New period drama starring Kit Harington begins filming near Leeds

A new period drama starring Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington has begun filming in West Yorkshire.

Scenes from the BBC's 17th-century thriller Gunpowder were shot at Oakwell Hall, in Birstall, today.

It also features Lord of the Rings actress Liv Tyler and Sherlock's Mark Gatiss.

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The three-part series is based on the Gunpowder Plot, when a group of persecuted Catholics plotted to blow up Parliament in 1605.

Instead of the cult figure of Guy Fawkes, the drama focuses on the scheme's driving force - Robert Catesby, a Warwickshire landowner played by Harington.

Gatiss plays King James's spymaster Robert Cecil and Tyler is his cousin Anne Vaux.

Oakwell Hall is an Elizabethan manor house near Batley. Grade I-listed, it has 110 acres of parkland and gardens. It was built by John Batt in about 1583, and was the inspiration for Fieldhead in Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley.

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