Bayeux by Abigail Youngman

Comedy-drama by Abigail Youngman, scheduled to mark the British Museum's exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry, on loan from France.

Rapacious Bishop Odo meets his match in Anglo-Saxon ex-queen, Edith. He wants her wealth: she wants to survive. Armed only with a needle, she leads a group of women in a bid to outwit their violent Norman oppressors. Her plan? To save her skin, and in the process to create a masterpiece and a message that will last a thousand years: the Bayeux Tapestry.

The year is 1067. England is occupied by the Normans. They use any means necessary to suppress English rebels. A group of disparate women fleeing for their lives find themselves living, almost imprisoned, in Wilton Abbey. They include former Queen of England, Edith of Wessex. She has been allowed to keep her lands and wealth because she has paid tribute to the new King, William. But William’s cruel and powerful half-brother Bishop Odo has other ideas.

Edith persuades Odo that she can set out the definitive story of William’s conquest in the form of an embroidery. So he must keep them alive. But first Edith has to convince women traumatised by the invasion to work for the enemy while they find ways to stitch their secrets into the embroidery, risking their lives to tell the truth. Will Odo discover their hidden messages and take revenge?

This needle-sharp comedy takes inspiration from real scenes found in the borders of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Queen Edith ... Katy Brand
Bishop Odo ... Charlie Anson
Gunnhilda ... Katy Sobey
Edeva ... Lisa Zahra
Wadard ... Jonny Holden
Wulfgyth ... Rosie Cavaliero
Mathilde ... Tracy Wiles

Director: Mary Ward-Lowery

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2019.