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The Becket illumination

Contributed by Canterbury City Museums

Scene from the illumination showing Becket's death - copyright Canterbury City Museums

Oliver Postgate (of Bagpuss fame) and Naomi Linnell (from Canterbury Cathedral Library) created this 15.5 metre cartoon frieze in the 1980s to tell the story of Thomas Becket.

They took inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry and medieval book illumination.

The cartoon is colourful, irreverend and full of fun, and does not hold back in its grisly depiction of the murder of Becket, then Archbishop of Canterbury in his own Cathedral in 1170 - the top of his head sliced clean off, his brains and blood spilling onto the floor.

The perpetrators were four knights who believed they were acting on the orders of King Henry II.

After Thomas Becket's murder miracles were reported at his tomb and he was made a saint in 1174.

This inspired one of the most famous pilgrimages in Christendom.

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