As excited crowds flock to see the Bayeux Tapestry go on display in Britain for the first time in a thousand years, a new BBC documentary will reveal the secrets of the famous work of art.
Secrets of the Bayeux Tapestry: Inside the Museum tells the story of the tapestry, which was sewn in England in the 11th century and narrates William of Normandy’s conquest of England in 1066. The programme features experts including Dan Snow, Rory Stewart, Professor David Olusoga, and Professor Janina Ramirez.
It also follows the unique undertaking to transport the tapestry from its home in Bayeux, France to the British Museum without damaging it before it goes on display.
The documentary highlights a potentially historic piece of damage to the tapestry.
In the programme, textile conservator Monique Pullen points out “a big hole in the linen ground that has burn edges around the outside of it”.
She says that the story goes that “the Nazis came to Bayeux and had a viewing of the tapestry and one of them dropped cigar ash on the tapestry - and so this is the burn mark”.
A November 1942 letter by a curator at the Louvre, Mr Bazin, records “a small hole which appears to have been caused by cigar ash” following an inspection of the tapestry. However, he does not specify the whereabouts of the hole or who made it.
Project curator Dr Millie Horton-Insch also explains: “The Nazis took a particular interest in the Bayeux tapestry. The Ahnenerbe, which was the cultural and ancestral heritage bureau which was an arm of the SS, felt that the tapestry was essentially a Germanic object that told the early history of the Aryan race.”
She says that the Nazis transported the tapestry from German-controlled Normandy to Paris, intending to take it to Germany, but it was rescued when Paris was liberated by the French in 1944.
As Dan Snow says in the documentary: “It has no business still being here! It has survived at least two major fires in Bayeux Cathedral. It survived Napoleon, who snatched it off and exhibited it in Paris. It survived the First World War, the Second World War!”
Secrets of the Bayeux Tapestry: Inside the Museum is streaming now on BBC iPlayer and will air on BBC Two at 9pm on 14 September 2026.
The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition is at the British Museum until 11 July 2027. A new ticket release will open on 21 October.
