It’s the summer of 1666. Thomas Farriner (ANDREW BUCHAN; Broadchurch, Garrow’s Law) is the King’s baker, supplying bread and biscuit for the Navy, who are currently at war. A widower and single-father, Thomas works alongside his daughters Mary and Hannah, with a little help from his sister-in-law, Sarah Farriner (ROSE LESLIE; Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones), in his Pudding Lane bakery.

Across the city in the palace of Whitehall, the King Charles II (JACK HUSTON; American Hustle, Boardwalk Empire), enjoys his many spoils and women in full view of his wife, the Queen, until a terrifying assassination attempt stokes fears of a larger Catholic plot in the works. Before long, though, events in the city of London will force him out of the reverie of courtly life and into a strategic battle to save his country’s burning capital.

A fascinating exploration of the night of Sunday 2nd of September 1666, The Great Fire is a four-part miniseries set during the devastating three-day disaster that left thousands of London homes burnt to the ground, and about the people who finally brought about its end.

EPISODES
_______________________
(Warning: some minor spoilers ahead)

EPISODE 1
Available to watch below until April 7, 2015
Widower and single father Thomas Farriner is the King’s baker, currently providing the Navy with bread and biscuits from his Pudding Lane bakery. His sister-in-law Sarah often helps out at the shop – a distraction from the fact her wayward husband (Thomas’s brother) has been missing at sea for months now. Thomas is dismayed to learn from Navy official Samuel Pepys that it’s unlikely he’ll be paid for his latest job, owing to the expense of the war against the Dutch. However, he instead sends the baker away with a letter that could be the key to Sarah’s closure. Meanwhile, in the palace of Whitehall, the King attends a stately dance, where an attempt on his life is foiled. Later, Thomas returns to find the bakery ablaze, with his two daughters asleep upstairs.

EPISODE 2
Available to watch below until April 14
Thomas bursts into his sister-in-law’s lodgings to wake his family and lead them to safety, but Sarah is nowhere to be seen. Held in a private cell at Newgate Prison, she’s waiting to be interrogated by Lord Denton about a possible Catholic plot against the King. Meanwhile, Samuel brings news of the rapidly spreading blaze to Charles, who surveys the damage from the safety of the river. From this vantage point, the monarch is shocked into action, ordering his advisers to compensate the public and tear down buildings to create firebreaks, but Hyde and Ashley-Cooper have other ideas.

EPISODE 3
Available to watch below until April 21, 2015.
In Whitehall, the King is angry to learn his orders to create firebreaks have been ignored by his advisers, while Sarah, still separated from Thomas, sneaks back into Hanford’s house and retrieves the mysterious box from Romero’s room. Later, Lord Denton reads the letters inside and realises that James, Duke of York, is the mastermind behind the plot to assassinate his brother Charles. Elizabeth confronts Pepys about his infidelity and decides to get even as she pays her dance teacher Alfredo a visit.

EPISODE 4
Available to watch below until April 28, 2015
When Hannah lets slip to David that his father is alive, he runs off to the Navy yards to seek the truth, closely followed by her. As Thomas and Sarah search for the children, Sarah is captured and dragged away, finding herself accused of treason. With Lord Denton doing everything in his power to convince the King of her involvement in the plot to start the fire, her only hope lies with her brother-in-law – can the baker get in touch with Samuel before it’s too late?