James Norton ‘told President Macron 1066 drama would be fair to both sides’

James Norton told French president Emmanuel Macron his upcoming BBC drama about the Battle of Hastings will be “fair in depicting both sides of the story”, the actor has said.

Norton, 40, who plays Harold Godwinson in the drama, said he met President Macron at an event at the British Museum, where the Bayeux Tapestry is being moved to next year.

The tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle Of Hastings, which saw William The Conqueror take the English throne from King Harold and become the first Norman king of England.

In July, it was announced that the 70-metre-long tapestry will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years, while President Macron joined Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the British Museum to celebrate the artwork’s return and British-French relations.

In the drama, titled King & Conqueror, Norton is joined by Games Of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who plays William, Duke of Normandy.

Norton said: “I met President Emmanuel Macron recently at the event at the British Museum where the Bayeux Tapestry is being moved to, and I was very quick to reassure him that we had told the French story, the Norman story, with as little bias as possible.

“There are a lot of stories about William post the Battle of Hastings itself, and how he acted pretty monstrously, but there’s no doubt that he had his own domestic space, his relationship with Matilda and his son.

“Nikolaj brought so much complexity to that role, and as a result, I think that the show feels balanced.

“We didn’t want one hero or one villain, we wanted the audience to be split and we wanted people to sit on the sofa and have someone on Team Harold and someone on Team William.

“I said to Macron: ‘I promise you that we have been fair in depicting both sides of the story’, and a lot of that was to do with Nikolaj’s brilliant, sensitive performance.”

Norton said he had undertaken “so much work and research” in preparation for the role.

Of conversations with the drama’s writer, Norton said: “I remember being constantly surprised reading scripts and saying ‘is this real? This seems completely mad,’ and invariably, he’d be like, ‘no, that is exactly what happened.’

“It was extraordinary.”

All episodes of King And Conqueror will be available on BBC iPlayer on August 24 from 6am, while the first episode will air on BBC One that evening.