WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast

Who Remembers........ Remembers The 5th Of November?

• Andrew and Liam • Season 1 • Episode 32

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Firelight, folklore and a failed revolution collide as we dive into the story behind 5 November and how it shaped a uniquely British night out. We revisit the Gunpowder Plot with clear eyes: why a band of English Catholics targeted King James I, how a warning letter triggered the searches, and why Guy Fawkes became famous when Robert Catesby masterminded the plan. The tale moves from barrels under Parliament to torture in the Tower, with a frank look at sectarian roots many prefer to forget.

From there, we explore how the celebration changed. Effigies shifted from the Pope to the “Guy,” kids once pushed stuffed figures in go-karts asking “penny for the guy,” and bonfires blazed on street corners. Now, most of us queue at organised displays with barriers, hot drinks and a soundtrack. We trade memories of turnip lanterns when pumpkins were rare, parkin and toffee apples, and the thrill and fear of sparklers handed to small hands. Pets and neighbours feature too: anxious dogs, endless bangs across November, and a practical case for fewer backyard fireworks and more community events.

We also unpack a modern twist: the Guy Fawkes mask as a global protest symbol. Thanks to V for Vendetta and online movements, that smiling face signals resistance to surveillance and corruption. It’s a striking reversal of the original celebration—less triumph over treason, more scepticism of power—and it shows how history gets repurposed in culture. Along the way, we share laughs, mishaps, and the kind of local details that make Bonfire Night feel tangible: sprinting parents, fallen fireworks, and hedgehogs hiding in wood piles.

If you love the smell of smoke and ginger cake, if you’re wary of noise and risk, or if you just want the real story behind the rhyme, this one’s for you. Follow the show, share it with a friend who loves British history, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find us.

SPEAKER_03:

Hello and welcome to Who Remembers the UK Nostalgia Podcast. And in today's episode, we are asking Who Remembers Remembers the 5th of November. Remember, remember the 5th of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot. A poem, Liam, written by John Milton in 1626 when he was only 17. And that's what we're talking about today, really. Bonfire night.

SPEAKER_02:

Still applies to today's modern society, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

Are you a fan of Bonfire Night before we get started?

SPEAKER_02:

Um I'm fan of it. I'm not Do I condone it? Do I condemn it? Um I probably lean towards condemning it. I don't I don't mind it.

SPEAKER_03:

It's not You're condoning Bonfire Night. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. Just what of the whole concept or what of the Yeah, I don't like fireworks if I'm gonna be honest. I just don't I I think I I like when I go to the music festival and things like that, and they put fireworks on everyone goes, woo! I think that's boring. Not a fan at all of fireworks. Never have been, never will be. And that's what uh it reminds me of. Obviously, the history bit of this, right? This is uh gonna be a nostalgia, obviously it's a nostalgia podcast. We're gonna go into a little bit of Guy Fawkes himself and where it came about, but we're also Although we don't remember it personally, do we? Well, no, I don't remember him personally, but we're also gonna talk about um Bonfire Narts when we were younger. Because I do think it's definitely changed, but you'll have more insight into this, I think, Liam, with your children and stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Do they celebrate Um Halloween's becoming a a bigger thing than I remember it being as a kid? I mean to be fair, I remember my mum sort of because it weren't a big thing, really, Halloween when we were kids, but we did the whole and and this is kind of our I'll I know this is a Bonfinite podcast, but just but chronologically, obviously, Halloween comes first. It does seem to be a much bigger sort of thing for the kids now to really get dressed up and make effort in the costumes. Um we every year, to my memory, used to get a black bin liner, cut a hole for the head and the arms, and then buy like a really cheap mask from a news agent. He could either get skeleton, vampire, maybe zombie skillington.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think uh apparently my mum said once you dressed me up as a vampire on Trick or Tree Day, whatever it's called, Halloween. And um I looked at him and cried, yeah, I cried. Cried. Uh this blood coming down my face, you know, like this fake blood and stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, you thought you'd become a vampire?

SPEAKER_03:

I just didn't know what were going on, I think. I think obviously she was putting all this stuff on me. I couldn't see it then. She goes, Look, look at mirror and I just thought.

SPEAKER_02:

Did she not talk to you at the time saying, like, this is Halloween? You're asleep, she just dressed you up as a vampire and woke you up and said, I've looked in a mirror.

SPEAKER_03:

Imagine that. That'd be amazing. If you like looked in a mirror like straight away, you were like dressed like as soon as you woke up. Yeah, I think she was putting this. She was obviously putting stuff in, but I wasn't looking, and I think it was just the shock of me not looking like me in a mirror, just must have stunned me.

SPEAKER_02:

And I started crying. So she should have gone into like special effects and stuff. It sounds like she blew your mind.

SPEAKER_03:

You were good, honestly, there were like blood coming down my face and stuff like that. And I couldn't really work, I can't remember how old we were, probably about 15. But I uh I can't remember what happened.

SPEAKER_02:

My only sorry, go on. My only other note just to add there, by the way. I don't know if this is a northern thing, a Sheffield thing. Obviously, I have the Irish connection whether it's an Irish theme.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

But you couldn't get a pumpkin when when I was little, or maybe you could, but it cost a lot of money, I don't know. So we used to hollow out a turnip and cut a little face in it. Might have been a Swede rather than a turnip, but yeah, we uh so that was our kind of lantern. We used to have a a hollowed-out Swede or turnip with a little candle in it, and a big couple.

SPEAKER_03:

Like Anthea Turner, Tracy. I think to improvise. Um but use what's available.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, sorry, so on Bonfire Night.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna say Halloween's already passed by the time this comes out. So, brief history of Bonfire Night. So Bonfire Night is basically it's it's a name given to various events of the year, but we're the one that we're talking about is November the 5th, Guy Fawkes Night. So Guy Fawkes Night. Would you call it Guy Fawkes Night? It's always Bonfire Night to me.

SPEAKER_02:

Bonfire night, yeah. I have heard it referred to as Guy Fawkes Night, but I uh no, I wouldn't call it that. So it's a celebration. But then I think he gets it wrong where it came from, or no, so you you tell us a fact. Let's not let's not let's not go down that.

SPEAKER_03:

I've got the facts, I've been on Wikipedia, don't worry about it. So he celebrates the failed plot by Guy Fawkes to assassinate King James I uh in 1605. Um after hearing that the king had survived, the people lit bonfires around London at the time and months later, and then the observant of the 5th of November Act was mandated as an annual public holiday. I didn't know that, to be completely honest, until I read it. So it was a it's an annual it was an annual public holiday. Oh yeah, unbelievable storm as Britain, isn't it? Um towards the end of the 18th century, children began uh start sort of beginning begging for money with effigies of Guy Falk, and 5th of November generally became known as Guy Fawkes Night or you know, bonfire night or whatever. Um but just go to like the brief history of the plot. You can look you you can get this again. We've said this before when we did global crises. Your history extras, this is a five-part, isn't it? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02:

If you or the rest is history, so I'll give you a very brief summary of what I know of it, and you can tell me how much of it right.

SPEAKER_03:

Go for it, yeah. Because then you don't have to listen to it. But what I'm saying is if you've got them lined up, these because this will be coming out a little bit before Bonfire night. So if you've got if you've got it lined up, oh history history X, uh history rest is history podcast has got a five-part on the gunpowder plot. Don't need it. We'll we'll tell you what happens right now in about five minutes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so I think he was part of a group that was sick of King, uh, they'd had enough. That's it, no more.

SPEAKER_03:

I want this man to be no more.

SPEAKER_02:

They got access to the sort of basements or the areas underneath one of the castles or no parliament, one of the parliament buildings. And their plot was to over the course of I don't know if it's days or weeks, but they would sort of load up this area with barrels of gunpowder, and then on the night itself, they would come along, presumably set some kind of fuse, and blow the whole thing to smithereens, which is a great word.

SPEAKER_03:

Um and somebody somebody betrayed him was a traitor. Maybe that's not really been sort of yeah, that's the the somebody got a letter passed on about move out of the Houses of Parliament, um uh uh Houses of Commons. Is it House of Parliament or House of Common, whatever, uh at this at this particular day because something's gonna happen, and then that got sent to the King and you know, blah blah blah. The only thing you sort of missed out is it was it was done by English Catholics to assassinate King James because he was a Protestant. So when Guy Fawkes Night first happened, and I obviously your dad's a Catholic, so I presume you know you you you know more about this than I do, but it it was an anti-Catholic event in its early years.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh well no, uh Frank Skinner refuses to celebrate it because he says it's the uh celebration of uh the killing and torturing of Catholics at the hands of Protestants.

SPEAKER_03:

So he's already a Catholic. But what's interesting is Guy Fawkes is the name else associated with it, but the mastermind behind it all. No. Oh yeah, that's his name, yeah. I thought you meant that with a mastermind before. Do you know what the mastermind was called?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, but it'll be something like um uh Paul I reckon it'll be like two first names, Paul James or something like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Robert Catesby. So you got Kate, Robert Kate, but uh but he was a devout Catholic and he wanted to turn England from a Protestant country to a Catholic country. Guy Fawkes's role in the gunpowder plot was to light the fuse, and the reason he's more known is purely because he was the one who got caught. So he was like the shittiest one, do you know what I mean? He's like celebrated Guy Fawkes.

SPEAKER_02:

The bumbling fool, yeah, the the one who sort of just got caught right at the end.

SPEAKER_03:

Apparently it was a very, very tough guy, Guy Fawkes, like a real sort of old sort of Celtic hero, if you like. You know what I mean? Like a bit of a local hard man, yeah, but obviously he was the one who got caught. Um but as you were saying, a few days before the plot was due to take place, Lord Monty Mont Eagle, who was a Catholic sympathiser, relieved uh received a cryptic letter which discouraged him from attending Parliament saying they will shall they shall receive a terrible blow. And he took it straight because it's a snitch to King James's right and man, the Earl of Salisbury. So with heightened suspicions, the king ordered searches of parliament, and that's when Guy Forkes was discovered. Actually, on the 4th of December, uh, with the suspicious amount of firewood uh and gunpowder in the early hours, well, it was the early hours of the the fifth, but you know, um prompting Guy Fawkes' arrest and subsequent torture after days of gruelling torture, he resulted in a confession um and went and then was ordered to be executed. Uh, and eight other people associated with the plot were named by Forkes. These eight plotters were also well, they they made a final stand, actually. Like so 200 men went to find him in um in Holbeach house in Staffordshire, and they had this like final, so they just went, ah, do you know what I mean? And most of them were killed, and the few remain remaining survivors were hung-drawn and quartered. You don't get that these days, do you? Hung-drawn and quartered.

SPEAKER_02:

No, you don't see that in woke modern Britain, do you? But no No. Uh you they were better off dying that way, weren't they, than being sort of tortured to death.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah. Interestingly, uh Guy Fawkes were gonna go through like the worst torture light ever. Um the they they were gonna sort of hang him to with an inch of his life and then uh cut his balls off. I might have made that bit up, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I know they were, they were gonna castrate him, um, and they were just gonna give him the slowest, horriblest death possible. So, but when they went to hang him, then like I said, they weren't actually gonna kill him, they were gonna keep him alive, but you know, with very little oxygen. He jumped and broke his neck, so he died on the spot. That clever guy, very, very clever man. Uh Fox. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, there's a famous image, and by the way, when I said they're better off dying that way, I didn't mean to mean hunger and quarter, I meant dying in the bowel than that.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, no, imagine that. How would you like to go?

SPEAKER_02:

How would you like to go? Is hunger on a quarter an option?

SPEAKER_03:

Fucking hell, can you imagine that? Like, imagine like that if that were like your the thing that turned you on being hungry and quartered.

SPEAKER_02:

The famous image, isn't there, of his signature when they take him into the Tower London and then his signature after days of torture and it I mean to to be fair, I don't know if if we're gonna blow the the Guy Fawkes thing wide open right here like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, here we go. Now we're talking, you see. Now this is why you chewed in for this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey Jamie, find me that fucking clip of Guy Fawkes.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh did you hear about that guy Fawkes? Did he even fucking exercise that guy?

SPEAKER_02:

I reckon anyone would have signed anything after being tortured like what they did. So so is there actually any there must be, there must be more evidence of Baxiel. But if he's just a guy who's supposed to like the fuse and he's sort of held up as the poster boy for this whole thing, is he actually necessarily really entwined in the whole thing at all? Or is he just the guy who got caught driving a barrel of gunpowder in?

SPEAKER_03:

He was undoubtedly a devout Catholic, but as far as I know, he wasn't actually like the like I say, he wasn't the masterman behind the plot and he was just just one of the many or the eight people who got drafted in and they were like, right, you I think he had some sort of I think he ran in in the army or some sort of army, and he had uh he had some sort of uh um experience with explosives. That's why he was the one who was gonna like the future.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we need eight names. You'd just be telling them anyone, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I mean realistically, who would you say? Stop your head now, eight names. Stephen Mullen, Paul Daniels, Phil Schofield, uh uh Brian May. I don't mention Edmonds twice. I'd mention Edmonds twice just to mention Edmonds. Noel Edmonds and Noel Edmonds. Did you get Noel Edmonds? Yep, Noel Edmonds is one of them, definitely not like I don't know. The first it's like I say, uh you could say anybody though, surely. So I mean obviously I've thankfully never been uh tortured interrogator, but uh I don't know, could you not just say anybody who you don't like?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I don't know. I presume there has to be more to it, but yeah, I I it seems like it's kind of become this very black and white story, but I I just think if they told him he needs to give him eight names, I think he just gave him eight names. I don't I don't know how much we know about what other evidence there was. I mean, maybe this is where we've covered 99% of it. If you want that hundred percent coverage, this is where you might need sort of the rest is history and things like that.

SPEAKER_03:

So just to finish off on this little bit, in in 1606 uh it became mandatory for all English churches to host a service on the 5th of November. In 1673, crowds began the practice of parading around with effigies and stringing it up above uh above a bonfire, initially in the form of the Pope, did you know that? Because obviously it was anti-Catholic uh yeah. So it was only in the 1800s that um you know the figures became like a what we know like Guy Fawkes today, which is mad that you know the Pope being, you know what I mean? China Connor would have been all over that, wasn't she, back in the 1600s? But but what we see So where does the Guy Penny for the guy come from then? Where does the begging bit come from? So the big the so lot just like yeah, so what we see is like Guy Fawkes tonight tonight, uh like these days, uh starting the late 19th century, and uh pyrotechnic manufacturers renamed it. Obviously, it's always bloody commercialism, innit? Uh Guy Fawkes Day or Firework Night, which is another thing that I I have heard it in. Yeah, but in the 70s, yeah, children began making their own Guy Fawkes effigies uh in something called Penny for the Guy, where kids would sit on street corners or even go out house to house with effigy, which I don't remember that at all.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think I ever did Penny for the Guy, but it's not a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02:

I never did it, but I remember people we're probably both thinking Gleedless at the time, but you were sort of Gleedless Valley, I was town end, but people used to come to the the gate while we were playing outside and sort of and it were just a group of lads and they'd got I mean we mentioned Cluffy, didn't we, on the other one, but it kind of reminds me of that like an umbro sort of top, some tracksuit bottoms stuffed. Yeah, and they'd sort of say yeah, they'd be asking for money, and then either there were two options from what I can remember the the guy was either in a wheelbarrow or in a go-kart, and they'd just sort of wheel it round and say penny for the guy. And I remember it in a bit of a wheelbarrow.

SPEAKER_03:

Give him a couple of money, yeah, yeah. And that's like this has almost died out now, uh died out now, and it's changed totally from what it was even in the eighties or early 90s or what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think that's gone now, hasn't it? I I don't know of penny for the guy anymore. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

I I I think yeah, I you can still get them. You can still get them. No, I think they still exist, but the sort of this is like a memory thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Because that was the thing I always remember, like there would always be a one on a bonfire when they burnt it. Yeah, yeah. So like Or lift it up, or or even I don't know if sort of kids had chucked their own ones on once it were lit, but yeah, I don't sort of see.

SPEAKER_03:

Bonfire nights now are yeah, they're sort of mostly now bonfire nights are usually paid events uh with firework displays, uh, rather than more.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, these days elephant safety gone mad, they keep you back a safe distance, don't they?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so fire brigades warned against individual bonfires. Well, and they do these days as well. But even I've saw uh uh an advert actually in the early 90s, like one of these public safety films, it was like, do not have your own bonfire night, you may get burnt to death, you know, one of those sort of things. So all these people go around saying, Oh, you can't do anything these days with the woke police. This has been going the woke the woke agenda has been going on for many, many years.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, but realistically if you remember, like you can't do it at home because hedgehogs might go in the bottom of it. That used to be the case.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, I do remember that. Yeah, I do remember that. But realistically, I always find it funny when people saw it's woke nowadays. All woke is is like obviously we joke about, we say it all the time, is what you know when we were growing up, people used to say it's PC gone mad, you know. I mean it's political correctness or health and safety gone mad, and now that's just everything that they've just combined those two to get woke. But like I say, the fibre grade is won even today against individual bonfires, and they prefer people to attend organised events. Um but I I don't know. I mean I I I never for me it was always that thing, it's so close to Halloween, which were more exciting, and it was so close to Christmas, which is was obviously more exciting.

SPEAKER_02:

They've switched now for me. I think as a kid Halloween didn't mean a lot, but for Bonfire Night, we used to go to Grace Park in Sheffield, there'd be a big firework display, massive bonfire. I'd have a hot dog. Think it was first time I ever tried a hot dog. Sounds like a youth minimum. Uh, literally, first time I've tried a hot dog. Uh Toffee Apple as well, probably the only place I ever used to have.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna mention toffee apples or or bonfire toffee. Um toffee is just you know why that came about is because older people in the neighbourhoods in the 60s used to make bonfire toffees hand out to children on Guy Fawkes night. So when people were coming round saying can we have some money because I don't know, fucking 200 years ago. We obviously went that long, but you know, 100 years ago or whatever, this guy. Oh no, will have been, what am I talking about? No, it will have been about 100 years ago. This guy tried to blow up the house of Parliament 1676. So it's like nearly 400 years ago then. Yeah, 60 1605. Oh, yeah, what am I on about? Yeah, yeah, 400 years ago. The rest is my maths. What was the other thing that I got wrong in the maths thing where I got confused? Oh, yeah, but when the global take that, yeah, I got that completely wrong. Well I thought they'd been gone for 25 years because I thought we went straight from 1999 to 2010 or whatever it was. Um but yeah, so I can't remember what I was saying then, but yeah, bonfire toffers. Uh yeah, basically, people used to hand them out to kids when they used to go around. Apple bopping, that's another one. Bobbin bobbin, bobbing, popping. Apple popping, body bopping.

SPEAKER_02:

Imagine all old people have like body popping for kids. We haven't gotten a bit of body popping.

SPEAKER_03:

I never did apple bobbin because it just reminds me of I don't know, apple bobbing. Um and parking was uh also like a ginger cake from from Yorkshire, Yorkshire. I don't know what I'm doing, I am from Yorkshire. Uh flavoured with syrup um and warm spices. There was also roast marshmallows, which are the food of uh bonfire nights of the past.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's funny you say toast the marshmallows. I don't I don't really associate that with bonfire night. Um wiki liars. I just don't think you can get close enough these days to toast any marshmallows on it. And I'm not sure marshmallows were a thing when we were younger, but yeah, I d I don't know. Uh What do you mean they weren't a thing? When when did you have your first marshmallow?

SPEAKER_03:

I would have been young. I mean, uh the marshmallow man, when he when you when I watched Ghostbusters, I didn't think what the fuck is that? Hey, get that fucking 20-foot white thing up on the screen. Have you seen this thing we're doing in America? This fucking hundred foot man, marshmallow. There's one of those marshmallows that you get. I I've always known about marshmallows. I was born with a knowledge of marshmallows.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't think of the my first experience of marshmallow would have been a flump, I think.

SPEAKER_03:

And that would have been when I was about one thing I never knew what they were, uh talking to Ghostbusters, is you know when he talks about a twink.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'd I think I think it's like a little cake bar, but yeah, at the time I don't think I would have known what that was.

SPEAKER_03:

But yeah, marshmallows. Did you have marshmallows? Oh yeah, big time. I've always known about marshmallows.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I'd I think I was a late comer to marshmallows. Anyway. Yeah, so I've never associated those, but yeah, like we said, I think like roasted chestnuts, but I'm not sure if that's just a seasonal thing rather than a bonfire night specific. But yeah, I like I say, I I remember as a kid it being uh it being a big thing. Family go, grandparents, we'd all go and watch this thing. I think as well, the difference is these days, you can buy sort of fireworks for your house and like they're they're going off all the time and they're doing fireworks for everything. At this time, like once a year I saw fireworks and I was quite impressed by him.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I mean, my my dad used to buy them all the time. He loves fireworks, my dad. But what he does now, clever guy, not really that clever at all, just looks outside his window because there's that many going off that there's no point of buying them. You may as well just go and yeah, just take a look outside. That's all you need to do. Go spark.

SPEAKER_02:

Straight to the centre of the bigger. The problem is though, if everyone does that, everyone's just looking out the window at a night sky, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03:

No fireworks. I hate fireworks as well because obviously you've got a dog. I don't know how yours reacts to it, but I've had three dogs, and the first one were alright with them. To be honest, the the one I've got now is not too bad, but the second, the dog that I had, uh it was petrified of him. So and I know obviously some dogs do have heart attacks and things, like we can't be, you know, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, it's easy for me to be quite casual about it. Our dog, she's not at all bothered by it to a point where I've actually made the mistake of taking her out on a walk on the field on bonfire night. And you're thinking, oh shit, yeah. Like then loads of explosions going off around us, and she's just sort of plodding along, wagging her tail. But the war dog, our neighbour's dog is absolutely terrified. But but I think part of that comes from the fact that our neighbour is absolutely terrified of fireworks. So why? You're just like shivering around in her house, or I think she's terrified it's gonna scare the dog. So the dog sort of picks up on the fact that she's scared, and it's just like uh a vicious circle, a firework-fueled vicious circle.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, interesting. Sparkle's obviously a big thing on uh Bonfire Night, and uh Catherine Goldman's. I don't believe it's a thing, by the way.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, yeah, I mean I don't know if it's uh we could have done this on urban myths, old school urban myths, but but you don't think sparklers exist? You don't think marshmallows exist or sparklers? I've seen them, I've seen sparklers, but yeah to give kids like a hot rod of steel that I was told burns hotter than the sun, and to have them waving it around there to face, I think is absolutely insane. Who came up with that?

SPEAKER_03:

When did you realise that that was incredibly dangerous? When did you become woke?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I think probably when you have kids when like they stood about a metre apart waving around these sort of like I say, this this a million degrees C or whatever they are. I know they're probably not that, but sort of waving around near each other's faces and then million degrees get gone, and then they sort of put them down into a tub of sand or into the dirt or whatever it is, but they kind of push this metal rod. The hands so close to touching this bit that a minute ago was was the hottest thing known to man. And it's just then a metal bit sticks up out of the ground.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I've I I've gone woke with stuff. Do you buy fireworks now? Like for your house, and it's not obviously like inside. But we're in Balotelli, weren't it? Like a fireworks inside, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

No, we we go to Jody's mum sometimes and she gets fireworks, but she gets the ones that were fairly impressive when they were really young, and then have tried and not like but she does also get one like a frog thing that's quite good. But yeah, I the last time I bought fireworks, I said to Jolie, I'm gonna get some like more impressive ones. So I bought this big like mega tube thing and uh lit it at her house and it fell over and started firing at me. Efe was outside.

SPEAKER_03:

Sorry, this is terrible.

SPEAKER_02:

Jody's mum's partner. So it's firing shots at us all. So I I sort of had to push Effie into the corner and kind of use my body as like a shield so she couldn't see what was going on.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, incredible.

SPEAKER_02:

Colin were brilliant, like we were all calling him like the Terminator because who's Colin? So this is Jody's part, Jody's mum's partner, right? He kind of just accepted his fate. We're like, if this is how it goes, it's not it just stood so relaxed watching these fireworks shooting straight at us. And when I actually hit the conservatory next to us and popped the window on the double glazing, so they had to have a window replaced.

SPEAKER_03:

So I've been talking about last week about people filming things like and they shouldn't do it. You should definitely have filmed this, you're like a disaster. I think this would have been absolutely gone viral.

SPEAKER_02:

Everyone was screaming at conservatory, and I've I'm not allowed to buy fireworks anymore for these kind of things.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you uh obviously our mate are we brought quite a lot on here? Russell Paul Jones. Remember how scared he used to be a fireworks?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like it's totally it's always have to say a word, but not trying to be funny.

SPEAKER_03:

So like we're going like, yeah, I'm all right now then one of the go and go let it look bullshit.

SPEAKER_02:

Just like just so scared Johnny Davidson, but only with fireworks, weren't it? Like exclusive to end, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

But just for fireworks, bullshit, like um there were loads of kids around, weren't there when we went to that firework display?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, brilliant, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And he were like, Oh fucking hell.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it's a fucking loud one.

SPEAKER_03:

Um my dad used to do this. I don't know, this is probably what you're supposed to do. He used to set him up the fireworks and like like sprint off and just say, like, I'd be so dangerous if you stood anywhere near it and all this sort of stuff. Is that correct? Were you right to sprint off? Well you don't want to stand there with it, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02:

But no, you don't sort of stand looking over it. But if he if he's literally sprinting away as fast as he can, I'd say that's that's not what you're advised to do, as far as I'm aware. You you blight it at an arm's length and then you step away. You just sprinting like through the fence or whatever.

SPEAKER_03:

Like, mate, like sprinting outside of your house, just sprinting down the street. Uh uh Ben has says this, Ben Mo Money Meeking, who, if you've not checked it out, uh did it be like a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02:

You're sticking with that, but I know you you went with Mo Money Meeking for the colour. Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_03:

You you always uh behind behind the curtain, you like to claim that he's the richest man in the world, don't you? Because once he hired a cottage or something, no, yeah, it's a bit of an in-joke, innit?

SPEAKER_02:

But like on the group chart, he was sending pictures of where he was staying in London, and it like it was in some sort of palace or something. But I mean it obviously wasn't. No, but it sort of became a bit of a joke that like he's he's sort of loaded and uh he's just in his London pad at the minute.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, but anyway, he asked us about obviously today, and you got this straight away. He said, Why do rebels or whatever uh wear uh Guy Fawkes masks? And do you want to explain? Because you got it straight away, which I it's pretty obvious, but uh yeah, as in like Anonymous and uh sort of the Yeah, Anonymous or Freedom Fighters, or do you know Viva Vendetta or political rebels like that sort of thing, wouldn't it? Well that comic, yeah, yeah, that that was actually Viva Vendetta, the main character who wears obviously Guy Fawkes' mask. I've not seen it, but I've I I know about the comics and stuff that were before. Um he did that on purpose, he was a deliberate decision to make him the mask, and then it's since then that all it's become like an anti-establishment mechanical.

SPEAKER_02:

Like to me, you sort of said, Oh, but but Ben was asking a question, how come that that that mask, that look, guy guy forks has been a and and my sort of guess was, and I think it's the right answer, is it's it's sort of seen as pure anti-establishment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's like a martyr, yeah. Yeah, sort of the the individual against the state almost like it's if there's enough of them that they can be more powerful than the state, so yeah, uh we can see more of a hero these days than a villain, because obviously the annual bonfire night started off as he was a villain. I think particularly when you're talking about things like the sort of these hackers, hackers who sort of try to expose corruption, sort of use that image, then yeah, I would say there is sort of some level of like this this guy was perhaps I don't know hero's the right word, but but was kind of trying to dethrone the like a like a m uh like Robin Hood sort of thing, where it were like sort of for the people, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02:

A little bit. I mean I don't know kind of what their intentions were in in terms of uh was this just a well paid man doing a job, guy folks?

SPEAKER_03:

Was it it's amazing that I'm trying to basically get you to condone uh the blowing up of the houses of parliament and and King James the First, here do you want to condone that?

SPEAKER_02:

No, but I'm not gonna condemn it because I don't know enough. And like I say, we've covered a huge chunk of history in terms of so yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, that's what I mean. Like I say, if these people might be listening for the first time, I highly doubt it. Um but you know, you you might oh yeah, look, we've got all this, all this history in the space of 40 minutes. Why am I messing about with the rest of his history podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

Finish them. Because we're always coming out of the history. They will sort of touch on something we haven't.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I wouldn't say it's impossible. Robert Casey must be fuming, by the way. I thought this when I was getting the red light sort of research for this. That obviously Guy Fawkes is he's the one who obviously was the mastermind behind it, and he was like this charismatic manner that he were really sort of he was the face of it all, and he was the one who and it no one remembers him, you didn't even know his name. Do you know what I mean? Because it's all guy and this Britt Guy Fawkes, who, you know, he was just the guy who got caught. He's the one who's like seen as this anti rebellious, you know, Catholic hero. Can you be anti rebellious?

SPEAKER_02:

Does that not just mean that you sort of anti rebellious?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, sorry, what what did I mean? Yeah, but anti establishment, not anti rebellious, yeah. Anti establishment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, pray for Robert Catesbury. I forgot his name already, I've got it written down. But that covers my um uh talking to Bonfire Night Liam and and history behind it. We wanted to do it because obviously it is when you listen to this it'll be Bonfire Night in a couple of days. Be safe.

SPEAKER_02:

The day I'll be suggesting that this will be Tuesday release and Wednesday will be Bonfire Night.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you listen to this on Bonfire Night Careful with the sparklers, yeah, don't you know mess around. Listen to the government's advice. Um yeah and be safe. You know, everyone be safe.

SPEAKER_02:

Actually now the government protects the people celebrating the plot to blow the government up. It blows your mind, doesn't it? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03:

I bet they're not talking about this on the rest of the history podcasts. Um Dan Snow or one of the Snow brothers, does he do something about this? That's history here. I listened to three of them actually history here, the rest of history and history extra. Um and they're all good. They're all good but they don't you know they don't do it in bite sized form like we're listening Snow tell us what we missed. Yeah tell us where we're going wrong and if you want to come on I don't really know if I want him on actually. Yeah we've got a few regists lined up haven't we I mean yeah I don't think we need Dan Snow coming on. And um and also is he a rememberer or is he just looking at books and detects a rememberer I don't know. Anyway right thank you William and yeah have yourself a bonfire night tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll certainly have myself one yeah are you doing anything for it by the way err no no no I'm I'm not this is this is the thing like I say that you kind of asked me right at the start having kids what's the change I think Halloween's become the thing and it's quite rare now that we actually do anything for bonfire nights so yeah sad for old Guido.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah Guido Forbes. But anyway thank you for that on that somber note Liam and I'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_06:

Yep goodbye the very first draw in Britain's new national lottery.

SPEAKER_07:

Sinclair for these there's D5 Britain's first mass produced electrical carpet