By anatomically dissecting each stage of this medieval punishment, we can understand the profound agony the gunpowder plot co-conspirators endured.

The plot is commemorated every autumn with the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes, its mastermind, an oddly pagan act of gloating sanitised by the addition of fireworks, sparklers and toffee apples.

The 'Gunpowder Plot' was foiled at the eleventh hour, an event still celebrated annually on 5 November and named for the most famous of the conspirators - Guy Fawkes Night. But who was Guy Fawkes ...