This series uncovers the secret state that helped keep Queen Elizabeth in power for over 40 years. During a time when Britain was divided, unstable and violent, the world's first secret service was born. Run by William and Robert Cecil, this father and son team had the duty of protecting the Queen and the Country. The series asks leading historians to each study the period from a different key players point of view. They dissect the minds and motivations of key players, to reveal a covert spy network. Revealing Elizabethan England as it really was. It takes us through the biggest events of Elizabeth's reign, the entrapment and execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the capture and escape of catholic fugitive John Gerard and the most infamous terrorist conspiracy in British history, the gunpowder plot.