EVERY year, on November 5, an effigy of one of York’s most famous - or infamous - sons gets ritually burned on bonfires across the country. It is Guy Fawkes whose name is most closely associated with the Gunpowder Plot.

But Fawkes wasn’t the ringleader: he was just the man unlucky enough to get caught red-handed. Robert Catesby, a Warwickshire landowner, was the real brains behind the plot. Catesby will take centre stage in a new BBC drama, Gunpowder which starts on Saturday. But while Fawkes will play a lesser part, York will still be closely associated with the drama. Two York University academics - Dr Hannah Greig and Dr John Cooper - are historical advisers to the series.

Good for them. Let’s just hope, for their sake, the drama doesn’t have any ‘Routemaster’ moments...