0:00

Hello , welcome to Steven speak on

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today's episode . I'm gonna be talking about a British

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tradition , maybe maybe

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more of an English tradition , actually about

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celebrating an Event

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that didn't happen with a bang

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. Stick around me

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to explain all you you might have already done

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. Welcome

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to Steven speak . The podcast unscripted

0:35

prattle on everything and nothing

0:37

. Thank

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you for joining me today . Hope you well , sell

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down Whatever you doing . Are you driving

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to work , or we are a brew or you

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just you have 20 minutes

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out of your week to listen to my solitude tones

0:59

and just relax , and

1:02

I'll take you on a prattling journey , as

1:04

usual . So thank you for listening . If

1:06

you're new to Steven speak , don't

1:08

get your hopes up . It's a meandering

1:10

load of bullshit that I speak , but

1:13

hopefully it's entertaining at some point . Go

1:16

back and check out my

1:18

other . So it says this is the third season now

1:20

, so I have

1:23

slowed down production a little bit , because I went a bit helpful

1:25

either . At first I've slowed , slowed them down

1:27

. Now it's one a week . Yes

1:30

, this week I'm gonna be talking about an

1:34

event that happens in the UK every year , but

1:37

predominantly probably , probably England actually

1:39

, for

1:42

at least now as far as my where for more than

1:44

English thing , and

1:47

that is bonfire night or Guy Fawkes

1:49

night . And now anyone

1:51

that lives in England will have heard of this . It's

1:54

been , it's been going

1:56

on for 400 odd years , so

1:58

it's quite a tradition , but

2:00

it's a little bit of a strange one , I think , and I've always found

2:02

it a bit peculiar , even when it was explained

2:04

to me as a kid and I've always not

2:07

Really enjoyed it

2:09

. I enjoyed kind of like , maybe

2:11

the traditions that came out of it , but not

2:13

maybe the actual event itself . And I'll

2:15

explain so for those that you

2:18

don't know a bonfire night or guy forks

2:20

night originated because

2:22

a chap back in the day , back

2:25

in the early 1600s 1605

2:28

, to be sure I have a little bit of research on this

2:30

literally three minutes before starting this recording

2:32

, so nothing too major , but

2:35

basically a chap called Guy forks and

2:37

who's that , whose real name

2:39

was Guido forks , which is funny

2:42

to me and never knew that . And

2:44

but guy forks , he

2:47

also wouldn't know , apparently when , when , as a pseudomon

2:49

John Johnson as well , which I'm

2:51

the original anyway , he

2:54

was a member of Suppose

2:57

you'd call it kind of like a terrorist organization

2:59

, as opposed from a certain standpoint , but

3:01

he , he basically was a

3:04

Catholic and part of this , this group

3:08

of English Catholics

3:10

that basically didn't

3:12

like the way the Protestant

3:15

monarch was ruling and

3:18

they basically plotted to kill him

3:20

. So it was James

3:22

I , king James I , and they basically want

3:24

to restore a Catholic monarch back

3:26

to the throne because Britain

3:28

, or England at least , was becoming more

3:31

and more Protestant . So there

3:33

was a religious connotation to this . There's

3:35

a lot of things through history and

3:37

I'm not gonna get into that . But

3:41

yeah , he was unsuccessful

3:43

because there was a couple of people that

3:45

they didn't want to kill , apparently , and

3:48

I remember this from school . So

3:50

the group basically sent a couple

3:52

of letters to a couple of people that they kind of

3:54

liked and didn't want to kill in

3:56

this terror act

3:58

which was basically

4:01

blowing up the houses of parliament in London , which

4:03

is a beautiful building and I would advise you and

4:05

look at it or even go inside because

4:07

it's fantastic . It's

4:11

a fantastic looking building . But he

4:13

decided that even his group decided they were gonna blow

4:15

it up with a load of people inside

4:17

and there was gonna

4:19

be some event going on . I can't remember what it was now , but there was gonna

4:21

be some event . I think it was for King James's daughter

4:23

and they were all gonna be there basically . So

4:25

he was gonna blow the whole thing up on

4:29

the 5th of November , which is

4:31

now celebrated as a bonfire night . But

4:34

he was unsuccessful because , as I say , he sent these letters

4:36

to these few people that he liked

4:38

and in October , so

4:40

giving them about a week or so notice . I think it

4:42

was like two weeks notice based , saying like , on this day

4:44

, don't be in that building , and

4:47

they basically grasped him up . Basically

4:49

they literally took the letters straight

4:51

to the authorities and said listen , we've just received these

4:53

letters . It looks like someone's gonna plan to

4:55

blow up the house as a parliament . And of

4:58

course

5:00

Guy Fawkes was . I

5:02

think he was in the basement or in some part of

5:04

depths of the building where the

5:06

hidden all the gunpowder . And there

5:08

was quite a lot of gunpowder actually . I was just looking

5:10

on I'm a

5:13

no , wikipedia can't be completely accurate , but

5:16

it's not too bad but

5:18

there was like 36

5:20

barrels of gunpowder . Now another

5:26

part of the website basically says that's like 50 kilograms

5:28

of gunpowder and I don't know , that's right , whether it

5:30

was small little barrels or not , but that's

5:32

some amount . But it basically , by

5:34

modern standards that would have done the job . But

5:37

they apparently caught him the night before . So they went , they

5:39

went down into the , into the depths

5:41

of the houses of Parliament , and they caught him

5:43

basically guarding

5:46

all the gunpowder , because he was the one that was

5:48

gonna set it off . Now I

5:50

don't know if he was gonna kill himself in this , because I'm

5:52

sure , like the fuse that they would use maybe

5:54

wouldn't be too big . So I don't

5:56

know how , whether he was planning to actually escape

5:58

, whether he was gonna go down with

6:00

a ship , and I think I'm not

6:02

too sure on that . But either way he was unsuccessful

6:05

. He was and he was carried away and

6:07

and basically it

6:09

was revealed to the people what was gonna happen and the fact they'd foiled

6:12

in blah blah , blah blah . One

6:14

of the things that really stood out for me in schools . I

6:16

remember he wanted him to confess

6:20

to his plot , basically so they could

6:22

actually carry out a sentence . They wanted him

6:24

to basically take the fall for everything . And

6:26

one of the things I remember from a textbook in school

6:31

was an example of his old graph

6:33

, apparently on our documents and

6:36

then his autograph again

6:39

once they tortured him and

6:42

it was like you couldn't really make it out

6:44

, really could have been anyone's , really was Don't

6:46

. Almost kind of makes it like a bit pathetic

6:49

to have tortured him for so long , because you can't really tell it's

6:51

guy for all Because his signature . So they could literally just gone

6:53

. Yeah , you did it . Someone signed for him and

6:55

said oh , that's just because we tortured him but

6:58

he sent , sentenced him to being hung

7:00

, drawn and courted , which is

7:02

something these in the UK , which

7:05

wasn't particularly nice . So what

7:08

it involved was was basically , I

7:10

believe , being Hanged

7:14

until you nearly dead so he doesn't break

7:16

your neck or anything like that , but it basically chokes you and Makes

7:20

you pass out and stuff and they keep waking you up and they do

7:22

that for a while and then

7:24

they Basically

7:27

remove your genitals and

7:31

you're still alive . And then they

7:33

disembowel you by removing

7:36

your entrails etc

7:38

. And and

7:40

then they don't . They still don't , you

7:42

still not still alive . They do it in a way that you're still alive

7:45

, which is and it's like super , super

7:47

painful , it's like the worst thing ever . And

7:50

then they behead you and then they cut you into pieces

7:52

and what they used to do was they

7:55

used to send and they

7:57

should put your head on a on the bridge

7:59

, I believe , like certain people , super

8:01

important or really made a main example

8:04

of the display the body . And

8:07

so in the film Braveheart

8:10

, that's what happens to William Wallace . He's

8:12

hung , drawn and courted , and that bit at the end

8:15

when he shouts Spoiler alert , when

8:17

he shouts freedom , that's Well

8:19

. He's being basically Disemboweled

8:23

and he passes out or

8:26

dies . I think he just passes out to we

8:30

might , he might die , but yeah , then they behead you and and

8:32

cause you so really quite a nasty thing really

8:34

, and that was kind of the worst , one of

8:36

the worst things they do . So that was for , like , I

8:39

think , for traitors and and and

8:41

the enemy of the state kind of thing . So yeah

8:44

, pretty nasty stuff really . But from all

8:46

that I'm sorry if that was too graphic for you , by the way , and

8:49

but from

8:51

all of that , like they

8:53

started kind of a celebration that didn't happen

8:55

. So People

8:57

back in the day must have actually liked politicians . I don't

9:00

know , and I'm

9:02

not trying to incite any violence on the houses of

9:04

violence , but the bridge

9:06

have kind of a dark humor . And this

9:09

is there's , there's normally one person every year that cracks

9:11

a joke of them wish it would happen now . And

9:14

there's politicians , you

9:16

know , but I'm not , I'm not wishing terrorist

9:19

attack on the house of parliament , just to be clear . It's

9:21

not the way to go . We know

9:23

we have a democracy . Apparently , for

9:25

a reason , it's not gonna turn

9:28

into a run , honestly , it's not gonna turn into a run . But

9:31

yeah , I just it's just a really

9:33

weird thing to celebrate , I think , because , well

9:36

, isn't it , isn't it ? We celebrate the fact

9:38

that India , which is good , it like if it a bullet one

9:41

thing , that buildings beautiful and I wouldn't want that building

9:43

to have been destroyed . I

9:46

just think it's really strange that we

9:48

celebrate it by Building

9:50

fires and building bonfires and

9:52

then setting off fireworks . Even

9:55

that isn't weird , as maybe it's just me , I just Just

9:58

I just think it's bit odd . We

10:00

don't do that for any most most other days in the UK

10:02

. Well , any other day in the UK really , we don't . Really fireworks

10:05

weren't massive and

10:07

when I was growing up in the 80s you

10:09

could literally buy them around bonfire

10:12

night , maybe for a week before , two

10:14

weeks before , and then they literally stopped being sold . There

10:16

was really really , really , really strong laws

10:18

on it in the day and you have to have like a license or a

10:20

special reason to get them and stuff . I'm

10:24

not special reason , you have to have a license , I believe , and

10:26

and they were literally sold to the public

10:28

, really really restricted for a short period of

10:30

time , and that nowadays it seems that you

10:33

can really always buy fireworks , most most of the times

10:35

a year in the UK and

10:37

it's got

10:39

really popular in New Year's , I think , after the Millennium

10:41

game really popular to set fireworks off at

10:44

New Year's Eve . But yeah

10:47

, I've always just thought it was a strange thing . In the UK as

10:49

well they used to . So back in the day they

10:51

started making bonfires and apparently

10:53

the government and the king allowed

10:55

it as a celebration , and then I'm guessing

10:57

it's become more of a thing and then more

11:00

traditions add on top of that

11:02

. So

11:05

I suppose with the advent of gunpowdered fireworks

11:08

they were added into the mix and also

11:10

actually put in an effigy

11:12

of Guy Fawkes on top of

11:14

the bonfire . So and

11:16

this one is probably like the weirdest thing for me I

11:19

never actually did it , but some

11:21

kids and stuff around my area

11:23

where I was growing up used to . So

11:26

what people used to do is and

11:28

let me know if you ever did this as a kid or if this happened in

11:30

your area , because I think it's weird

11:33

and

11:35

a bit dark really People

11:38

would basically make an effigy of Guy Fawkes I

11:41

have all clothes like kind of like a scarecrow

11:43

basically and they

11:45

would basically go around people's houses

11:47

. They'd carry this scarecrow thing with them and

11:50

they'd knock on people's doors and ask for a penny for

11:52

the guy . So you donate

11:54

a penny for the Guy Fawkes

11:56

and I'm not

11:59

really sure what the money was for . If I'm honest with you , I

12:01

think it was more to do with

12:03

paying

12:05

for the thing to be made , or

12:08

maybe helping pay for the bonfire and stuff like

12:10

that . So I'm guessing it was a contribution They'd

12:13

made the guy . They were going to have a bonfire and

12:15

you could pay , basically to contribute , and then

12:17

go and enjoy the bonfire and

12:19

the guy being burnt to death . He's

12:22

not really alive , is he ? So it's not really

12:24

that bad . I'm getting a bit dramatic there

12:26

, but

12:28

yeah , I just think that's a weird thing to do , like

12:30

make an effigy of someone . But

12:34

I suppose , for all intents and purposes , guy Fawkes and

12:37

the organisation were committing like a terrorist

12:39

attack on the government . Yeah

12:44

, so I suppose it's not too different to some of the

12:46

things that we remember today that

12:48

were from terrorism or things that were avoided

12:51

, but we don't really celebrate them with this

12:53

bonfire night

12:55

. So , yeah

12:57

, it's just really weird and we never really celebrated

13:00

it too much . As a kid , to be honest , when I was younger

13:02

, my mum and dad didn't really have fireworks

13:04

at home . I think they thought it was a bit of a waste of

13:06

money , which I think I do as well

13:08

. Hang on . I'm just going to have a sip of tea my

13:10

mouth's gone dry and lovely big

13:12

cup of tea here . What

13:15

are you enjoying ? Well , I say

13:17

it's me Also

13:20

. I'm staring directly . I don't know if you saw

13:22

the post on social media that's Steven Sweet , pc

13:24

going off the track , but

13:26

I got it given like a little mascot

13:28

. Well , a little present , but I'm going to use it as

13:30

a little mascot because it amuses me and it's a little

13:32

ghost thing that's been hand knitted

13:34

by one of my friends'

13:37

daughter and

13:39

I'm after a name for it . So if you can think of a name for it

13:41

once you've seen it , think of a name for it . It's

13:44

sat on my microphone and it's literally staring me right in the face . It's

13:46

actually making my eyes go funny because it's like blurry

13:48

, out of focus , anyway

13:50

, yeah , so basically

13:53

, fireworks . All fireworks are especially

13:55

in the UK , especially when I was a kid . If

13:58

you wanted to buy them for your own house , they weren't overly

14:00

impressive , like unless you

14:02

spent a lot of money . And

14:05

if you're going to spend that much money , you'd probably better off

14:07

going to an organised display , which there

14:09

are like in crew alone , like

14:12

there's probably more in my area , like

14:15

there's probably been advertised at least three or four professional

14:19

on finite displays . I've

14:22

never really been into it . I've been to a couple of displays

14:25

in my life and I like fireworks don't go

14:27

wrong . I think they're technically

14:29

how they're made and what they produce

14:32

in the sky and they go bang and all these

14:34

colours come out and all these weird patterns and sparks

14:37

and God knows what and all the chemicals

14:39

that make them change

14:41

colour and stuff . It's fascinating , but I've

14:46

never been one to have to go to one every year . They're

14:48

just like . I just had a long obsession with such people and they were like you . Just people

14:52

having their own displays in the garden actually kind of annoy me and

14:54

I'm not going to get into a rant Honestly

14:56

, honestly , there's not gonna be no rant here , but

14:59

I just there's

15:01

. If you're gonna spend

15:04

like 200 quid by a fire witch your mail to take , you

15:06

find pure , proper display where you're gonna see proper ones , cuz I

15:08

think that's probably why my mom and dad never really did it at home

15:10

, because they were all like whiz bangers when I was

15:12

a kid . So you'd get a little rocker

15:15

. It sets it off , it goes shooting to the sky , which

15:17

is pretty cool when you're a kid like I did

15:19

. I do remember my dad doing a fireworks display , at

15:23

least once . I remember at least once

15:25

we used to have sparklers every so often , to

15:28

the little sticks with Procumb

15:32

, the stuff that's on them , it

15:34

sparks basically and you got a little stick in it , it's

15:36

a spark and you can write your name and in

15:39

the air and stuff with them because

15:41

they burn so brightly . So I

15:43

damage , brilliant , and yeah

15:46

, so we never really did too much . I

15:48

remember one specific one , but he actually did

15:50

put on pretty good show . He made his own Catherine wheel , which

15:52

is like when the fireworks go round

15:54

in a circle . But

15:57

yeah , most of the fireworks he had those

15:59

. The most interesting was what me and my brother named

16:01

the traffic light one , where there's a firework

16:03

on the ground and it just like shot up like a

16:05

red , yellow , green , like light

16:08

into the sky , like a little rocket into the sky , and

16:10

most of them whizzed up into the air with sparks

16:12

behind them and just banged in a white

16:14

flash . And Once you've seen

16:17

that 20 times it's pretty boring . So

16:19

for me , professional ones , the

16:21

way to go . What

16:25

, what ? The traditional was mainly my house , because

16:29

we didn't really go out . We could . We could see from

16:31

our house . So the local park was like as

16:33

the crow flies , the straight arrow , probably

16:36

less than a quarter of a mile away , about half a mile away at

16:38

most , and so we could see . We can

16:40

see all the ground activity , but we could see all the

16:43

all the fireworks that came so

16:45

far into the air . And the

16:48

tradition came at my house where my

16:51

mom had a bit of a bit of a scare at one of the fireworks

16:53

events that she took my brother to . I can't remember if it was my brother's

16:56

coat , the court fire or someone , a little

16:58

boy nearby , but one of the fireworks

17:00

came down and landed in someone's coat and

17:02

it caught the coat on fire and it kind of put my mom off

17:04

going to a live display . So , yeah

17:08

, so what . We used to sit and sit in mine on my brother's

17:10

bedroom , which looked out towards the park

17:12

, and Mom used to give me Like

17:16

sweets and snacks and stuff , so like a bowl of Twiglet's

17:18

was like the favorite for us , a glass of milk and

17:20

maybe a bit of chocolate and stuff like that

17:22

, and we used to sit and feel like an hour and watch

17:25

the display and we could open

17:27

the window because they used to have music and light

17:29

shows as well , so we could open the window and listen

17:31

to the music and a Lot of

17:33

the time that the fireworks were timed to the music

17:35

and it was pretty brilliant . To be fair , like that's . That's

17:38

me . What fireworks night is is

17:40

sitting looking out of a window looking at them

17:42

and not paying , but

17:45

yeah , but loads of people now have them in the in their own

17:47

gardens and these for

17:49

me , that these waves bangers there's some of them are a bit nicer

17:52

than nowadays . Like you know , they have the

17:54

public ones have become a bit more fancy

17:56

. But For me it's

17:58

dangerous as well , isn't it ? Like you're literally handling explosives

18:01

and I don't think that it's

18:04

probably the safest way to go about it . And

18:07

I remember you watching , like , the safety videos

18:09

at school , saying like don't handle a firework and

18:11

don't go back to it once it's lit , and if

18:13

it goes out , don't go back to it , wait a bit , and

18:15

you know , and then cover it in sand and all this

18:17

sort of stuff . And yeah

18:20

, I just think . I just think if you just go to

18:22

a professional on , like why waste your money

18:24

? You should feel like you must just set fighting money . If I'm honest

18:26

. Yeah , that's , that's my normal go-to saying just

18:28

set fighting money , because you literally

18:30

just set fighting money and You're

18:33

blowing your money up and they're not

18:35

even that nice Not even that nice

18:38

. I mean , if you do get really nice ones . Maybe maybe

18:40

I'm just behind the times of fireworks , maybe I just don't

18:42

even know Fireworks

18:44

anymore . Maybe the whiz bangers are a thing in the

18:46

past and you can go

18:48

out there and actually get some professional grade fireworks

18:50

for your own garden , and but then you've

18:52

got to be . You know , you've got , you

18:55

have the garden to do it and you've got to set it up . You

18:57

know what stakes , the grounds , the of fly up

18:59

straight and I'm

19:01

just maybe it's just because I'm lazy , I don't know , I

19:03

just it just doesn't appeal to me . Um

19:06

, they

19:08

think of what won't like when we have kids

19:10

and I'm hoping that that

19:15

spark was a bit of a way to go . But I think you

19:17

want to see fireworks . Let's take them somewhere and Buy

19:20

a house where you see the , see the park I Don't

19:23

know . I don't know they do in one this year actually now

19:25

park , I don't know . So

19:28

that's how interested I am in it . But I

19:30

just thought I'd go through that take . I

19:32

know I get a lot of listeners from America and stuff . So

19:34

I was thinking maybe you don't know what the

19:36

on fire night is and it's

19:40

kind of like the fourth of July but celebrating

19:43

the non event of a terrorist

19:45

attack . I

19:47

just think it's so . I just for me . I just think it's a

19:49

really weird way to Mark an occasion

19:51

by setting big bonfires off

19:53

, burning effigies of criminals

19:56

and Saying

19:58

saying fireworks off as well . I don't

20:00

know , it's always always been a bit of a weird celebration

20:03

to me and I kind of understand why you would celebrate

20:05

a Not

20:07

like a terrorist attack not happening . But yeah , it's

20:09

, it's . It's just a bit just a bit

20:12

just a bit odd . But yeah , so

20:14

that's bonfire night . That's the fifth of November

20:16

in the UK . But

20:19

you know , if you are gonna have one , I saw , say , I do have a dog

20:21

and you know , don't

20:23

moan . But you know animals get

20:25

scared of all these bangs and stuff . So if you're gonna do it

20:27

like one , don't set them off in the

20:29

daytime . What the hell are you doing ? Like that's even

20:31

more point , especially if you got whiz banger , you're not gonna see nothing

20:33

. And and to you know , be

20:36

considerate . You know it's

20:39

probably the considerate thing not to have your own in your

20:41

own garden . I'm looking quite lucky with

20:43

our dog . He barks at the bangs but he more

20:45

like goes outside . Once he's seen what it is . He'll

20:47

come back in and he's not too stressed

20:49

about it . But I know some people's dogs do get really

20:51

, really stressed . So you know , just just think about

20:53

it . You know , if you , if you've got a neighbor , the dog

20:55

and stuff , you know I'd be considerate

20:58

, it's great to have your

21:00

own party and stuff , but yeah

21:02

, they are basically explosions in

21:05

the sky only and yeah , so

21:07

I don't end on it on a car and a Karen

21:09

moment . But you know , just just , you know

21:11

, just be sensible and don't hurt yourselves as well . That's

21:13

the main thing . If you are gonna have a party or you're dealing

21:15

with fireworks or you're doing anything would like that , just Just

21:18

just be sensible enough that you're not gonna

21:20

kill yourself or may me self . Yeah

21:25

, so there's that . There's a whistle stop

21:27

, tour of bonfire night and guy forks night . I

21:29

hope that was slightly educational

21:31

and not too ranting . Thank

21:34

you very much for listening . Check out Steven . Speak calm . I

21:36

say this every week . I am gonna update it at some point . There's

21:38

loads more updates to go and I'm just writing them down at the moment

21:41

was what I want to do and how I want to arrange it , and I

21:43

might have to redesign the whole bloody website . Yes

21:47

and yes . So go and check Steven

21:49

. Speak , calm out , contact

21:51

me on social media . Really really need

21:53

your feedback . What do you like to hear ? Is

21:56

there any suggestions , etc . Etc

21:58

. Etc . And thank you for listening and

22:00

just have the best day . I'll

22:03

speak to you soon . You've

22:06

been listening to Steven speak the podcast

22:08

. Thanks for listening to my unscripted

22:10

prattle on everything and nothing . Visit

22:14

Steven speak calm for updates , information

22:17

and my blog . You can follow

22:19

more updates on social media at Steven speak

22:21

PC . Thanks very much and

22:23

I'll speak to you soon .