All language subtitles for BBC.Lucy Worsleys.Fireworks.for.a.Tudor.Queen.720p.HDTV.x264.eng

Fireworks.

They've been enthralling us Brits
for centuries.

Ooh!

But the use of fireworks for
entertainment really got going

during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I.

By far the most spectacular of these
displays

took place at Kenilworth Castle
in 1575.

Onlookers described seeing
thunderbolts and lightnings of fire

that surged
the waters and shook the earth.

So, it was certainly a night
to remember.

In this programme, we're going to
return to Kenilworth Castle in an

ambitious attempt to recreate that
display

in all its Tudor glory.

The fireworks were part of a
three-week extravaganza,

including bear-baiting and
dancing and feasting,

but the fireworks
were the centrepiece.

It was all designed for one very
special member of the audience -

Queen Elizabeth I.

THEY SHOUT AND CHEER

For Robert Dudley,
the Earl of Leicester,

the fireworks were his last throw
of the dice

in his attempt to win the
Queen's hand in marriage.

To pull off our re-creation of what
his lavish display of love

and affection might've looked like,

I'll be scouring historical
documents for clues.

And I'm enlisting the help of artist
and materials scientist

Doctor Zoe Laughlin.

Oh, look at it go!
Wow! We put too much! Yeah!

Her job is to rebuild the Tudor
fireworks that no longer exist,

using 400-year-old techniques.

Ooh, a stiff Christmas cracker. It's
a Christmas cracker from hell. Yeah.

From the manufacturer of Elizabethan
gunpowder from buckets of urine...

It was incredibly valuable.

..to the construction of a huge
dragon that spits fire

from every orifice...

He's got flames gushing out of his
bottom! Yeah!

..the display has the potential to
be as dangerous

as it is spectacular.

It's made out of gunpowder,
after all.

I also want to look under the
surface of the spectacle to discover

why fireworks played such an
important part in Tudor life.

They wouldn't have been used to
seeing lavish fireworks,

so they would've caused a bit of
wonder and awe and fear.

We're trying to reconstruct an event
that had the potential to change

the history of England,

with the help of scattered evidence

and some very experimental science.

If we get it wrong,

our display will just be a
smouldering hole in the ground.

If we get it right, though,

we'll have recreated one of the most
magnificent nights

in Tudor history,

and a firework display fit for
a queen.

The firework display at
Kenilworth Castle

put on by Robert Dudley in 1575

has gone down in history as one of
the earliest

and most impressive ever seen.

Unfortunately, direct evidence for
what the firework display looked

like is a bit thin on the ground,

but we aren't completely out of
luck.

This is what claims to be an
eyewitness account

by somebody who was there in the
audience with Queen Elizabeth I.

A friend of Robert Dudley's called
Robert Laneham.

"Lightnings of wildfire shoots at
the thunderbolts

"and it was all so terrifying and
violent that the heavens thundered,

"the waters surged and
the earth shook."

Sounds like we've set ourselves
quite a challenge.

But this isn't the only piece of
evidence for the display,

and we need to go searching for
clues.

To track down these scraps of
evidence,

Doctor Zoe Laughlin and I are going
on an historical treasure hunt.

We'll be grilling historians of
science

and experts in
historical pyrotechnics.

That is a wheel of fire. What the
Italians called a girandole.

Where we don't have the answers,
we'll be relying on the expertise

of Zoe, with her skills as both
scientist and artist,

to formulate experiments of her
own, in our attempt

to recreate a night to remember.

Whoa! Whoa!

And what I also hope from this
journey is something more -

a chance to have a better
understanding

of the Elizabethan mind.

I want to find out why fireworks

were such a vital part of Tudor
life,

and why this particular display at
Kenilworth

was the pinnacle of power and
pageantry in the Elizabethan era.

To set Zoe on her way, I'm taking
her to the British Library.

Tucked away in its vaults, there's a
very special book.

Look at this!

Now, what you've got there is the
first edition of a book called

Pyrotechnia, which is the first
proper English book

about how to make fireworks.

"By John Babington, gunner and
student."

He's a man who knows how to make
things go bang. Yeah, yeah.

Not only is Pyrotechnia packed with
scientific detail,

it contains something even more
useful.

Oh, what a treat.

Every area has something sparking or
fizzing.

This is the earliest plan of a
British firework display

fit for a monarch,

and historical records suggest it
probably had the same attractions

as the display put on for
Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth.

I like the wheels. Do you think
these whizzed around like that?

I do think... Yeah.

In fact, this one's even got sparks
coming out of it,

implying that it's going round and
round.

This one's really important...

The plan laid out in Pyrotechnia is
full of fireworks forgotten

in the mists of time.

There are gerbs, which produced
fountains of sparks,

locket boxes that launch fireworks
simultaneously

and terrifying-looking
horizontal spinning wheels.

I love this. Look, there's a
ginormous...

Look at the front. He's a whopper!
He's massive! What a big boy.

That's ginormous.

So, here's the big question -

do you think you can make something
along these lines?

Will it work? Will it be safe?

Are we all going to die?
Will it be spectacular?
ZOE GIGGLES

This is really exciting.
This is a great starting point.

This is something that we
can use as a master plan.

While Zoe's getting to grips with
Babington's instructions,

Laneham very usefully tells us
how the display kicked off.

He says that there was "a great peal
of guns,

"and lightening by firework."

He says that "the noise and the
flame could be heard

"and seen 20 miles off."

Sounds like we're going to need some
cannons.

As this is the only major element of
our display that Zoe isn't planning

to reconstruct from scratch,

I want to source one for myself.

It turns out that it's not that easy
to get your hands on

a working Elizabethan cannon.

I'm hoping that these gentlemen
might be able to help.

A MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY

BLAST

Surviving cannons, and even period
replicas, are something of a rarity,

as their antiquated design means
they have a tendency to explode.

HE SHOUTS AGAIN

Let's hope experts in
Tudor artillery,

Nat Bond and Alex Compiani,
have a solution.

Hello! Hello, there!

Lots of guns you've got here.

What we've actually got is a kind of
timeline of guns, showing the

evolution. This gun here is what's
referred to as a gungeon gun.

This is a copy of one that was
recovered off the deck

of the Mary Rose. Ah!
So that's 1540s.

It is. That's a bit early for me, is
it? Well, this period

is a transitional period where these
guns are becoming

obsolete, where the new corned
powder is coming into use,

and the corned powder burned much
faster, with much more power.

What happened if you put the new
powder into the old gun?

Chances are it would explode and
kill you and your crew.

Oh, dear!

Moving on the line, though, you've
got what is called a rabonet.

These were just coming in in the
Elizabethan period,

so this is fairly new technology for
the Elizabethan period, because it's

a cast iron barrel. Mm.

The longer the barrel is, the more
room there is for those gases to

expand and
the faster the ball flies.

And would you be able to hear the
sound of it 20 miles off,

which is in the description of the
entertainment at Kenilworth?

You would. This one actually has
quite a sharp crack to it.

Gunners refer to it as the voice of
the gun. The voice? Yes.

So, if you were 20 miles away,

you could hear that it was your gun
talking to you?

An experienced gunner who'd fired
the gun a lot, yes. Oh!

Did the guns have names?

This one's called Jennifer.

SHE LAUGHS

I named it after my wife!

What about this one, then?

Big Red fires a large six pound
cast-iron cannonball.

You could just about touch the
two-mile range with this gun.

By the time you heard it,
you'd already be hit.

Oh! If you want to impress people,
this one.

The big bazooka.

If I was hosting Elizabeth I... Mm.

..I'd want to show off just how
wealthy and how well-armed I was.

Is he more expensive than her?
Oh, yes.

This is the equivalent of
having a gold-plated Aston Martin

on your driveway.

Search the piece. Clear.

Swab.

So, if we're talking Tudor bling,
there's really only one choice.

Place the charge.

And if you're going to invest in the
Elizabethan equivalent

of a gold-plated Aston Martin...

HE SHOUTS A WARNING

..you might as well give it a
test drive.

That at the end.

Lift! FIRE!

BANG

It's OK, everybody jumps!

SHE LAUGHS

Brilliant!
So, it's this cannon, Big Red,

which is set to open our
festivities.

As a cannon, it's, of course,
different to the other,

more spectacular, fireworks we're
hoping to reconstruct

for our display,
but it does have one vital element

in common with them - gunpowder.

Learning about the secrets of
gunpowder

is Zoe's first step on her quest

to recreate our Tudor fireworks.

According to some of the old text,

lesson one in becoming a successful
pyrotechnician

is know your gunpowder.

In its day, it was considered a bit
of a dark art, but today

I'm going to unravel some of the
mysteries.

Also, it's the same composition we
use now.

Nowadays, we think nothing of buying
our own ready-made fireworks from

the supermarket, but in Tudor times,

owning a firework began
with the process

of sourcing and refining the
ingredients,

which could take years.

Wood and heat. And heat.

And as a job,
it was potentially lethal.

With the help of chemist
Andreas Tretiakov

in the safe confines of the science
lab, I'm going to explore

the process, and make gunpowder to
the Elizabethan recipe.

So, I'm done on the gas.

OK.

Firstly, we're turning wood into
charcoal

in our home-made micro-kiln.

That's what you can see burning
orange now, are the gases coming out

of the can. Yes. Those gases are
toxic, like carbon monoxide,

carbon dioxide and methane. Mm.

It's really going some now.
Really going, yes.

Restricting the oxygen as it burns
produces almost

pure carbon in the form of charcoal.

Beautiful, pure nuggets of carbon.

This is the first element
in our recipe.

Here's our charcoal.

The most important ingredient in
gunpowder was saltpetre,

but we now know that as
potassium nitrate.

To the Tudors, saltpetre was really
difficult to make,

and required this ingredient -
urine.

It was incredibly valuable.

They had to get whole households
peeing into buckets

and gathering the stuff up.

Tudor gunpowder-makers combined
the urine with soil and manure,

and hoped for a bacterial reaction
over 18 months,

leading to an end product of
saltpetre.

Nowadays, we can take a short cut,

mixing premade industrial chemicals.

Right, so we're making an ice bath
so that we can rapidly cool this,

and help the potassium nitrate
crystals form.

Oh! Oh... I can see something.
I can see them! OK.

Look at that.

This is potassium nitrate that would
have been produced

from hundreds of people's urine.

This is the Tudor saltpetre.

Now we're refining raw sulphur.

I can now see a thick tier

of red sulphur

trickling down the nozzle.

Look. It is rubbery! Yes.

It's almost like something you'd
find in the sea.

Wow.

With time, this plastic sulphur

will solidify, and can be crushed
into a fine powder.

So, now, we have the three
ingredients we need for gunpowder.

The charcoal, the sulphur,

the potassium nitrate.

All that's left for us to do now is
grind them into a fine powder.

The magic comes from how these three
ingredients

all work together when mixed.

The charcoal is the fuel.

Right, next up, potassium nitrate.
Potassium nitrate.

The potassium nitrate provides the
oxygen for the fuel to burn.

And finally the sulphur.

The main role of sulphur is to be a
catalyst,

lowering the temperature needed to
ignite the mix.

Is this the dangerous part?
Potentially, yes. OK.

Right, glasses on. Right.

Mixing them will give us gunpowder,

and that's when things get
really dangerous.

Right, 15% charcoal.

A tiny spark could literally blow
the whole lot up.

I feel a bit nervous.

It's really important that we're
using a wooden stick for this,

because we just do not want to
generate anything

that will ignite this mixture.

It's very soft.

Ooh.

THEY CHUCKLE SOFTLY

Let's give it a test.

SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

Are you going to light one end and
I'm going to light the other?

That's a very good idea.

OK.

OK. One, two, three.

Yes!

Oh, look at it go! Ah!

Wow! Wow!
Quite a lot of smoke. Wow!

And it's still burning.
We made gunpowder!

We did it! Wow!

What's incredible is I was expecting
a bang,

but obviously
it's not in a confined space. No.

So it's not going to create a kind
of classic firework bang,

but that has got some oomph to it.

SHE COUGHS

Mission accomplished.

Following an archaic recipe,

we have created Elizabethan
gunpowder.

And quite a lot of smoke!

So this is the first step on the
road to recreating

those Tudor fireworks,
and we've proved it's possible.

We've now created gunpowder,

the power behind the first element
in our display, the cannon.

Together, these two elements played
a vital role

in the wars fought by Tudor England.

From sea battles with the
Spanish Armada

to fighting in the Netherlands on
behalf of the Protestants,

the Elizabethan era was an age of
conflict.

And it was here, within the walls of
the Tower of London,

where you'd find the marriage of
pyrotechnics and the art of war.

There's really a lot at stake
in this period.

It's very, very tense.

There would have been thousands of
people around here,

all trying to make this work to get
these ships supplied,

to get the army supplied and fight
these battles.

Makes you think of Bletchley Park in
World War II or something.

Everybody working together. Exactly.
It's a really crucial centre.

It's like an arsenal and a Ministry
of Defence all rolled into one.

Who were these gunners, then?

There were about 100 people who were
referred to as gunners, and they

were the people who learnt how to
shoot this new technology,

which is gunpowder,

fireworks and cannon,

and some of the first books on
gunnery and fireworks

appear at this time.
This is a fire lance,

a rocket attached to the end of a
pike,

and you fire it in the face of the
enemy close-up,

so it's really nasty.

What's a ball of wildfire?

Well, they would put metal balls
filled with gunpowder

and incendiary liquids into a
crossbow and fire them at you.

That's not something you want to be
hit by.

Do you think once they'd finished
their serious business of inventing

new weapons, the gunners thought,

"Right, let's have a bit
of fun now"? Yes, exactly.

So, they're not just going out and
shooting and firing the cannon,

they're also creative artists.

They were interested in using
fireworks for peaceful means,

for pageants and plays and
festivals, from very early on.

This is quite a pattern throughout
history, isn't it?

Like battlefields
turning into jousting.

Something very serious and
deadly becomes ritualised

and made into a sort
of play version of itself later on.

Yes, that's right.

That's something that the gunners
are really proud of.

So, one of them wrote a book where
he included a self-portrait,

and there's a
little motto at the top

and it says "Arte et Marte".

So, art and war, and the idea is
that these are two sides

of what he does -
the peaceful and the military.

So, it was at the Tower of London,

home to the endlessly inventive
gunners,

where firework-making for
entertainment really took off.

They had everything they needed to
experiment and create their own new

and exciting pyrotechnics.

It's now up to Zoe to see if she can
match them and come up with

some magic of her own.

But firework-making is a specialised
and dangerous art,

so Zoe's going to need
some expert help.

Hello? Hello! Hi, are you Don?
I am, indeed. Hi, I'm Zoe.

Hello, Zoe. Nice to meet you.
Hello, Zoe, I'm Mike. Mike, hello.

And this is John. Hi, John.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

I've heard you're the crack team
that I should come to

if I want to get
some bespoke fireworks made.

Don, Mike and John are artisans,

devoted to handcrafting pyrotechnics
for modern-day events,

with a sense of adventure to take on
any pyrotechnical challenge.

And so this is the kind of display
that we're attempting to recreate.

There's obviously these fantastic
rockets.

I love the fact that there's an
absolutely giant beast of a rocket

at the front. A huge one there,
yeah. That's going to be taller

than me, probably. And then these
kind of Catherine wheel type ones.

Is that something we can have a go
at? Yeah, we'll certainly have a go

at it. I mean, horizontal wheel,

we don't really use in displays that
much any more.

It throws up tonnes of sparks.
So, if you imagine,

you've got fireworks all around you,
the last thing you want

is tonnes of sparks flying around
your display site and setting fire

to everything else, so not ideal.

Creating a truly authentic display
is going to expose us to the risk

that it could all go up in flames,

but our best hope is working with
these experts,

who are willing to take on this
challenge,

all in the name of history.

The display that Zoe and these chaps
will be attempting to put together

was part of a three-week pageant
said to have cost Robert Dudley,

Earl of Leicester, the modern
equivalent of £24 million.

But who was this man who was willing
to spend a fortune

in his attempt to woo his queen?

Well, he was her adviser, friend,

very possibly lover.

There were lots of rumours at
court about this,

despite the fact that he was
married.

This is what the Spanish ambassador
had to say.

"Her Majesty visits him in his
chamber day and night.

"People talk of this freely.

"They go so far as to say that his
wife has a malady

"in one of her breasts,

"and that the Queen is only waiting
for her to die

"so that she can marry Lord Robert."

Dudley's wife, Amy, did die.

She fell down some stairs in
mysterious circumstances.

Some people said that Dudley was
responsible.

But even once they were both free,

the Queen didn't take the final step
of agreeing to marry him.

You can see the three weeks of
festivities and fireworks

at Kenilworth Castle as a sort of
last roll of the dice

for Dudley in this long-running
game of trying to get

the Queen to marry him.

But why was it that Dudley put so
much faith in fireworks

as a way to win the heart
of his queen?

Well, he was living in the
Golden Age of English history,

with a flowering of music,
literature and theatre.

Perhaps I can get to the bottom of
the emotional power of our display

from the greatest dramatist of this,
or indeed of any other, era.

Farah, what can the Globe Theatre
tell us about Tudor pyrotechnics?

Well, in Shakespeare's original
Globe of 1599,

he would've staged plays,
like Julius Caesar and Macbeth,

which actually had stage directions
that call for fireworks.

Set off within this
wooden thatched building?

Yes, and, miraculously, it didn't
burn down, at least not until 1613.

They were that committed to
fireworks

that they actually burned down
their theatre and destroyed it?

Accidentally, yes.

I think the most famous scene with
a storm is the opening of Macbeth,

isn't it? Act I, Scene I?

Yes. There's a stage direction there
that calls for...

"Thunder and lightning."

"And then enter the witches."

So, how did they actually do that?

You can see there's a trap in the
heavens there,

and there's a reference in the
period to sort of stagehands

being up there lighting squibs so
that it looks like you get flashes

of lightning coming out of the
heavens.

Or they might have used swivels to
create other kinds

of storm or cosmic events. A swivel?

Well, there were manuals that
instructed people how to make

fireworks in that time period.

So the example that I have here is
The Mysteries Of Nature And Art

by John Bate, published in 1634.

But a lot of the techniques he talks
about in here would have been around

for a long time. Medieval theatre

used a lot of these techniques,
as well.

And a swivel is simply a rocket that
sits on top of a rope

that's tied between - here it's
showing two trees but, actually,

it could be the two pillars on the
stage. Oh, it could have

zipped across here, then?
Exactly. It travels along, does it?

Yes, once you light it,
it just zings across,

and it looks
like some kind of flying fire,

like a comet or some kind of
lightning effect.

So, if I were a Tudor person sitting
out there... Mm.

..I live in a very quiet world,
there are no cars or loud noises.

I live in quite a dark world,

lit mainly by candlelight and
firelight... Yes.

..and then I hear this
amazing rolling, rumbling thunder,

I see a flash of lightning coming
out of there, then I see possibly

three witches coming up from the
underworld. Yes, in a puff of smoke.

It must've been terrific!
It would've been, it would've been.

So, if members of the audience for
our display at Kenilworth

had been to the theatre, seen a
Shakespeare production,

they would already have this in
their minds

that when you hear or see thunder
and lightning or flashes of light,

it's a very powerful moment.

It's like the universe
is moving in some way.

Absolutely. And Shakespeare knew
this very well,

which is why it becomes part of the
poetry of his plays as well.

And what's the significance in
Shakespeare's plays

when something like that appears, a
comet, a shooting star?

Well, often, it is about prophecy.

In that time period, they read the
heavens or the cosmos as having

great meaning. And, so, God was
trying to send them messages.

So, one of the messages of
Robert Dudley's display to the Queen

could have been, "Our love is
written in the stars."

Literally, yes!

Coming back to the Globe at night,

it's hard to appreciate what London
must have been like

4.5 centuries ago,

to the people walking along the
banks of the Thames after having

experienced one of Shakespeare's
masterpieces.

It was a very different world,

compared to how it's all lit up
today.

I think, in Tudor times,

we'd have to picture the sky
being pitch-y black,

maybe just the moon picking
out the rooftops,

maybe the occasional gleam of a
candle in a window.

Which means that the pyrotechnics

that the original audience would
have seen at the Globe

must have made a profound impression
upon them.

And it's that impact
that I hope to experience,

if we manage to light up the night
sky over Kenilworth Castle.

If we can evoke these emotions of
awe and wonder,

then we will have got to the heart
and soul

of a genuine Tudor firework display.

It will all come down to how well we
manage to recreate the fireworks

that have been lost to history.

And Zoe's getting down to work,

beginning with the most versatile of
the fireworks in our plan,

the fountain, or the gerb, as it's
known in the trade.

The gerb is the unsung hero
of any Tudor display.

It produces a beautiful
fountain of sparks,

and I'm determined that every step
I take in building it

is as authentic as it can be.

In Babington's guide,
the old firemaster offers us

a series of instructions on how
to make the tools for the job.

Mike and I are making them
out of wood,

according to our Tudor
specifications.

So, what's the first step?

Right, so we need to turn it down
into a cylinder shape.

Our gerb tool comprises two wooden
cylinders.

One is used to create the shape of
the firework's paper tube...

I've used a lathe lots of times but
I've never made a firework on one.

This is exciting.

..the other cylinder has
a spindle on it.

When the paper tube is packed with
gunpowder,

the spindle leaves a small void

in which combustion takes place.

There we have it,
our first gerb tool.

Excellent, that's absolutely
perfect.

That is a perfect nipple.
Thanks very much!

Precision is everything.

These tools must fit together
perfectly

if they're going to be used to make
fireworks in Babington's style.

So, this is like the rammer?

Exactly, this is the drift that's
going to compress all the powder

into that gerb tube,
so that should match up.

So, does your thing fit in my slot?

I can't when you say that!

Armed with the right
tools for the job,

we can now start to roll the paper
casing

that will house the gunpowder
in our first firework.

No pressure. No pressure.
No, I mean lots of pressure.

It's like baking meets...

some sort of cigarette-making
process.

Actually, this is going...

This is really good. This is going
quite well!

Modern firework-making is a simpler
process using wet paper,

which is more manageable.

But we're staying authentic
to Babington's guide.

So dry rolling is the Tudor
technique?

Yeah, that's right. More difficult.

When you've dry rolled the tube,
what we're going to do

is we've got to crimp this tube.
So, to make a kind of collar in it?

Exactly, that's going to be our
choke. In fact,

in Babington's guide,

there's this picture here of a tube
with this collar.

So, is that the choke?
That's the choke, yeah. Right.

The choke helps the gerb produce its
spectacular fountain effect.

So, in use, it'll be that way up.

You want a fountain of sparks
coming out of the top?

Yes, very much so.

And this collar helps you produce,
you know, a nice arc of sparks?

Yes. Think of a garden hose
squirting water out.

If you've just got the hosepipe,
the water just wells out,

but if you then restrict the end
of that hose and tighten it,

it turns into a tight jet and goes
harder and faster,

so that's exactly what that's doing.

We're going to get some string,
and we've got to pull it

really tight around that cardboard,

and the only way to do this
is body weight.

That's what's happening here? That's
exactly what's happening there.

People are using their body weight
to pull on the string?

Right, if you want to...

Thank you. That goes onto one end.

I'm going to tie you onto a post so
that you can pull against...

He's stood there?
So, he's got that higher,

and he's sitting into it.

Keep going, keep going, that's it.
There!

Oh, I'm making...
It's like a really...

stiff Christmas cracker. The
Christmas cracker from hell. Yeah.

Right. Yeah? And another bit there.

And then you can pull out your...
There we have it.

There's our choke hole.

All that's left now is to fill it
with gunpowder.

Funnel goes on top. Yep.
Literally that much is plenty.

And, unfortunately, it's at this
point you're going to

have to walk away. Oh.
This is the dangerous bit?

This is the dangerous bit.
Fair enough, OK!

Fireworks factory manager
Don Mansfield is going to use

the cylinder from the gerb tool

to compress the powder into the
tube,

which will make it burn evenly.

Can we watch?

The problem is, compressing the
gunpowder with the mallet

introduces energy which could
ignite it.

And this is dangerous because...?
It could explode.

After all, a firework is,
essentially,

a bomb with a paper casing rather
than a metal one.

As a pyrotechnician
with years of experience,

Don knows that every strike of the
mallet is potentially lethal.

Right, so that's that full, you can
come in now. Lovely.

Twist that and pull that off.

There we go.

There's our gerb! Yep.

Whoa. It's all ready for use.

Now is a milestone moment in our
mission.

Our first firework,
made to Tudor design.

We're pretty close.
We are. You'll be fine.

Will it work?

I'll just go here.

How are you firing it?
Just a normal battery.

Three, two, one, firing.

FIZZING

That's fantastic!

What a great colour.
Really rich orange.

I love it! It's very pretty, isn't
it? The iron's lovely, it sparkles.

Our first firework! Yes!

Well done. Oh, I'm really pleased.

We're on our way. More to make.
Yeah. Better get hammering.

So, we've successfully
made a firework fountain,

or gerb, as Babington called it.

Next are the frightening-looking
horizontal spinning wheels.

Now, Simon,

Zoe is off making fireworks... Mm.

..but she's given me this page
from Babington's book,

and she's set me the task of
finding out a bit more

what that one is there. Right.
Well, that's a fantastic firework,

so that is a wheel of fire, what
the Italians called a girandole.

And it's basically a cartwheel,

it's a big wheel that's got
fireworks

put around the perimeter,
and then you put it on to a pole,

and you either put it horizontally
or vertically,

and then it spins around,

and it shoots out flames and sparks,
and stars,

and it's really exciting to see.

It shoots out sparks into the crowd?

Well, yes, exactly. So,
it's, quite close, you know,

you're quite close
up to these fireworks, and, uh,

so it's a really impressive effect.

And then it could be quite
dangerous.

Do you think that these English
gunners writing about fireworks

perhaps read this Italian book?

They may well have done.

One of them refers to these wheels
as girandole,

so they use the term that the
Italians used,

and the Italians were famous then,
as now, for their fireworks,

so it's quite possible the English
gunners might have looked

to them as a model for how to do
their practice.

And then they reproduced them in
their displays.

But if you want
to find out about it,

you're going to need to go to Italy.
Oh, do I need to go to Italy?

What a shame! Well, someone's got to
do it.

As per Simon's strict instructions,

I'm in Italy -

firework capital of Europe
in the Middle Ages.

Now, this might not be your idea of
the gently rolling

Tuscan countryside,

but there's a reason that you might
very well build

a fireworks factory in the
middle of a desolate plain,

with no other houses nearby.

There's a risk that
it might blow up.

Ah, buongiorno! Buongiorno.

You must be Paola!

Paola. Oh, very lovely to meet you.
Welcome, Lucy.

I've come here to just outside Pisa

to meet a small, family-run
fireworks firm

that's been going
for four generations.

And girandole, things that go
round, are in their blood.

Now, I hear you've been researching
the girandole firework?

Si. For many years?

That's him!

No way! That's 17 children?

Three wives? He had three wives,
he had 17 children!

He was a pyrotechnical man, in his
work, in his life.
PAOLA LAUGHS

He had the world's biggest mortar,

and this is his notebook of firework
recipes.

So, this is the recipe to make the
fountain of the girandole? Si.

That's the light part?

They're jumped!

You push it down? Yeah. Yeah.

Let's go!

The girandola. Vecchia.

Firework from the '60s.

OK. And where does...?
Are these the fireworks?

So they go?

I think we want many.

Si. Multi, multi, multi! OK!

OK? OK. What sort of shape is it
supposed to make?

What's it supposed to look like?

A willow?

That's rather beautiful. It's
supposed to look like

a white weeping willow tree? White.

I can't wait to see you burning it
up later on!

The anticipation,
as Paola and her team use the skills

that have been in her family for
four generations,

to resurrect a firework from
history,

is really rather overwhelming.

How will this antique perform?

There's a reason you don't see so
many of these girandole in displays

any more,
because sparks literally fly.

They come whizzing out in this
horizontal plane,

right into the spectators.

So, when we press fire,
we're going to run? Yes.

Are we ready?

Shall we go? Yeah.

BOTH: Three, two, one...

Fire!

IT SIZZLES

THEY CHEER

Seeing the girandola in action,

it's not quite such a mystery why
you don't see them any more.

Any show with a girandola risks
setting off everything else

with its huge
arc of beautiful sparks.

So, in our display, we'll have to
handle this rare firework

with extreme care.

The next star of our show
is the rocket.

These were the flying favourites
of the Tudor firework display.

How are we doing, Mike? Are we all
set up? Very good.

It's all set up and ready for you.

The rocket is essentially
an upside-down gerb,

but with one slight difference.

It's made with a long channel
running through the gunpowder.

This creates a greater combustible
area inside the tube.

More powder burns more quickly,

generating thrust to drive the
rocket upwards.

To make that channel, we need the
help of a Tudor tool

with an extra long spindle.

So, we're just going to make a sort
of pointy stick, aren't we?

A pointy stick, exactly right, out
of brass, so it's non-sparking.

And that's the spindle?

That's the spindle, that's right.

So, we put the spindle in first
and then pack the gunpowder

in around it... That's it. And then
take it out to leave that void?

Perfect, yeah.

Yeah, that will do for the first
cut. That's enough? OK. Yeah.

Here it comes.

Yes! Look at that, what a beauty!

Our perfect spindle, love it.

So now we have the spindle,
the rest of the process

is identical to making a gerb.

Dry-rolling paper
to fabricate a tube.

Right. There we go. Ta-da, a tube!

And this is where our
spindle comes in.

So this is what makes the
difference between the rocket

and the gerb? Yes. Terrific.

So, when we pack this in
and take it out,

we'll leave a void that will
increase the surface area inside,

and then create more gas.

A perfect stick for you. Lovely.

Thank you.

Nice. Terrific.

Right. How do we know if this is
the right length?

Right, so there's a balance point,
and the balance point is always

where the exit of the motor is. OK.

So, if you put your finger on there,
is it balanced?

No. Not in the slightest. So, we
need to chop some of the stick off.

Yeah, more, please. Without a
perfectly balanced stick,

the rocket could careen
out of control.

There we have it,
a perfectly balanced rocket.

And, in theory, this should fly
straight and true.

There's only one way to find out -
testing in the field.

No, literally, a cow field.

We've set up our first Elizabethan
rocket to put it through its paces.

Right, a firework we've made
following Babington's

design and referencing other manuals
of the day

is now primed and ready to go.

It's about 30 metres
from us, that way.

Rockets with sticks are now
considered too dangerous

for public displays in the UK,

so safety goggles and a 30-metre
exclusion zone

are absolutely essential.

After all, we are making what is
effectively an Elizabethan missile,

based on a 400-year-old instruction
manual.

The honest truth is we don't know
what's going to happen.

This is a test, and the only way
we're going to find out

is by setting it off. Great, so,
I've armed it, it's ready to go...

Yep. ..all you have to do is press
the button.

Right. Three, two, one...

Whoa-ho-ho! Ooh!

Oh, my God!

It...it... It blew up!

It didn't lift much.
Nothing went up!

It didn't even make it off the
launchpad.

Luckily, we rigged multiple
high-speed cameras

so we could figure out the
science behind what went wrong.

Oh! Oh!
THEY LAUGH

Very quick. Yeah.

This is a thousand frames a second,

and, within about a second,
it was...

Blown to smithereens. ..dust. Yeah.

You can see, it ignites,
and then it starts to lift,

it's literally two inches off there.
Boom. And it goes, yeah.

The pressure was just building up so
much in that case.

We think the rocket blew up because
the channel made by the spindle

was just too long. This means that
too big a surface area

of gunpowder was exposed,

resulting in an excess of hot,
expanding gases,

vainly attempting to escape through
the tiny choke.

The rapidly expanding gases

simply blew the casing to pieces.

To counteract this, we need to make
the channel shorter...

exposing a smaller surface area of
gunpowder inside the rocket.

The last one was, let's face it,
a bit of a disaster.

So, we've made some adjustments
and, hopefully,

this one will hit the spot.

Let's give it a go.
Give it a go. Ready?

Three, two, one...

Ooh! Oh!

And it's still going!

Wow. I think that was a big
improvement.

With our design modifications,

we've achieved our goal and created
a rocket

that flies straight and true.

Now, that's a confident takeoff.

That's a confident takeoff, that's a
nice jet of gas coming out.

I think that's quite a good effort.

I think we've cracked it.
We have a working rocket.

And very much in the spirit of the
traditional Babington firework.

That is an entirely handmade
Tudor-style rocket.

It's a spectacular achievement,

and it must have delighted
and terrified

Dudley and his audience to
see something flying so high

into the skies above.

What was the meaning of a rocket
to the Tudor viewer?

Rockets are what they called
artificial meteors.

These effects are considered to be
portents,

they're considered to be signs
sent by God.

I learnt about this from
Shakespeare.

If you see a shooting star or a
comet,

it means that something very
profound is about to happen.

Exactly. Now, imagine taking that
outside

and putting it into a display on
a huge scale.

This is a combination of the theatre
and the military,

so you go in the field,
you have rockets,

you can send these things up,
you know, high up into the air,

and that's going to have a really
big effect on people.

So, I think that's something that
Elizabeth might have appreciated

from her suitor.

Three! Two!

One...

The elements of our display
are coming together.

We've built our first rocket,

we've found our cannon,

we've made the gerb

and tracked down the girandola.

THEY CHEER

Now, here, at the centre of
Babington's plan,

are some rather ambitious-looking
fireworks.

The name says it all.

It's a simple but effective idea.

You take a rocket, then fire a box
of them all at the same time.

As with the girandola, details of
how it works are scarce,

at least in the UK.

To find out, Zoe has travelled to
the other side of the world,

to South Korea.

It's the only place where you can
still find the Hwacha,

a multiple rocket launcher,

developed in the Far East
over 600 years ago.

And it's remarkably similar

to the rocket boxes
in our Tudor display.

For its time, it was an
exceptionally advanced piece

of military weaponry,

firing up to 200 rocket-powered
arrows simultaneously.

I've come to an explosives factory

in a remote western province.

Dr Chae?

..where I tracked down
one of the best authorities

on ancient Korean rockets.

So, we're making a traditional
rocket, is that the singijeon?

Singijeon.

Singijeon? Yes.

It's been used since the 1400s? Wow.

And this is a weapon more than a
firework.

This is to fire at your enemies.
Mm-hmm.

Look at these tools. These tools are
amazing. Are they steel?

These are...

The spitting image of the tools

we've seen in Babington's manual.

Yet they're made of steel.

We are now thousands of miles from
Britain,

and the same objects are being used,

albeit in a different material,

but the principle is the same.

These are the tools you need for
making fireworks,

and they have been
so for hundreds of years.

Ooh!

You're making me nervous!

OK, so, here comes the gunpowder.

Uh-huh, this is gunpowder.

This is when I stand back.

OK. That's good idea.

This is the dangerous part,

when they start filling the rocket
with the gunpowder and compacting

it down. Now, they are
using steel tools,

this is something we would never do
in Britain because steel tools can

generate a spark and that spark
can ignite the gunpowder.

But they have assured me it's safe
because we are in 80% humidity

and that means the gunpowder is
slightly damp and can't set on fire.

But...I'm still going to stand back.

Ooh!

God!

It's like an instinct, just to
feel anxious at this moment.

That hammer just tapping
that metal rod then,

that could set
the whole thing alight

and we would have an
explosion on our hands.

So it would have had a large
arrowhead on the end,

but we're using smaller,

blunter tips for these arrows.

Imagine a snooker cue coming
at you at 100mph.

That's... Yeah, deadly.

So, now we're using string
to bind the engine,

the gunpowder-filled chamber,
onto the arrow.

OK. Yeah.

Here we have it, our singijeon.

And these are going to fly
out of our hwacha.

So this is where fireworks
cross over to the battlefield.

Doctor Chae's team have one of just
20 working hwachas in existence.

So now we're privileged to see
what the enemy would have faced four

centuries ago.

When the hwacha deploys,
it's a fearsome sight.

I definitely want these
in our display,

although I'm getting rather nervous.

If a stray spark finds
its way into the rocket box,

our entire arsenal of Tudor
fireworks could go up in flames.

Both Zoe and I know this
is going to be a challenge,

but we aren't deterred.

Halfway through our quest,

there's still plenty to do to
create a display fit for a queen.

To recreate the celebrations put on
for Elizabeth I as faithfully as

possible, we need to do
it at the castle

where it all happened in 1575.

It's time to base ourselves near
Kenilworth Castle itself,

the grand backdrop to arguably the
most high-profile marriage proposal

in history. It was gifted to
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,

by the object of his
affections, Elizabeth I,

so it was fitting that he should
choose it as a backdrop for his most

extravagant attempt to win
her hand in marriage.

Remember that £24 million that
Robert Dudley spent on his party?

Well, he didn't blow it
all on the fireworks.

He spent the few years running up to
the event transforming his castle.

He completely remodelled
a four-storey tower

for the Queen to stay in

and he added this magnificent garden
that's been lovingly recreated

to his original specifications.

During three weeks of celebrations,

Dudley laid on some truly elaborate
entertainment to try and woo

Elizabeth - notably, bear-baiting,
Tudor dancing and, of course,

the spectacular fireworks.

Reports are quite sketchy as to
where exactly the pyrotechnics

took place, but it's highly likely
that the Earl would have framed them

in the striking silhouette
of Kenilworth.

It's here where we will watch
our Tudor fireworks,

as Elizabeth may have viewed them
herself over 400 years ago.

But first a chance to
catch up with Zoe,

who I know has got big
plans for our display.

Now, I've always been intrigued by
the utterly gigantic rocket at

the front here. I'm really up
for having the big rocket

front and centre as
the climax of our display.

I've done some rocket making...

Have you now? Yeah.

And I have not made
something this big.

You don't make rockets this big.

Why not? Because it's dangerous?
Because it's dangerous.

Yeah. Oh, really? Perfect.

It is true that at
a firework display in 1572,

a stray firework set fire to
somebody's house, killed two people

and the village had to be
compensated to the tune of

£25 by the Queen.

Well, that's what we face if this...

What, a bill of £25?
THEY LAUGH

One of the unusual features of Tudor
displays is that the set itself

would have been viewed as
a work of art.

As you can see on the chequerboard
floor, there's contrast there.

I'll go off and do a bit
of research, then.

It needs to look good

by daylight, before it gets
blown up, basically,

so you can see what it is that's
about to be destroyed. Yeah.

So what colours might Robert Dudley
have painted his Tudor fireworks

set in order both to make
a personal statement

and to impress Elizabeth I?

Searching for clues at Kenilworth is
a challenge, as most of Dudley's

personal possessions
have long been lost

and the castle was
destroyed in 1649,

so I'm meeting an authority on
Robert Dudley, Elizabeth Goldring,

on the trail of the few scraps of
evidence about his life,

which could lead me to the solution.

So, Elizabeth, it's a tapestry.

What is it showing?

Well, in the centre is

Dudley's coat of arms

and it is surmounted by a muzzled

bear holding a ragged staff.

The colours of the tapestry
are a little bit faded.

I'm interested in the colours.

Can I see your... Yes.
..sort of freshened-up version?

The dominant colours are blue, red
and gold, or azure, gules and ore.

Oh, OK, the language of heraldry.
I believe so.

I think so, yes. He's very well
colour-coordinated, isn't he,

because he's got his blue
Order of the Garter...

Yes. ..he's got his red
and gold earl's cap... Yes.

..and then his family
colours are the same.

Yes, it's very striking.
They're blue, they're red,

they're gold.
Very striking, isn't it?

If I were Robert Dudley putting on a
fireworks display and I wanted to

paint my set, then I might do
it in my own colours.

Might to be a good idea.

That's a pretty good steer.

But the Tudors loved a broad
mix of bright colours,

so I wonder if there are any more
clues hidden in these exhibits.

So here we've got some stained
glass from the castle

and this is an interesting colour.
We haven't seen it this far... No.

..and it's not a standard Tudor
colour, by any means, is it?

In Dudley's Circle,
orange, as a colour,

was sort of code
for William of Orange.

Dudley was absolutely obsessed with
getting the Queen to send him to the

Netherlands as the head of an
English expeditionary force to help

out the Dutch. So he's saying,
"I'm on your side, Dutch people.

"I'm a hot Protestant.

"Come on, Queenie, how about it?

"Send me over to help them."

From the few clues still in
existence from Dudley's life,

we've managed to pinpoint

some of what would have
been his favoured colours.

Our set will be made up
of the colours

from the Earl's coat of arms -

blue...

gold...

and red.

And to show his political support
for the Protestant Dutch against the

Catholic Spanish, we're
adding a touch of orange.

As I told Lucy over tea,

one of the most exciting
elements in the show,

which I'm really looking forward to
testing, is Babington's big rocket.

Positioned at the front of our
display, it's simply bonkers.

Judging from the scale, it's ten
times the size of the normal rockets

and we've seen how
unpredictable they can be.

Very few have been mad enough to
make gunpowder rockets this size

for centuries.

Until now.

Babington never specified just
how big a rocket could be,

so we're going to test his
principles and just scale it up.

We've got some great
big cardboard tubes,

an old broom handle as the stick

and we're using more gunpowder than
we have in any of our fireworks so

far, and we're going
to see how it flies.

We're significantly further back
than last time, aren't we?

A lot further back. So it'd be
really dangerous if I pressed

the button right now, yeah?

THEY LAUGH
Don't do it!

All eyes on the rocket.

OK. All good? Yeah.

Why are you standing
behind me, then?

THEY CHUCKLE

Yeah, let's do it. OK.

Five...four...

three...two...

one...

ZOE GASPS

THEY CHUCKLE

Oh, jeez!

Look at that tube.

The broomstick hasn't moved!
THEY LAUGH

The top came off.
Shall we go and have a look?

Yeah. I think it's clear.
Let me turn this off.

Look at that fantastic
cloud of smoke.

It's lovely, isn't it? Look at that.

It smells like November the 5th.

It's blown the top clean off. Mm.

I think it's back to the drawing
board if we want to make a big one.

Yeah.

Right. Workshop, here we come.

Scaling the rocket up meant we
needed to add more gunpowder to help

it take off.

This is a careful balance
of the thrust to weight ratio.

As the rocket gets bigger,
you need more gunpowder.

But that increases the weight.

And with all that gas
being produced at once,

it couldn't escape
fast enough and...

Not only is the display
just days away,

we've also invited a select audience
of people who have helped us.

The last thing we want is
a pyrotechnic disaster like this.

But I'm hopeful that, with
a bit more experimentation,

we'll nail it in time.

It's some journey we've been on

and we've almost all the elements
we need for our display.

We've sourced gerbs and girandole.

We've found the secret
to flying rockets.

In Korea, Zoe tracked down a lethal
version of the rocket box.

We've tested Babington's big rocket

and I've found a cannon from
the correct period to set off the

celebrations with a bang.

But there's one last
challenge I've got for Zoe.

I came across it in
a proposal for the display,

written by an Italian
pyrotechnician,

that describes something on
a very different scale

to all other challenges.

Farah, this is a list
of ideas for Robert Dudley.

So we think this was actually under
his nose and he went through this.

And this catches my eye.

It looks like he was considering,
in his display, having a dragon.

"A dragon as big as an ox which will
fly twice or thrice as high as the

"tower of St Paul's." Mm.

There's St Paul's.
SHE LAUGHS

We're talking about the old
St Paul's, but, nevertheless,

that's pretty high... Pretty high.
..for a dragon to fly.

Yes. So I'm thinking this would be
a great thing for us to include,

a flying dragon.

Have you got any Shakespearean

references that'll help us to plan
it?

Yes, actually, there's a play
by another playwright

named Robert Greene,
which was written around 1594,

known as Friar Bacon
And Friar Bungay.

And in it, the stage
direction reads,

"Bungay utters his spell and a
golden tree rises from the ground,

"with a dragon in its branches,
spitting out fire."

So, hang on, this is crazy.

A golden tree arises from the ground
in the theatre with a dragon in its

branches spitting out fire.

Yes. And have you any idea how
they would've put that together

at the Globe?
Well, a dragon spitting out fire

is another firework effect

which they might have used in
the theatres of the time.

In John Bates' instruction manual,
he actually gives you instructions,

how to make flying dragons.

How to build a dragon.
How to make a flying dragon.

A flying dragon, even better. Yes.

Fantastic. Oh, and he's
spitting out fire, isn't he?

He's spitting out fire. He's got
fire coming out of his mouth

and out of his tail, and it's on
a similar thing to a swivel.

And what's he made out of, then?

Zoe's going to need to
know the details.

Well, he's made out of
wood or whalebone.

It says, "Thin whalebones..."
Yes. "..covered with glass."

With glass, yes. And painted over.
And then painted,

so he would be quite
spectacular and colourful.

He would look like a lantern.
Yes. Glowing. Yes.

Wonderful. Oh, dear.

Look at this. It says that he is,
"Somewhat troublesome to compose."

THEY LAUGH

Yeah, good luck with that.
I'll take that as a challenge.

Yeah, there's this display and
we've been looking at this one...

As I suspected, Zoe wasn't
going to be put off.

My proposition is that we take this
dragon and we incorporate it to then

make this kind of display,

where we have our dragon
entering in down a zip wire.

And what happens if he catches
fire and burns up?

Is that a problem? I think that
could be part of the drama of it.

You know, the dragon should be
destroyed at the end.

I was only half joking with Lucy,

this is a unique challenge that
combines sculpting skills with

pyrotechnics. But where can you
find this unusual skill set?

The annual Bonfire Night
celebrations in

Lewes, East Sussex, are undoubtedly
the craziest in Britain.

Effigies are paraded through
the town and burnt

in a broad celebration
of political satire.

So I've asked members of the Lewes
Borough Bonfire Society and artist

Bec Britain to add their know-how
to the dragon's design.

We've taking a more practical
approach than John Bates' whalebone

and glass that Lucy
discovered at the Globe,

but I hope it's as effective.

This is all willow.
Lovely, smooth finish,

which is so good for sculpting.

Bec has constructed the
skeleton by bending willow,

a technique that has been used
for thousands of years.

And the team from Lewes Borough
Bonfire Society are helping to apply

the skin. So these are sheets
of paper impregnated with glue

and water, which makes
them very malleable.

That's right.
It's a wet strength tissue,

it's the kind of thing you'd
find in an '80s perm,

because it can get wet
and not fall apart.

The dragon is less controversial
than the effigies or tableau that

they usually make.

Obviously, we want to wow the crowd,

very much like this dragon would've
absolutely knocked them for six

in Tudor times, yeah. And the
tableau is a bit of a black art.

It can represent anything.

Last year, Humpty Trumpty.

Humpty Trumpty? Humpty Trumpty.

He was sitting on a wall.

I can imagine who that was.
HE LAUGHS

If you take the top two corners.

That's it. Go up there?

Yeah, try up there. Right.
We're going to do a layer

of French enamel varnish,
which is going to give it really

iridescent colour.

Once we've applied the skin,

a coat of paint in Dudley's
colours will complete the look.

So this is the cage in which
we're going to put a gerb or

maybe a fountain.

And then that leaves the fireworks
to be inserted into the dragon's

various orifices.

I've always wanted to light a fart!

Now for the final touches.

We're going to sprinkle some
stars on proceedings.

Stars were one of the features
mentioned in the accounts

of the original Kenilworth display.

They describe an explosion of
beautiful sparks that rained down

from the night sky after
the rockets exploded.

So are these going to be stars?

Yes. We want these stars to be...

You don't want them to
just disappear quickly,

you want them to sort of like
flitter and come down,

so by making it burn a bit slower,
that's how you'll start to do that.

OK. It's like your aniseed
ball in your mouth.

It slowly but surely disappears.

Tudor stars are made out of
compressed pellets of gunpowder.

And you'll be pleased to hear this
is a nice, safe technique,

because it is wet, this is
something that you can have a go at.

What we're doing is we're ramming
that compound into the tube.

It's a lovely thing, isn't it?

It's lovely, yes.
Proper old-fashioned tooling.

Now, you can feel when it gets full,

then it's a couple more
once it's full.

That's it. And then just rub
it against your palm

and that flattens it.

You don't want to drop
the stars excessively high...

I see. ..because they're still soft
at this stage. Yeah. Still fragile.

Yeah. There it is, my first star.
That's a lovely thing.

Beautiful little pellets.

How many do we need?
Well, we need a lot

and that's why you then start
to use tooling like this.

OK. Which is where you now have six.

There we go. OK.

That'll do. That was seven.

Rub your hand across and then
pop it out into the thing.

Look at that. Bingo bongo.
That's nice. That is nice.

There you are, you see. What you're
doing now is you're pumping stars.

These pellets will be put into
the top of the rocket.

When the rocket is burnt out,

the pellets will catch light
and fall freely,

giving a stream effect in the sky.

There we go.
Right, ready to make it fly.

Put a stick on it. Put a stick on it
and then it's good to go.

There we have it. A rocket
with a payload of stars.

I can't wait for it to get
dark and we can test it.

I'm really looking forward to
seeing these stars at night.

Now, I'm not sure how
bright they're going to be.

So it's all connected
up with a fuse

and then we need to connect it
up to the firing system. Right.

You wire that in and I'll
scuttle back. Perfect.

Right, so I've armed it,
it's all ready.

Are you...?
Am I going to do the honours?

You're good to go.

Right. Three, two, one...

Ooh.

BOTH: Oh.

Oh!

We have a firework! We do have
a firework. That's fantastic!

Oh, I'm really pleased.

Good. Those stars trailed all
the way down to the ground.

Nearly, yeah. Well, that
would definitely set fire

to someone's house. Well, I hope
not, no. No, I'm happy with that.

Good, good. Well done.

The beautiful golden trails made by
the slow-burning pellets will be an

extra flourish for our
firework extravaganza -

should everything go to plan.

During the festivities,

the guests were also fed
with the most lavish creations

16th-century chefs had to offer,

and it will be no different for
the special guests we've invited.

But what would've been the
equivalent of a Michelin-starred

menu in 1575?

You don't get the impression that
Robert Dudley was worried about

going over the top when it came
to the food for his party.

It was prepared here,
in the kitchens.

I'm standing in what was a huge
cauldron for boiling things.

Here's a bread oven.

And during the course
of the 19 days,

some of the dishes that came out
of here included swan, stag,

seagull and peacock.

One meal consisted of 300 different
sugary dishes designed to appeal to

the Queen's notoriously sweet tooth.

I don't think we'll be laying on
seagull or swan for our guests,

but Tudor sweets deserve
further investigation.

With the help of confectionery
expert Andy Baxendale,

I'm going to find out what
kind would've graced

the Kenilworth banquet tables.

Andy, what is this fabulous
construction

that you've brought with you?

This is a representation of the
original keep of Kenilworth Castle

made out of sugar-paste icing.

Sugar-paste icing.

And you've got the colour of the
stone right and everything.

The red is from cochineal,
which is made from beetles.

Beetles, mmm, tasty.
The black is from ash.

From a fireplace?
Anything burnt, yes.

What else have they got on the table
that's made out of sugar?

Is this Robert Dudley
Earl of Leicester's symbol?

Yes, that's the bear
with the ragged staff.

This blue colour would have been
azurite in Tudor times,

which is a copper mineral
and quite poisonous, so...

Poisonous.
..you wouldn't really want to...

Do you think there were Tudor people
who died of blue poisoning?

They probably didn't eat enough.

Oh, cos it was so expensive.

You couldn't afford
to poison yourself. No.

There's a trick going on
here, isn't there?

Well, all sugar paste. All edible.

I'd expect to see sweetmeats
all piled up here.

Yes, very much so. Some sort
of confits, maybe.

Some seeds coated in sugar.

Elizabeth I's favourite.

I think so. And then once I've
eaten all of my comforts...

BOTH: Eat the plate.
SHE LAUGHS

It tastes... Well, it tastes of
sugar, but it also tastes a bit

of wallpaper paste.

Oh, dear.
THEY CHUCKLE

So, we now have the feast to
go with the fireworks

at our Kenilworth display.

July 1575 was the date
in Queen Elizabeth's diary

and she was probably quite
looking forward to it.

Only a few years earlier,

she began promoting
the idea of fireworks

in order to celebrate herself.

Elizabeth is creating a new holiday,
Accession Day, November the 17th,

the date that she
ascended the throne,

and people celebrate that

and it's a way to get people
to celebrate the monarchy.

And in the course of her reign,

people start to celebrate
that with fireworks.

And that's pretty interesting
because that predates

the more famous public holiday
fireworks of Bonfire Night,

which happened in the 17th century.

But this kind of thing is already
starting to take off

in Elizabeth's reign.
She also did a very cunning thing,

she would do it at the
expense of her subjects,

so she would set off on a progress,

then she would get her richest
nobleman to put her up,

stage a magnificent feast for her -
this is all at their own expense -

and to put on sort of competitive
forms of entertainment for her,

outdoing each other to put on
the best show for the Queen,

and she didn't have to pay.

Exactly, so it's another way for
her to get around the country and be

seen by her subjects

and one might even see the nobles at
this time competing with one another

to outdo themselves in the feasts
and the entertainments that they

were putting on for Elizabeth.
And fireworks are part of that,

so show a great fireworks display
and you can impress Her Majesty.

Robert Dudley's pageant and firework
display is part of this tradition,

but his is unique.

It was designed to be
the biggest and the best

and it had by far
the most at stake -

the hand of the Queen of England.

Now the day we've been working
towards has finally arrived.

After weeks of testing
and tinkering,

Zoe and the team can finally start
putting things together

in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle.

These ones are going to take
some knocking in, Don.

Everything rests on tonight's show.

We've done all we can to prepare
ourselves, but is it enough?

As Robert Dudley may have given
a preview to Queen Elizabeth

four centuries ago

to show the efforts that had gone
into the preparations...

Here it comes.

..I'm going to give Lucy a sneak
preview of the set of our display.

Oh, look at that!

What a beauty. He looks magnificent.

Now, this is where we're going
to put fireworks. Fireworks!

LUCY LAUGHS
Fireworks in the eyes.

One in the mouth as well and then...
And out of the backside too.

Yes. Come and have a look at this.
There's a special hatch.

The hatch!
SHE LAUGHS

That's so sweet. You've got to be
able to put your hand in to fuse

the firework and...

It's going to be interesting to see
whether it survives... Flames? Yes.

Terrible end for the dragon.
Oh, it's such a shame to burn him,

he's so beautiful.
I know. Let's take a little tour.

Just like Robert Dudley would have
done, I think, on the morning

of the show, you know.
Well, we've not quite finished.

Getting there, getting there.
But there are some real highlights.

So, this will be illuminated.
Is that gunpowder? It is.

And they'll all... You know, the
flame will go around and ignite

each one of these.
It will be a flaming ER.

Exactly. And what's this one?

This is the rocket box.

The rocket box!
Akin to the Korean hwacha.

Oh, I like the colours as well.

We've got the blue
and yellow chequerboard

from his coat of arms... Yep.

..and little bits of orange...

Exactly.
..with its political message.

I'm also excited about this. Oh.

I know what that one is. Yeah!

That's the girandole.

The horizontal Catherine wheel.

Loaded with gerbs that are going
to, you know, help it spin round.

And here comes the big boy.

This is our attempt at the
massive rocket for the finale.

Do you know that this is
going to work successfully?

Not...well...

No, I don't! I don't.

Well, I really hope that
this is going to work

and that the whole display
is a success.

Then I'll marry you. Thank you.

It's now time to arm the fireworks.

Once they're fused, they're ready
to fire from a central control.

Remote ignition is
a safety precaution

they wouldn't have had
in Elizabethan times.

In the Tudor period, there'd
be some chap standing with

a torch or a red-hot poker,
and as soon as he put it in there,

that's it, he's covered in sparks
and so he's got to try and light

all of them.
Incredibly dangerous work.

Yeah, but it would be young
children doing it anyhow

and there was plenty of them,
so that's fine.

Although it's sunny now,

rain could quickly ruin fireworks
made to Tudor specifications,

so we're taking no chances and
covering them up as we fuse them.

And according to Don, the weather
isn't the only thing that could

scupper a Tudor display.

So this is one of the rocket boxes.

That's coming along nicely.
It holds all the small rockets.

But you can see the risk
that's within these displays.

One single spark landing
from something else,

landing on one of this,

and it'll light the whole lot.

It could be an eight-minute display
or an eight-second display,

depending which way
the wind blows the sparks.

SHE LAUGHS

Factory-made fireworks modified
to Tudor specifications

will supplement our prototypes,

helping to recreate
the sheer spectacle

and scale of Dudley's display.

The modifications we've made,
how you feeling?

I can promise you you'll be
getting a big bang

at some point this evening...

whether it's up there or down
here. But trust me,

it will be a spectacular
finale come what may.

Oh, Don, it's not the answer I want.

It will be fine, Zoe.

That's not the answer I wanted.
It will be fine.

Everything is set for the start
of the evening's entertainment.

The guests have arrived in
the spirit of the occasion,

including some friends who have
helped us along the way.

The set is complete,
resplendent in Dudley's colours,

and the pyrotechnics are primed

for the start of
a Tudor fireworks spectacular.

What could possibly go wrong?

THUNDER CLAPS

Less than an hour before our start
time, a torrential rainstorm hits.

It's a problem that even
Queen Elizabeth I wouldn't have

been able to prevent.

Our Tudor fireworks display
could genuinely be turned

into a damp squib.

The last thing we want
to happen has happened

and we have rain and
quite severe wind.

We have soggy Tudors
but, most importantly,

I'm worried about our fireworks,

so, really, it's critical that
that gunpowder stay dry.

This is a Tudor recipe -

it's not as stable as
the modern stuff.

Any moisture and it's game over,

that stuff won't work.

TUDOR DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Eventually, there's a ray of hope.

The rain finally stops

and our Tudor guests get their
chance to show us their moves.

Their spirits have not
been dampened.

Let's hope our fireworks
haven't either.

Whey!

There's no turning back now.

As night falls, the set
is finally complete.

From Babington's original design,
we've handmade the rockets,

the gerbs, the girandole,

and we've faithfully brought
the dragon to life.

We've even made his big rocket.

They're all primed and
ready to fire...

after the arrival of one
final illustrious guest.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Queen.
TRUMPETS PLAY

Thank you, my good people.

How's your view?
It's acceptable, thank you.

I think maybe for the display
you might enjoy standing

right at the front with me.

Is it...is it perfectly safe?

Yeah, it's perfectly safe.
All right, then.

This is the moment of truth.

These fireworks aren't
just unpredictable,

they could be filled with damp
gunpowder after all that rain.

I'm nervous. Now that one has gone
to the trouble of dressing up,

one really does hope this works.

OK, we'd like to fire the cannon.
Cannons fire.

And...fire!

And so it begins.

OK, we're firing gerbs either
side of the set.

Oh, oh, oh! Here we go! Yeah!

These are the gerbs. These are the
first fireworks that I made.

So far, so good.

The gerbs have produced beautiful
fountains of light,

setting the stage for an emotional
roller-coaster for Dudley's

esteemed audience.

What a fantastic start.

Falling stars.

To an Elizabethan,

rockets and stars would've brought
to mind comets and portents of great

events. And even to me,
with my 21st century mind,

they are incredibly touching.

Oh, fizgigs! Oh! Yeah!

We've added a surprise
element, fizgigs,

rockets without
the stability of sticks,

firing much closer to the ground
than a modern display.

It looks like they're
fighting each other. Yeah!

They're sort of psychopath
fireworks, aren't they? They are.

More rockets.

Or as Shakespeare would have it,

artificial meteors
representing signs from God.

Whoa!

And if Dudley wanted
to create impact,

what better than
the star of our show?

Dragon! Hey, the Dragon!

Go, Dragon!
THEY CHEER

The Dragon is a show stopper
in more ways than one.

We always feared a rogue spark
could ignite the rocket box.

Oh, my God! OK, the Dragon has
kicked up so much smoke...

Well, come on, Dragon,
make it to the castle!

He is, he is, he's still going!
He's still going.

Come on, Dragon!

Oh...

Oh!

THEY CHEER

That was really exciting because
the Dragon set off a rocket box!

THEY LAUGH
Yes! It did, didn't it?

And now the personal touch.

Just in case anyone had forgotten

who this was all designed for...

Oh, no, the ER! It's the ER.

Erm, that's me, you know. Yeah.

That's my personal firework,
thank you very much.

Way! Ooh. Here we go. Oh!

Girandole!

Witnessing these weeping willows of
sparks must have made a profound

impression on Elizabeth I.

Oh. Way! Oh, they're going again!

Oh! Just a little surprise
up my sleeve.

LUCY LAUGHS

A crescendo of fizgigs and rockets
builds to the finale of the show,

the most unpredictable
firework of them all,

the one I know is worrying Zoe.

And then the finale rockets
right in the middle.

Here comes the big rocket!

Oh, my...!

SHE LAUGHS

Oh!

Sights like this must have
been otherworldly.

I can really feel the mix of terror
and wonder this spectacle would have

created in the crowd.

What do you think? Hey!

What do you think? The dragon wasn't
entirely as planned, was he?

He had set off all the other
fireworks on his way, hadn't he?

Yeah! There was some
fantastic cross-ignition,

when the Dragon set
off the fire box.

I did fear that maybe the
entire display might go up,

but it created a huge amount of
smoke, I loved the smoke!

And I think that things going a
tiny bit wrong is very Tudor,

that would have happened
to them. Yeah, yeah.

Shall we go down there and just
set fire to them?

I know!
THEY LAUGH

And what about the big
rocket at the end?

Because we had designed it to go
up and explode simultaneously,

so it didn't do a big
explosion in the sky,

but happened right there, front and
centre, at the end of the display.

Oh!

I'm pleased that worked.
That was the highlight. Yeah.

Apart from the dragon,
we like the dragon too! Ha!

By all accounts,

the display was magnificent
and captured the imaginations

of the watching guests.

But did it succeed
in Dudley's real purpose,

which was getting the
Queen to marry him?

Well, no, it didn't.

Elizabeth kept her nickname,
the Virgin Queen,

and Dudley had to look elsewhere.

But we won't let that dampen the
fact that we did manage to recreate

a truly memorable Tudor
firework spectacular.

THEY CHEER

Maybe Robert Dudley's firework
display didn't have quite the effect

that he'd hoped,

but I think that our recreation
of it was brilliant as a way

inside Tudor people's minds.

They had a different attitude to
health and safety, that's clear,

but more importantly, for them,

fireworks weren't
just entertainment.

When they lit up
the black Tudor sky,

they saw propaganda
and storytelling,

they elevated spectacle into
the realm of the gods.

We still follow in Tudor footsteps
by having fireworks at big live

events today, and perhaps ours
are more spectacular,

but I think that they lack
dragons and comets and portents.

I think that Tudor fireworks
perhaps had more soul.

Whoa!