into the rocket box, | 0:50:56 | 0:51:00 | |
our entire arsenal of Tudor fireworks could go up in flames. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:05 | |
Both Zoe and I know this is going to be a challenge, | 0:51:11 | 0:51:15 | |
but we aren't deterred. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:17 | |
Halfway through our quest, | 0:51:17 | 0:51:18 | |
there's still plenty to do to create a display fit for a queen. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
To recreate the celebrations put on for Elizabeth I as faithfully as | 0:51:24 | 0:51:28 | |
possible, we need to do it at the castle | 0:51:28 | 0:51:32 | |
where it all happened in 1575. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
It's time to base ourselves near Kenilworth Castle itself, | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
the grand backdrop to arguably the most high-profile marriage proposal | 0:51:39 | 0:51:44 | |
in history. It was gifted to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, | 0:51:44 | 0:51:48 | |
by the object of his affections, Elizabeth I, | 0:51:48 | 0:51:52 | |
so it was fitting that he should choose it as a backdrop for his most | 0:51:52 | 0:51:56 | |
extravagant attempt to win her hand in marriage. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:00 | |
Remember that £24 million that Robert Dudley spent on his party? | 0:52:00 | 0:52:05 | |
Well, he didn't blow it all on the fireworks. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
He spent the few years running up to the event transforming his castle. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:14 | |
He completely remodelled a four-storey tower | 0:52:14 | 0:52:17 | |
for the Queen to stay in | 0:52:17 | 0:52:18 | |
and he added this magnificent garden that's been lovingly recreated | 0:52:18 | 0:52:24 | |
to his original specifications. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
During three weeks of celebrations, | 0:52:29 | 0:52:31 | |
Dudley laid on some truly elaborate entertainment to try and woo | 0:52:31 | 0:52:35 | |
Elizabeth - notably, bear-baiting, Tudor dancing and, of course, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:41 | |
the spectacular fireworks. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
Reports are quite sketchy as to where exactly the pyrotechnics | 0:52:43 | 0:52:47 | |
took place, but it's highly likely that the Earl would have framed them | 0:52:47 | 0:52:51 | |
in the striking silhouette of Kenilworth. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:54 | |
It's here where we will watch our Tudor fireworks, | 0:52:54 | 0:52:57 | |
as Elizabeth may have viewed them herself over 400 years ago. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
But first a chance to catch up with Zoe, | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
who I know has got big plans for our display. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:13 | |
Now, I've always been intrigued by the utterly gigantic rocket at | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
-the front here. -I'm really up for having the big rocket | 0:53:17 | 0:53:21 | |
front and centre as the climax of our display. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
I've done some rocket making... | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
-Have you now? -Yeah. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:28 | |
And I have not made something this big. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:30 | |
You don't make rockets this big. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:32 | |
-Why not? Because it's dangerous? -Because it's dangerous. | 0:53:32 | 0:53:34 | |
-Yeah. -Oh, really? Perfect. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:35 | |
It is true that at a firework display in 1572, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:39 | |
a stray firework set fire to somebody's house, killed two people | 0:53:39 | 0:53:43 | |
and the village had to be compensated to the tune of | 0:53:43 | 0:53:46 | |
£25 by the Queen. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:47 | |
Well, that's what we face if this... | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
What, a bill of £25? THEY LAUGH | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
One of the unusual features of Tudor displays is that the set itself | 0:53:52 | 0:53:56 | |
would have been viewed as a work of art. | 0:53:56 | 0:53:58 | |
As you can see on the chequerboard floor, there's contrast there. | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
I'll go off and do a bit of research, then. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
It needs to look good | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
by daylight, before it gets blown up, basically, | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
-so you can see what it is that's about to be destroyed. -Yeah. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:13 | |
So what colours might Robert Dudley have painted his Tudor fireworks | 0:54:15 | 0:54:18 | |
set in order both to make a personal statement | 0:54:18 | 0:54:22 | |
and to impress Elizabeth I? | 0:54:22 | 0:54:24 | |
Searching for clues at Kenilworth is a challenge, as most of Dudley's | 0:54:25 | 0:54:30 | |
personal possessions have long been lost | 0:54:30 | 0:54:32 | |
and the castle was destroyed in 1649, | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
so I'm meeting an authority on Robert Dudley, Elizabeth Goldring, | 0:54:36 | 0:54:42 | |
on the trail of the few scraps of evidence about his life, | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
which could lead me to the solution. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
So, Elizabeth, it's a tapestry. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
What is it showing? | 0:54:53 | 0:54:55 | |
Well, in the centre is | 0:54:55 | 0:54:57 | |
Dudley's coat of arms | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
and it is surmounted by a muzzled | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
bear holding a ragged staff. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
The colours of the tapestry are a little bit faded. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
I'm interested in the colours. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:10 | |
-Can I see your... -Yes. -..sort of freshened-up version? | 0:55:10 | 0:55:14 | |
The dominant colours are blue, red and gold, or azure, gules and ore. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:20 | |
-Oh, OK, the language of heraldry. -I believe so. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:22 | |
-I think so, yes. -He's very well colour-coordinated, isn't he, | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
because he's got his blue Order of the Garter... | 0:55:26 | 0:55:29 | |
-Yes. -..he's got his red and gold earl's cap... -Yes. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
..and then his family colours are the same. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:33 | |
-Yes, it's very striking. -They're blue, they're red, | 0:55:33 | 0:55:35 | |
-they're gold. -Very striking, isn't it? | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
If I were Robert Dudley putting on a fireworks display and I wanted to | 0:55:37 | 0:55:40 | |
paint my set, then I might do it in my own colours. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:44 | |
Might to be a good idea. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:46 | |
That's a pretty good steer. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:48 | |
But the Tudors loved a broad mix of bright colours, | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
so I wonder if there are any more clues hidden in these exhibits. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:56 | |
So here we've got some stained glass from the castle | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
-and this is an interesting colour. We haven't seen it this far... -No. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:07 | |
..and it's not a standard Tudor colour, by any means, is it? | 0:56:07 | 0:56:10 | |
In Dudley's Circle, orange, as a colour, | 0:56:10 | 0:56:12 | |
was sort of code for William of Orange. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
Dudley was absolutely obsessed with getting the Queen to send him to the | 0:56:15 | 0:56:20 | |
Netherlands as the head of an English expeditionary force to help | 0:56:20 | 0:56:23 | |
-out the Dutch. -So he's saying, "I'm on your side, Dutch people. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:27 | |
"I'm a hot Protestant. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
"Come on, Queenie, how about it? | 0:56:29 | 0:56:30 | |
"Send me over to help them." | 0:56:30 | 0:56:32 | |
From the few clues still in existence from Dudley's life, | 0:56:33 | 0:56:37 | |
we've managed to pinpoint | 0:56:37 | 0:56:38 | |
some of what would have been his favoured colours. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:41 | |
Our set will be made up of the colours | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
from the Earl's coat of arms - | 0:56:43 | 0:56:45 | |
blue... | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
gold... | 0:56:47 | 0:56:48 | |
and red. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:49 | |
And to show his political support for the Protestant Dutch against the | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
Catholic Spanish, we're adding a touch of orange. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
As I told Lucy over tea, | 0:57:04 | 0:57:06 | |
one of the most exciting elements in the show, | 0:57:06 | 0:57:08 | |
which I'm really looking forward to testing, is Babington's big rocket. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
Positioned at the front of our display, it's simply bonkers. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:18 | |
Judging from the scale, it's ten times the size of the normal rockets | 0:57:19 | 0:57:23 | |
and we've seen how unpredictable they can be. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:25 | |
Very few have been mad enough to make gunpowder rockets this size | 0:57:29 | 0:57:33 | |
for centuries. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:35 | |
Until now. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:37 | |
Babington never specified just how big a rocket could be, | 0:57:39 | 0:57:43 | |
so we're going to test his principles and just scale it up. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:46 | |
We've got some great big cardboard tubes, | 0:57:46 | 0:57:48 | |
an old broom handle as the stick | 0:57:48 | 0:57:50 | |
and we're using more gunpowder than we have in any of our fireworks so | 0:57:50 | 0:57:53 | |
far, and we're going to see how it flies. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:55 | |
We're significantly further back than last time, aren't we? | 0:58:01 | 0:58:04 | |
A lot further back. So it'd be really dangerous if I pressed | 0:58:04 | 0:58:06 | |
the button right now, yeah? | 0:58:06 | 0:58:07 | |
-THEY LAUGH -Don't do it! | 0:58:07 | 0:58:10 | |
All eyes on the rocket. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:11 | |
-OK. -All good? -Yeah. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:17 | |
Why are you standing behind me, then? | 0:58:17 | 0:58:19 | |
THEY CHUCKLE | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
Yeah, let's do it. OK. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
Five...four... | 0:58:27 | 0:58:30 | |
three...two... | 0:58:30 | 0:58:32 | |
one... | 0:58:32 | 0:58:33 | |
ZOE GASPS | 0:58:37 | 0:58:39 | |
THEY CHUCKLE | 0:58:41 | 0:58:43 | |
Oh, jeez! | 0:58:43 | 0:58:44 | |
Look at that tube. | 0:58:45 | 0:58:46 | |
-The broomstick hasn't moved! -THEY LAUGH | 0:58:48 | 0:58:50 | |
-The top came off. -Shall we go and have a look? | 0:58:50 | 0:58:53 | |
-Yeah. -I think it's clear. -Let me turn this off. | 0:58:53 | 0:58:55 | |
Look at that fantastic cloud of smoke. | 0:58:55 | 0:58:58 | |
-It's lovely, isn't it? -Look at that. | 0:58:58 | 0:59:01 | |
It smells like November the 5th. | 0:59:01 | 0:59:02 | |
-It's blown the top clean off. -Mm. | 0:59:04 | 0:59:06 | |
I think it's back to the drawing board if we want to make a big one. | 0:59:06 | 0:59:08 | |
Yeah. | 0:59:08 | 0:59:10 | |
Right. Workshop, here we come. | 0:59:11 | 0:59:13 | |
Scaling the rocket up meant we needed to add more gunpowder to help | 0:59:15 | 0:59:19 | |
it take off. | 0:59:19 | 0:59:21 | |
This is a careful balance of the thrust to weight ratio. | 0:59:21 | 0:59:25 | |
As the rocket gets bigger, you need more gunpowder. | 0:59:25 | 0:59:29 | |
But that increases the weight. | 0:59:29 | 0:59:30 | |
And with all that gas being produced at once, | 0:59:31 | 0:59:34 | |
it couldn't escape fast enough and... | 0:59:34 | 0:59:37 | |
Not only is the display just days away, | 0:59:39 | 0:59:42 | |
we've also invited a select audience of people who have helped us. | 0:59:42 | 0:59:45 | |
The last thing we want is a pyrotechnic disaster like this. | 0:59:45 | 0:59:49 | |
But I'm hopeful that, with a bit more experimentation, | 0:59:50 | 0:59:54 | |
we'll nail it in time. | 0:59:54 | 0:59:55 | |
It's some journey we've been on | 0:59:59 | 1:00:00 | |
and we've almost all the elements we need for our display. | 1:00:00 | 1:00:04 | |
We've sourced gerbs and girandole. | 1:00:04 | 1:00:07 | |
We've found the secret to flying rockets. | 1:00:07 | 1:00:09 | |
In Korea, Zoe tracked down a lethal version of the rocket box. | 1:00:11 | 1:00:16 | |
We've tested Babington's big rocket | 1:00:16 | 1:00:18 | |
and I've found a cannon from the correct period to set off the | 1:00:18 | 1:00:22 | |
celebrations with a bang. | 1:00:22 | 1:00:23 | |
But there's one last challenge I've got for Zoe. | 1:00:26 | 1:00:29 | |
I came across it in a proposal for the display, | 1:00:29 | 1:00:32 | |
written by an Italian pyrotechnician, | 1:00:32 | 1:00:35 | |
that describes something on a very different scale | 1:00:35 | 1:00:38 | |
to all other challenges. | 1:00:38 | 1:00:41 | |
Farah, this is a list of ideas for Robert Dudley. | 1:00:41 | 1:00:45 | |
So we think this was actually under his nose and he went through this. | 1:00:45 | 1:00:49 | |
And this catches my eye. | 1:00:49 | 1:00:51 | |
It looks like he was considering, in his display, having a dragon. | 1:00:51 | 1:00:55 | |
"A dragon as big as an ox which will fly twice or thrice as high as the | 1:00:55 | 1:00:59 | |
-"tower of St Paul's." -Mm. | 1:00:59 | 1:01:01 | |
There's St Paul's. SHE LAUGHS | 1:01:01 | 1:01:03 | |
We're talking about the old St Paul's, but, nevertheless, | 1:01:03 | 1:01:06 | |
-that's pretty high... -Pretty high. -..for a dragon to fly. | 1:01:06 | 1:01:08 | |
-Yes. -So I'm thinking this would be a great thing for us to include, | 1:01:08 | 1:01:12 | |
a flying dragon. | 1:01:12 | 1:01:13 | |
Have you got any Shakespearean | 1:01:13 | 1:01:15 | |
references that'll help us to plan it? | 1:01:15 | 1:01:17 | |
Yes, actually, there's a play by another playwright | 1:01:17 | 1:01:20 | |
named Robert Greene, which was written around 1594, | 1:01:20 | 1:01:23 | |
known as Friar Bacon And Friar Bungay. | 1:01:23 | 1:01:26 | |
And in it, the stage direction reads, | 1:01:26 | 1:01:29 | |
"Bungay utters his spell and a golden tree rises from the ground, | 1:01:29 | 1:01:32 | |
"with a dragon in its branches, spitting out fire." | 1:01:32 | 1:01:35 | |
So, hang on, this is crazy. | 1:01:35 | 1:01:37 | |
A golden tree arises from the ground in the theatre with a dragon in its | 1:01:37 | 1:01:42 | |
branches spitting out fire. | 1:01:42 | 1:01:44 | |
-Yes. -And have you any idea how they would've put that together | 1:01:44 | 1:01:48 | |
-at the Globe? -Well, a dragon spitting out fire | 1:01:48 | 1:01:51 | |
is another firework effect | 1:01:51 | 1:01:53 | |
which they might have used in the theatres of the time. | 1:01:53 | 1:01:56 | |
In John Bates' instruction manual, he actually gives you instructions, | 1:01:56 | 1:02:00 | |
how to make flying dragons. | 1:02:00 | 1:02:02 | |
-How to build a dragon. -How to make a flying dragon. | 1:02:02 | 1:02:04 | |
-A flying dragon, even better. -Yes. | 1:02:04 | 1:02:06 | |
Fantastic. Oh, and he's spitting out fire, isn't he? | 1:02:06 | 1:02:08 | |
He's spitting out fire. He's got fire coming out of his mouth | 1:02:08 | 1:02:11 | |
and out of his tail, and it's on a similar thing to a swivel. | 1:02:11 | 1:02:15 | |
And what's he made out of, then? | 1:02:15 | 1:02:16 | |
Zoe's going to need to know the details. | 1:02:16 | 1:02:18 | |
Well, he's made out of wood or whalebone. | 1:02:18 | 1:02:21 | |
-It says, "Thin whalebones..." -Yes. -"..covered with glass." | 1:02:21 | 1:02:25 | |
-With glass, yes. -And painted over. -And then painted, | 1:02:25 | 1:02:27 | |
so he would be quite spectacular and colourful. | 1:02:27 | 1:02:29 | |
-He would look like a lantern. -Yes. -Glowing. -Yes. | 1:02:29 | 1:02:32 | |
-Wonderful. -Oh, dear. | 1:02:32 | 1:02:33 | |
-Look at this. -It says that he is, "Somewhat troublesome to compose." | 1:02:33 | 1:02:37 | |
THEY LAUGH | 1:02:37 | 1:02:38 | |
-Yeah, good luck with that. -I'll take that as a challenge. | 1:02:38 | 1:02:42 | |
Yeah, there's this display and we've been looking at this one... | 1:02:42 | 1:02:45 | |
As I suspected, Zoe wasn't going to be put off. | 1:02:45 | 1:02:50 | |
My proposition is that we take this dragon and we incorporate it to then | 1:02:50 | 1:02:55 | |
make this kind of display, | 1:02:55 | 1:02:57 | |
where we have our dragon entering in down a zip wire. | 1:02:57 | 1:03:01 | |
And what happens if he catches fire and burns up? | 1:03:01 | 1:03:03 | |
-Is that a problem? -I think that could be part of the drama of it. | 1:03:03 | 1:03:07 | |
You know, the dragon should be destroyed at the end. | 1:03:07 | 1:03:10 | |
I was only half joking with Lucy, | 1:03:10 | 1:03:12 | |
this is a unique challenge that combines sculpting skills with | 1:03:12 | 1:03:16 | |
pyrotechnics. But where can you find this unusual skill set? | 1:03:16 | 1:03:20 | |
The annual Bonfire Night celebrations in | 1:03:25 | 1:03:28 | |
Lewes, East Sussex, are undoubtedly the craziest in Britain. | 1:03:28 | 1:03:31 | |
Effigies are paraded through the town and burnt | 1:03:33 | 1:03:35 | |
in a broad celebration of political satire. | 1:03:35 | 1:03:38 | |
So I've asked members of the Lewes Borough Bonfire Society and artist | 1:03:41 | 1:03:45 | |
Bec Britain to add their know-how to the dragon's design. | 1:03:45 | 1:03:50 | |
We've taking a more practical approach than John Bates' whalebone | 1:03:50 | 1:03:53 | |
and glass that Lucy discovered at the Globe, | 1:03:53 | 1:03:56 | |
but I hope it's as effective. | 1:03:56 | 1:03:58 | |
-This is all willow. -Lovely, smooth finish, | 1:03:59 | 1:04:02 | |
which is so good for sculpting. | 1:04:02 | 1:04:04 | |
Bec has constructed the skeleton by bending willow, | 1:04:04 | 1:04:08 | |
a technique that has been used for thousands of years. | 1:04:08 | 1:04:11 | |
And the team from Lewes Borough Bonfire Society are helping to apply | 1:04:13 | 1:04:16 | |
the skin. So these are sheets of paper impregnated with glue | 1:04:16 | 1:04:20 | |
and water, which makes them very malleable. | 1:04:20 | 1:04:23 | |
That's right. It's a wet strength tissue, | 1:04:23 | 1:04:26 | |
it's the kind of thing you'd find in an '80s perm, | 1:04:26 | 1:04:28 | |
because it can get wet and not fall apart. | 1:04:28 | 1:04:31 | |
The dragon is less controversial than the effigies or tableau that | 1:04:33 | 1:04:37 | |
they usually make. | 1:04:37 | 1:04:38 | |
Obviously, we want to wow the crowd, | 1:04:38 | 1:04:41 | |
very much like this dragon would've absolutely knocked them for six | 1:04:41 | 1:04:44 | |
in Tudor times, yeah. And the tableau is a bit of a black art. | 1:04:44 | 1:04:48 | |
It can represent anything. | 1:04:48 | 1:04:50 | |
Last year, Humpty Trumpty. | 1:04:50 | 1:04:52 | |
-Humpty Trumpty? -Humpty Trumpty. | 1:04:52 | 1:04:53 | |
He was sitting on a wall. | 1:04:53 | 1:04:55 | |
-I can imagine who that was. -HE LAUGHS | 1:04:55 | 1:04:57 | |
If you take the top two corners. | 1:04:57 | 1:04:59 | |
-That's it. -Go up there? | 1:05:00 | 1:05:02 | |
-Yeah, try up there. -Right. -We're going to do a layer | 1:05:02 | 1:05:05 | |
of French enamel varnish, which is going to give it really | 1:05:05 | 1:05:08 | |
iridescent colour. | 1:05:08 | 1:05:09 | |
Once we've applied the skin, | 1:05:11 | 1:05:13 | |
a coat of paint in Dudley's colours will complete the look. | 1:05:13 | 1:05:16 | |
So this is the cage in which we're going to put a gerb or | 1:05:17 | 1:05:20 | |
maybe a fountain. | 1:05:20 | 1:05:22 | |
And then that leaves the fireworks to be inserted into the dragon's | 1:05:22 | 1:05:26 | |
various orifices. | 1:05:26 | 1:05:27 | |
I've always wanted to light a fart! | 1:05:27 | 1:05:28 | |
Now for the final touches. | 1:05:33 | 1:05:35 | |
We're going to sprinkle some stars on proceedings. | 1:05:35 | 1:05:38 | |
Stars were one of the features mentioned in the accounts | 1:05:44 | 1:05:47 | |
of the original Kenilworth display. | 1:05:47 | 1:05:50 | |
They describe an explosion of beautiful sparks that rained down | 1:05:50 | 1:05:53 | |
from the night sky after the rockets exploded. | 1:05:53 | 1:05:57 | |
So are these going to be stars? | 1:05:57 | 1:05:58 | |
Yes. We want these stars to be... | 1:05:58 | 1:06:01 | |
You don't want them to just disappear quickly, | 1:06:01 | 1:06:03 | |
you want them to sort of like flitter and come down, | 1:06:03 | 1:06:06 | |
so by making it burn a bit slower, that's how you'll start to do that. | 1:06:06 | 1:06:09 | |
-OK. -It's like your aniseed ball in your mouth. | 1:06:09 | 1:06:12 | |
It slowly but surely disappears. | 1:06:12 | 1:06:14 | |
Tudor stars are made out of compressed pellets of gunpowder. | 1:06:14 | 1:06:20 | |
And you'll be pleased to hear this is a nice, safe technique, | 1:06:20 | 1:06:23 | |
because it is wet, this is something that you can have a go at. | 1:06:23 | 1:06:26 | |
What we're doing is we're ramming that compound into the tube. | 1:06:26 | 1:06:29 | |
It's a lovely thing, isn't it? | 1:06:29 | 1:06:31 | |
It's lovely, yes. Proper old-fashioned tooling. | 1:06:31 | 1:06:33 | |
Now, you can feel when it gets full, | 1:06:34 | 1:06:36 | |
then it's a couple more once it's full. | 1:06:36 | 1:06:37 | |
That's it. And then just rub it against your palm | 1:06:37 | 1:06:39 | |
and that flattens it. | 1:06:39 | 1:06:41 | |
You don't want to drop the stars excessively high... | 1:06:41 | 1:06:43 | |
-I see. -..because they're still soft at this stage. -Yeah. Still fragile. | 1:06:43 | 1:06:46 | |
-Yeah. -There it is, my first star. That's a lovely thing. | 1:06:46 | 1:06:51 | |
Beautiful little pellets. | 1:06:52 | 1:06:54 | |
-How many do we need? -Well, we need a lot | 1:06:54 | 1:06:56 | |
and that's why you then start to use tooling like this. | 1:06:56 | 1:06:58 | |
-OK. -Which is where you now have six. | 1:06:58 | 1:07:01 | |
-There we go. -OK. | 1:07:01 | 1:07:02 | |
-That'll do. -That was seven. | 1:07:05 | 1:07:06 | |
Rub your hand across and then pop it out into the thing. | 1:07:06 | 1:07:09 | |
-Look at that. Bingo bongo. -That's nice. That is nice. | 1:07:12 | 1:07:14 | |
There you are, you see. What you're doing now is you're pumping stars. | 1:07:14 | 1:07:18 | |
These pellets will be put into the top of the rocket. | 1:07:21 | 1:07:24 | |
When the rocket is burnt out, | 1:07:24 | 1:07:25 | |
the pellets will catch light and fall freely, | 1:07:25 | 1:07:28 | |
giving a stream effect in the sky. | 1:07:28 | 1:07:30 | |
-There we go. -Right, ready to make it fly. | 1:07:31 | 1:07:34 | |
-Put a stick on it. -Put a stick on it and then it's good to go. | 1:07:34 | 1:07:37 | |
There we have it. A rocket with a payload of stars. | 1:07:37 | 1:07:40 | |
I can't wait for it to get dark and we can test it. | 1:07:40 | 1:07:42 | |
I'm really looking forward to seeing these stars at night. | 1:07:45 | 1:07:47 | |
Now, I'm not sure how bright they're going to be. | 1:07:47 | 1:07:50 | |
So it's all connected up with a fuse | 1:07:50 | 1:07:51 | |
-and then we need to connect it up to the firing system. -Right. | 1:07:51 | 1:07:54 | |
-You wire that in and I'll scuttle back. -Perfect. | 1:07:54 | 1:07:57 | |
Right, so I've armed it, it's all ready. | 1:07:59 | 1:08:01 | |
-Are you...? -Am I going to do the honours? | 1:08:01 | 1:08:03 | |
You're good to go. | 1:08:03 | 1:08:04 | |
Right. Three, two, one... | 1:08:04 | 1:08:06 | |
Ooh. | 1:08:10 | 1:08:11 | |
-BOTH: -Oh. | 1:08:12 | 1:08:13 | |
Oh! | 1:08:14 | 1:08:15 | |
-We have a firework! -We do have a firework. -That's fantastic! | 1:08:15 | 1:08:19 | |
Oh, I'm really pleased. | 1:08:19 | 1:08:20 | |
-Good. -Those stars trailed all the way down to the ground. | 1:08:20 | 1:08:23 | |
-Nearly, yeah. -Well, that would definitely set fire | 1:08:23 | 1:08:25 | |
-to someone's house. -Well, I hope not, no. -No, I'm happy with that. | 1:08:25 | 1:08:28 | |
-Good, good. -Well done. | 1:08:28 | 1:08:30 | |
The beautiful golden trails made by the slow-burning pellets will be an | 1:08:31 | 1:08:35 | |
extra flourish for our firework extravaganza - | 1:08:35 | 1:08:39 | |
should everything go to plan. | 1:08:39 | 1:08:41 | |
During the festivities, | 1:08:44 | 1:08:45 | |
the guests were also fed with the most lavish creations | 1:08:45 | 1:08:49 | |
16th-century chefs had to offer, | 1:08:49 | 1:08:52 | |
and it will be no different for the special guests we've invited. | 1:08:52 | 1:08:56 | |
But what would've been the equivalent of a Michelin-starred | 1:08:56 | 1:08:59 | |
menu in 1575? | 1:08:59 | 1:09:01 | |
You don't get the impression that Robert Dudley was worried about | 1:09:03 | 1:09:06 | |
going over the top when it came to the food for his party. | 1:09:06 | 1:09:11 | |
It was prepared here, in the kitchens. | 1:09:11 | 1:09:13 | |
I'm standing in what was a huge cauldron for boiling things. | 1:09:13 | 1:09:17 | |
Here's a bread oven. | 1:09:17 | 1:09:19 | |
And during the course of the 19 days, | 1:09:19 | 1:09:21 | |
some of the dishes that came out of here included swan, stag, | 1:09:21 | 1:09:26 | |
seagull and peacock. | 1:09:26 | 1:09:29 | |
One meal consisted of 300 different sugary dishes designed to appeal to | 1:09:29 | 1:09:35 | |
the Queen's notoriously sweet tooth. | 1:09:35 | 1:09:37 | |
I don't think we'll be laying on seagull or swan for our guests, | 1:09:40 | 1:09:44 | |
but Tudor sweets deserve further investigation. | 1:09:44 | 1:09:47 | |
With the help of confectionery expert Andy Baxendale, | 1:09:47 | 1:09:51 | |
I'm going to find out what kind would've graced | 1:09:51 | 1:09:53 | |
the Kenilworth banquet tables. | 1:09:53 | 1:09:56 | |
Andy, what is this fabulous construction | 1:09:56 | 1:09:58 | |
that you've brought with you? | 1:09:58 | 1:10:00 | |
This is a representation of the original keep of Kenilworth Castle | 1:10:00 | 1:10:03 | |
made out of sugar-paste icing. | 1:10:03 | 1:10:06 | |
Sugar-paste icing. | 1:10:06 | 1:10:07 | |
And you've got the colour of the stone right and everything. | 1:10:07 | 1:10:10 | |
The red is from cochineal, which is made from beetles. | 1:10:10 | 1:10:13 | |
-Beetles, mmm, tasty. -The black is from ash. | 1:10:13 | 1:10:17 | |
-From a fireplace? -Anything burnt, yes. | 1:10:17 | 1:10:19 | |
What else have they got on the table that's made out of sugar? | 1:10:19 | 1:10:21 | |
Is this Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester's symbol? | 1:10:21 | 1:10:25 | |
Yes, that's the bear with the ragged staff. | 1:10:25 | 1:10:27 | |
This blue colour would have been azurite in Tudor times, | 1:10:27 | 1:10:30 | |
which is a copper mineral and quite poisonous, so... | 1:10:30 | 1:10:34 | |
-Poisonous. -..you wouldn't really want to... | 1:10:34 | 1:10:35 | |
Do you think there were Tudor people who died of blue poisoning? | 1:10:35 | 1:10:39 | |
They probably didn't eat enough. | 1:10:39 | 1:10:40 | |
Oh, cos it was so expensive. | 1:10:40 | 1:10:41 | |
-You couldn't afford to poison yourself. -No. | 1:10:41 | 1:10:44 | |
There's a trick going on here, isn't there? | 1:10:44 | 1:10:46 | |
Well, all sugar paste. All edible. | 1:10:46 | 1:10:48 | |
I'd expect to see sweetmeats all piled up here. | 1:10:48 | 1:10:50 | |
Yes, very much so. Some sort of confits, maybe. | 1:10:50 | 1:10:52 | |
Some seeds coated in sugar. | 1:10:52 | 1:10:54 | |
Elizabeth I's favourite. | 1:10:54 | 1:10:55 | |
-I think so. -And then once I've eaten all of my comforts... | 1:10:55 | 1:10:59 | |
-BOTH: -Eat the plate. -SHE LAUGHS | 1:10:59 | 1:11:01 | |
It tastes... Well, it tastes of sugar, but it also tastes a bit | 1:11:05 | 1:11:07 | |
of wallpaper paste. | 1:11:07 | 1:11:08 | |
-Oh, dear. -THEY CHUCKLE | 1:11:08 | 1:11:12 | |
So, we now have the feast to go with the fireworks | 1:11:12 | 1:11:15 | |
at our Kenilworth display. | 1:11:15 | 1:11:18 | |
July 1575 was the date in Queen Elizabeth's diary | 1:11:18 | 1:11:22 | |
and she was probably quite looking forward to it. | 1:11:22 | 1:11:26 | |
Only a few years earlier, | 1:11:26 | 1:11:27 | |
she began promoting the idea of fireworks | 1:11:27 | 1:11:30 | |
in order to celebrate herself. | 1:11:30 | 1:11:33 | |
Elizabeth is creating a new holiday, Accession Day, November the 17th, | 1:11:33 | 1:11:37 | |
the date that she ascended the throne, | 1:11:37 | 1:11:40 | |
and people celebrate that | 1:11:40 | 1:11:42 | |
and it's a way to get people to celebrate the monarchy. | 1:11:42 | 1:11:45 | |
And in the course of her reign, | 1:11:45 | 1:11:46 | |
people start to celebrate that with fireworks. | 1:11:46 | 1:11:49 | |
And that's pretty interesting because that predates | 1:11:49 | 1:11:52 | |
the more famous public holiday fireworks of Bonfire Night, | 1:11:52 | 1:11:55 | |
which happened in the 17th century. | 1:11:55 | 1:11:57 | |
But this kind of thing is already starting to take off | 1:11:57 | 1:12:00 | |
-in Elizabeth's reign. -She also did a very cunning thing, | 1:12:00 | 1:12:03 | |
she would do it at the expense of her subjects, | 1:12:03 | 1:12:07 | |
so she would set off on a progress, | 1:12:07 | 1:12:09 | |
then she would get her richest nobleman to put her up, | 1:12:09 | 1:12:12 | |
stage a magnificent feast for her - this is all at their own expense - | 1:12:12 | 1:12:16 | |
and to put on sort of competitive forms of entertainment for her, | 1:12:16 | 1:12:20 | |
outdoing each other to put on the best show for the Queen, | 1:12:20 | 1:12:23 | |
and she didn't have to pay. | 1:12:23 | 1:12:25 | |
Exactly, so it's another way for her to get around the country and be | 1:12:25 | 1:12:28 | |
seen by her subjects | 1:12:28 | 1:12:29 | |
and one might even see the nobles at this time competing with one another | 1:12:29 | 1:12:33 | |
to outdo themselves in the feasts and the entertainments that they | 1:12:33 | 1:12:37 | |
were putting on for Elizabeth. And fireworks are part of that, | 1:12:37 | 1:12:40 | |
so show a great fireworks display and you can impress Her Majesty. | 1:12:40 | 1:12:44 | |
Robert Dudley's pageant and firework display is part of this tradition, | 1:12:47 | 1:12:52 | |
but his is unique. | 1:12:52 | 1:12:54 | |
It was designed to be the biggest and the best | 1:12:54 | 1:12:57 | |
and it had by far the most at stake - | 1:12:57 | 1:12:59 | |
the hand of the Queen of England. | 1:12:59 | 1:13:02 | |
Now the day we've been working towards has finally arrived. | 1:13:05 | 1:13:09 | |
After weeks of testing and tinkering, | 1:13:09 | 1:13:11 | |
Zoe and the team can finally start putting things together | 1:13:11 | 1:13:14 | |
in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle. | 1:13:14 | 1:13:16 | |
These ones are going to take some knocking in, Don. | 1:13:16 | 1:13:19 | |
Everything rests on tonight's show. | 1:13:19 | 1:13:22 | |
We've done all we can to prepare ourselves, but is it enough? | 1:13:22 | 1:13:26 | |
As Robert Dudley may have given a preview to Queen Elizabeth | 1:13:28 | 1:13:31 | |
four centuries ago | 1:13:31 | 1:13:32 | |
to show the efforts that had gone into the preparations... | 1:13:32 | 1:13:35 | |
Here it comes. | 1:13:35 | 1:13:37 | |
..I'm going to give Lucy a sneak preview of the set of our display. | 1:13:37 | 1:13:41 | |
Oh, look at that! | 1:13:41 | 1:13:44 | |
What a beauty. He looks magnificent. | 1:13:44 | 1:13:47 | |
-Now, this is where we're going to put fireworks. -Fireworks! | 1:13:47 | 1:13:50 | |
-LUCY LAUGHS -Fireworks in the eyes. | 1:13:50 | 1:13:52 | |
-One in the mouth as well and then... -And out of the backside too. | 1:13:52 | 1:13:55 | |
Yes. Come and have a look at this. There's a special hatch. | 1:13:55 | 1:13:57 | |
The hatch! SHE LAUGHS | 1:13:57 | 1:13:59 | |
-That's so sweet. -You've got to be able to put your hand in to fuse | 1:13:59 | 1:14:02 | |
the firework and... | 1:14:02 | 1:14:04 | |
-It's going to be interesting to see whether it survives... -Flames? -Yes. | 1:14:04 | 1:14:07 | |
-Terrible end for the dragon. -Oh, it's such a shame to burn him, | 1:14:07 | 1:14:10 | |
-he's so beautiful. -I know. -Let's take a little tour. | 1:14:10 | 1:14:12 | |
Just like Robert Dudley would have done, I think, on the morning | 1:14:12 | 1:14:15 | |
-of the show, you know. -Well, we've not quite finished. | 1:14:15 | 1:14:18 | |
-Getting there, getting there. -But there are some real highlights. | 1:14:18 | 1:14:20 | |
-So, this will be illuminated. -Is that gunpowder? -It is. | 1:14:20 | 1:14:24 | |
And they'll all... You know, the flame will go around and ignite | 1:14:24 | 1:14:26 | |
-each one of these. -It will be a flaming ER. | 1:14:26 | 1:14:29 | |
-Exactly. -And what's this one? | 1:14:29 | 1:14:30 | |
This is the rocket box. | 1:14:30 | 1:14:31 | |
-The rocket box! -Akin to the Korean hwacha. | 1:14:31 | 1:14:34 | |
Oh, I like the colours as well. | 1:14:34 | 1:14:35 | |
We've got the blue and yellow chequerboard | 1:14:35 | 1:14:38 | |
-from his coat of arms... -Yep. | 1:14:38 | 1:14:40 | |
..and little bits of orange... | 1:14:40 | 1:14:43 | |
-Exactly. -..with its political message. | 1:14:43 | 1:14:45 | |
-I'm also excited about this. -Oh. | 1:14:45 | 1:14:46 | |
-I know what that one is. -Yeah! | 1:14:46 | 1:14:47 | |
That's the girandole. | 1:14:47 | 1:14:49 | |
The horizontal Catherine wheel. | 1:14:49 | 1:14:50 | |
Loaded with gerbs that are going to, you know, help it spin round. | 1:14:50 | 1:14:53 | |
And here comes the big boy. | 1:14:53 | 1:14:55 | |
This is our attempt at the massive rocket for the finale. | 1:14:55 | 1:14:59 | |
Do you know that this is going to work successfully? | 1:14:59 | 1:15:01 | |
Not...well... | 1:15:01 | 1:15:03 | |
No, I don't! I don't. | 1:15:03 | 1:15:05 | |
Well, I really hope that this is going to work | 1:15:05 | 1:15:08 | |
and that the whole display is a success. | 1:15:08 | 1:15:10 | |
-Then I'll marry you. -Thank you. | 1:15:10 | 1:15:12 | |
It's now time to arm the fireworks. | 1:15:15 | 1:15:18 | |
Once they're fused, they're ready to fire from a central control. | 1:15:18 | 1:15:22 | |
Remote ignition is a safety precaution | 1:15:23 | 1:15:25 | |
they wouldn't have had in Elizabethan times. | 1:15:25 | 1:15:28 | |
In the Tudor period, there'd be some chap standing with | 1:15:28 | 1:15:30 | |
a torch or a red-hot poker, and as soon as he put it in there, | 1:15:30 | 1:15:33 | |
that's it, he's covered in sparks and so he's got to try and light | 1:15:33 | 1:15:36 | |
-all of them. -Incredibly dangerous work. | 1:15:36 | 1:15:38 | |
Yeah, but it would be young children doing it anyhow | 1:15:38 | 1:15:40 | |
and there was plenty of them, so that's fine. | 1:15:40 | 1:15:42 | |
Although it's sunny now, | 1:15:45 | 1:15:47 | |
rain could quickly ruin fireworks made to Tudor specifications, | 1:15:47 | 1:15:51 | |
so we're taking no chances and covering them up as we fuse them. | 1:15:51 | 1:15:55 | |
And according to Don, the weather isn't the only thing that could | 1:15:58 | 1:16:01 | |
scupper a Tudor display. | 1:16:01 | 1:16:02 | |
So this is one of the rocket boxes. | 1:16:04 | 1:16:05 | |
-That's coming along nicely. -It holds all the small rockets. | 1:16:05 | 1:16:09 | |
But you can see the risk that's within these displays. | 1:16:09 | 1:16:11 | |
One single spark landing from something else, | 1:16:11 | 1:16:13 | |
landing on one of this, | 1:16:13 | 1:16:14 | |
and it'll light the whole lot. | 1:16:14 | 1:16:16 | |
It could be an eight-minute display or an eight-second display, | 1:16:16 | 1:16:19 | |
depending which way the wind blows the sparks. | 1:16:19 | 1:16:21 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 1:16:21 | 1:16:23 | |
Factory-made fireworks modified to Tudor specifications | 1:16:23 | 1:16:28 | |
will supplement our prototypes, | 1:16:28 | 1:16:29 | |
helping to recreate the sheer spectacle | 1:16:29 | 1:16:32 | |
and scale of Dudley's display. | 1:16:32 | 1:16:34 | |
The modifications we've made, how you feeling? | 1:16:35 | 1:16:37 | |
I can promise you you'll be getting a big bang | 1:16:37 | 1:16:39 | |
at some point this evening... | 1:16:39 | 1:16:41 | |
whether it's up there or down here. But trust me, | 1:16:41 | 1:16:44 | |
it will be a spectacular finale come what may. | 1:16:44 | 1:16:46 | |
Oh, Don, it's not the answer I want. | 1:16:46 | 1:16:48 | |
It will be fine, Zoe. | 1:16:48 | 1:16:49 | |
-That's not the answer I wanted. -It will be fine. | 1:16:49 | 1:16:51 | |
Everything is set for the start of the evening's entertainment. | 1:16:55 | 1:16:58 | |
The guests have arrived in the spirit of the occasion, | 1:16:58 | 1:17:02 | |
including some friends who have helped us along the way. | 1:17:02 | 1:17:05 | |
The set is complete, resplendent in Dudley's colours, | 1:17:06 | 1:17:10 | |
and the pyrotechnics are primed | 1:17:10 | 1:17:12 | |
for the start of a Tudor fireworks spectacular. | 1:17:12 | 1:17:16 | |
What could possibly go wrong? | 1:17:17 | 1:17:19 | |
THUNDER CLAPS | 1:17:19 | 1:17:21 | |
Less than an hour before our start time, a torrential rainstorm hits. | 1:17:25 | 1:17:31 | |
It's a problem that even Queen Elizabeth I wouldn't have | 1:17:31 | 1:17:34 | |
been able to prevent. | 1:17:34 | 1:17:35 | |
Our Tudor fireworks display could genuinely be turned | 1:17:37 | 1:17:40 | |
into a damp squib. | 1:17:40 | 1:17:41 | |
The last thing we want to happen has happened | 1:17:42 | 1:17:45 | |
and we have rain and quite severe wind. | 1:17:45 | 1:17:48 | |
We have soggy Tudors but, most importantly, | 1:17:48 | 1:17:51 | |
I'm worried about our fireworks, | 1:17:51 | 1:17:53 | |
so, really, it's critical that that gunpowder stay dry. | 1:17:53 | 1:17:56 | |
This is a Tudor recipe - | 1:17:57 | 1:17:58 | |
it's not as stable as the modern stuff. | 1:17:58 | 1:18:00 | |
Any moisture and it's game over, | 1:18:00 | 1:18:02 | |
that stuff won't work. | 1:18:02 | 1:18:03 | |
TUDOR DANCE MUSIC PLAYS | 1:18:16 | 1:18:18 | |
Eventually, there's a ray of hope. | 1:18:18 | 1:18:21 | |
The rain finally stops | 1:18:21 | 1:18:24 | |
and our Tudor guests get their chance to show us their moves. | 1:18:24 | 1:18:27 | |
Their spirits have not been dampened. | 1:18:29 | 1:18:32 | |
Let's hope our fireworks haven't either. | 1:18:32 | 1:18:36 | |
Whey! | 1:18:36 | 1:18:37 | |
There's no turning back now. | 1:18:48 | 1:18:51 | |
As night falls, the set is finally complete. | 1:18:51 | 1:18:54 | |
From Babington's original design, we've handmade the rockets, | 1:18:58 | 1:19:02 | |
the gerbs, the girandole, | 1:19:02 | 1:19:04 | |
and we've faithfully brought the dragon to life. | 1:19:04 | 1:19:07 | |
We've even made his big rocket. | 1:19:07 | 1:19:09 | |
They're all primed and ready to fire... | 1:19:12 | 1:19:15 | |
after the arrival of one final illustrious guest. | 1:19:15 | 1:19:18 | |
-Ladies and gentlemen, your Queen. -TRUMPETS PLAY | 1:19:18 | 1:19:21 | |
Thank you, my good people. | 1:19:22 | 1:19:24 | |
-How's your view? -It's acceptable, thank you. | 1:19:28 | 1:19:31 | |
I think maybe for the display you might enjoy standing | 1:19:31 | 1:19:34 | |
right at the front with me. | 1:19:34 | 1:19:35 | |
Is it...is it perfectly safe? | 1:19:35 | 1:19:37 | |
-Yeah, it's perfectly safe. -All right, then. | 1:19:37 | 1:19:40 | |
This is the moment of truth. | 1:19:44 | 1:19:47 | |
These fireworks aren't just unpredictable, | 1:19:47 | 1:19:50 | |
they could be filled with damp gunpowder after all that rain. | 1:19:50 | 1:19:54 | |
-I'm nervous. -Now that one has gone to the trouble of dressing up, | 1:19:54 | 1:19:59 | |
one really does hope this works. | 1:19:59 | 1:20:02 | |
OK, we'd like to fire the cannon. Cannons fire. | 1:20:02 | 1:20:05 | |
And...fire! | 1:20:06 | 1:20:08 | |
And so it begins. | 1:20:12 | 1:20:14 | |
OK, we're firing gerbs either side of the set. | 1:20:15 | 1:20:19 | |
-Oh, oh, oh! -Here we go! -Yeah! | 1:20:22 | 1:20:23 | |
These are the gerbs. These are the first fireworks that I made. | 1:20:24 | 1:20:28 | |
So far, so good. | 1:20:28 | 1:20:30 | |
The gerbs have produced beautiful fountains of light, | 1:20:30 | 1:20:33 | |
setting the stage for an emotional roller-coaster for Dudley's | 1:20:33 | 1:20:38 | |
esteemed audience. | 1:20:38 | 1:20:39 | |
What a fantastic start. | 1:20:43 | 1:20:45 | |
Falling stars. | 1:20:45 | 1:20:47 | |
To an Elizabethan, | 1:20:47 | 1:20:48 | |
rockets and stars would've brought to mind comets and portents of great | 1:20:48 | 1:20:52 | |
events. And even to me, with my 21st century mind, | 1:20:52 | 1:20:58 | |
they are incredibly touching. | 1:20:58 | 1:20:59 | |
-Oh, fizgigs! -Oh! -Yeah! | 1:21:01 | 1:21:04 | |
We've added a surprise element, fizgigs, | 1:21:04 | 1:21:06 | |
rockets without the stability of sticks, | 1:21:06 | 1:21:09 | |
firing much closer to the ground than a modern display. | 1:21:09 | 1:21:12 | |
-It looks like they're fighting each other. -Yeah! | 1:21:14 | 1:21:17 | |
-They're sort of psychopath fireworks, aren't they? -They are. | 1:21:20 | 1:21:24 | |
More rockets. | 1:21:24 | 1:21:26 | |
Or as Shakespeare would have it, | 1:21:26 | 1:21:27 | |
artificial meteors representing signs from God. | 1:21:27 | 1:21:31 | |
Whoa! | 1:21:31 | 1:21:34 | |
And if Dudley wanted to create impact, | 1:21:34 | 1:21:36 | |
what better than the star of our show? | 1:21:36 | 1:21:39 | |
-Dragon! -Hey, the Dragon! | 1:21:43 | 1:21:45 | |
-Go, Dragon! -THEY CHEER | 1:21:48 | 1:21:49 | |
The Dragon is a show stopper in more ways than one. | 1:21:49 | 1:21:53 | |
We always feared a rogue spark could ignite the rocket box. | 1:21:56 | 1:21:59 | |
Oh, my God! OK, the Dragon has kicked up so much smoke... | 1:22:02 | 1:22:05 | |
Well, come on, Dragon, make it to the castle! | 1:22:11 | 1:22:13 | |
He is, he is, he's still going! He's still going. | 1:22:13 | 1:22:16 | |
Come on, Dragon! | 1:22:16 | 1:22:17 | |
Oh... | 1:22:24 | 1:22:26 | |
Oh! | 1:22:26 | 1:22:27 | |
THEY CHEER | 1:22:27 | 1:22:30 | |
That was really exciting because the Dragon set off a rocket box! | 1:22:31 | 1:22:35 | |
THEY LAUGH Yes! It did, didn't it? | 1:22:35 | 1:22:38 | |
And now the personal touch. | 1:22:38 | 1:22:41 | |
Just in case anyone had forgotten | 1:22:41 | 1:22:43 | |
who this was all designed for... | 1:22:43 | 1:22:45 | |
-Oh, no, the ER! -It's the ER. | 1:22:45 | 1:22:47 | |
-Erm, that's me, you know. -Yeah. | 1:22:47 | 1:22:50 | |
That's my personal firework, thank you very much. | 1:22:50 | 1:22:52 | |
-Way! -Ooh. Here we go. -Oh! | 1:22:57 | 1:22:59 | |
Girandole! | 1:22:59 | 1:23:01 | |
Witnessing these weeping willows of sparks must have made a profound | 1:23:01 | 1:23:06 | |
impression on Elizabeth I. | 1:23:06 | 1:23:08 | |
-Oh. -Way! Oh, they're going again! | 1:23:10 | 1:23:13 | |
-Oh! -Just a little surprise up my sleeve. | 1:23:13 | 1:23:15 | |
LUCY LAUGHS | 1:23:15 | 1:23:18 | |
A crescendo of fizgigs and rockets builds to the finale of the show, | 1:23:19 | 1:23:24 | |
the most unpredictable firework of them all, | 1:23:24 | 1:23:27 | |
the one I know is worrying Zoe. | 1:23:27 | 1:23:30 | |
And then the finale rockets right in the middle. | 1:23:30 | 1:23:32 | |
Here comes the big rocket! | 1:23:33 | 1:23:34 | |
Oh, my...! | 1:23:39 | 1:23:40 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 1:23:43 | 1:23:45 | |
Oh! | 1:23:45 | 1:23:47 | |
Sights like this must have been otherworldly. | 1:23:47 | 1:23:50 | |
I can really feel the mix of terror and wonder this spectacle would have | 1:23:52 | 1:23:56 | |
created in the crowd. | 1:23:56 | 1:23:58 | |
-What do you think? -Hey! | 1:23:59 | 1:24:01 | |
-What do you think? -The dragon wasn't entirely as planned, was he? | 1:24:01 | 1:24:04 | |
He had set off all the other fireworks on his way, hadn't he? | 1:24:04 | 1:24:07 | |
Yeah! There was some fantastic cross-ignition, | 1:24:07 | 1:24:09 | |
when the Dragon set off the fire box. | 1:24:09 | 1:24:11 | |
I did fear that maybe the entire display might go up, | 1:24:18 | 1:24:21 | |
but it created a huge amount of smoke, I loved the smoke! | 1:24:21 | 1:24:24 | |
And I think that things going a tiny bit wrong is very Tudor, | 1:24:24 | 1:24:27 | |
-that would have happened to them. -Yeah, yeah. | 1:24:27 | 1:24:28 | |
Shall we go down there and just set fire to them? | 1:24:28 | 1:24:31 | |
-I know! -THEY LAUGH | 1:24:31 | 1:24:33 | |
And what about the big rocket at the end? | 1:24:37 | 1:24:39 | |
Because we had designed it to go up and explode simultaneously, | 1:24:39 | 1:24:42 | |
so it didn't do a big explosion in the sky, | 1:24:42 | 1:24:45 | |
but happened right there, front and centre, at the end of the display. | 1:24:45 | 1:24:48 | |
Oh! | 1:24:51 | 1:24:52 | |
-I'm pleased that worked. -That was the highlight. -Yeah. | 1:24:52 | 1:24:55 | |
Apart from the dragon, we like the dragon too! Ha! | 1:24:55 | 1:24:58 | |
By all accounts, | 1:24:58 | 1:24:59 | |
the display was magnificent and captured the imaginations | 1:24:59 | 1:25:03 | |
of the watching guests. | 1:25:03 | 1:25:05 | |
But did it succeed in Dudley's real purpose, | 1:25:05 | 1:25:09 | |
which was getting the Queen to marry him? | 1:25:09 | 1:25:12 | |
Well, no, it didn't. | 1:25:12 | 1:25:13 | |
Elizabeth kept her nickname, the Virgin Queen, | 1:25:14 | 1:25:18 | |
and Dudley had to look elsewhere. | 1:25:18 | 1:25:21 | |
But we won't let that dampen the fact that we did manage to recreate | 1:25:22 | 1:25:26 | |
a truly memorable Tudor firework spectacular. | 1:25:26 | 1:25:31 | |
THEY CHEER | 1:25:31 | 1:25:33 | |
Maybe Robert Dudley's firework display didn't have quite the effect | 1:25:39 | 1:25:43 | |
that he'd hoped, | 1:25:43 | 1:25:44 | |
but I think that our recreation of it was brilliant as a way | 1:25:44 | 1:25:48 | |
inside Tudor people's minds. | 1:25:48 | 1:25:51 | |
They had a different attitude to health and safety, that's clear, | 1:25:52 | 1:25:55 | |
but more importantly, for them, | 1:25:55 | 1:25:58 | |
fireworks weren't just entertainment. | 1:25:58 | 1:26:00 | |
When they lit up the black Tudor sky, | 1:26:02 | 1:26:06 | |
they saw propaganda and storytelling, | 1:26:06 | 1:26:09 | |
they elevated spectacle into the realm of the gods. | 1:26:09 | 1:26:13 | |
We still follow in Tudor footsteps by having fireworks at big live | 1:26:13 | 1:26:19 | |
events today, and perhaps ours are more spectacular, | 1:26:19 | 1:26:23 | |
but I think that they lack dragons and comets and portents. | 1:26:23 | 1:26:29 | |
I think that Tudor fireworks perhaps had more soul. | 1:26:29 | 1:26:33 | |
Whoa! | 1:26:55 | 1:26:58 |