The BBC has apologised for falsely accusing a famous Jesuit priest of involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, leaving a surviving relative of the man “deeply shocked”.
Michael Maslinski complained to the public service broadcaster after it made a series of claims inaccurately linking Fr John Gerard to the 1605 Catholic conspiracy to blow up Parliament and kill King James I.
In the Bafta-nominated Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents, the BBC asserted that Fr Gerard not only enjoyed advance knowledge of the 1605 plot to kill King James I but that he also supported, blessed it and played a leading role in devising it.
