The Bayeux Tapestry has returned to Britain for the first time in nearly 1,000 years, going on display at the British Museum after a VIP preview attended by the King and Queen, French president Emmanuel Macron and Andy Burnham. The loan, secured through intensive diplomatic lobbying by Macron while the tapestry's usual home in Bayeux undergoes renovation, is being hailed as a triumph of Anglo-French cultural diplomacy, allowing visitors unprecedented close-up access to the 224ft embroidered chronicle of the 1066 Norman Conquest.

The 68.3-metre embroidery, actually stitched by seamstresses in Kent rather than woven in Bayeux, will remain at the British Museum for a year before returning to France. Visitors get 40 minutes to view it, compared with 25 minutes at its Bayeux home, aided by immersive sound effects, and the museum expects ticket sales to far outstrip Bayeux's usual annual footfall of 200,000 within just a few months.