I Will Not Apologize for the Lost King – The University of Leicester’s treatment of Philippa Langley is a profound injustice | Steve Coogan

AAbout 15 years ago, Philippa Langley set out on a quest to find the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. Almost everyone considered this an impossible task. His remains remained undiscovered for more than 500 years. It was a folly, a fool’s errand. She was out of her element, an amateur. There are no letters after her name.

But Philippa worked hard and did her research. She had an inner belief that she would find him, and she did. It was an amazing achievement, and yet when news of this amazing discovery broke and was broadcast around the world, there was hardly any mention of it.

I watched the Channel 4 documentary The King in the Car Park, which featured this woman I had never even heard of. She was a bit eccentric, eccentric, and obsessive in her quest to find Richard’s remains. There was a disconnect between what I was seeing on screen and the headlines I had read months earlier.

I called her representatives and arranged to meet her for lunch. Her health was weak, and there was weakness in her. The more Jeff Pope and I researched the entire saga, the more convinced we became of its absolute integrity.

We set out to write a script that told the story of her journey from Edinburgh to Leicester and the archaeological discovery of the century. A story that seemed to us to have been subsumed by larger, louder voices.

The resulting film, The Lost King, is one of which I am most proud. She handed the megaphone to a woman whose story was largely unknown.

In our film, Richard Buckley, the chief archaeologist, is depicted as Philippa’s hero, but ultimately with feet of clay. Her ex-husband John Langley, played by her, is seen as loyal, but sometimes impatient with Philippa’s obsession. Then there is Richard Taylor, former deputy registrar at the University of Leicester.

We portray Philippa as imperfect and difficult at times. In the end, it is ordinary and extraordinary. She also suffers from ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome), which she is open about and shows in the film. Philippa’s ME and ongoing accompanying health problems meant that she was unable to give evidence in the impending civil trial to determine whether the film portrayed Richard Taylor unfairly.

I was looking forward to our day in court together, a chance for the judge to consider all the evidence and come to a fair conclusion. But Philippa’s absence meant we had lost our star witness and we would have gone to trial with one hand tied behind our backs. No one wants to pressure a sick woman into doing something that might make matters worse. Sometimes you have to fall on the sword.

As a result, we had to settle. Richard Taylor wanted the film edited or withdrawn. He didn’t get that. I’m happy to say that not a single frame of the film has changed except for the clarification in the pre-title sequence. This card states that the character Richard Taylor in the movie is fictional and has no relation to the real-life Richard Taylor, who, as the card says, “always acts with integrity.”

I noticed that the University of Leicester website carries Richard Taylor’s statement in full, but none of my own. I’m sure this is just an oversight. Philippa began searching for Richard III. Philippa identified the exact location in the northern area of ​​the social services car park. When funding was withdrawn and the drilling operation was jeopardized, Philippa raised funds to ensure the project’s survival. When leg bones were uncovered in the trench, it was Philippa who insisted they be dug up. It revealed a curvature of the spine and head injuries consistent with historical accounts of the injuries sustained by Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. In other words, it was him.

Richard Taylor later said in a podcast that he had to put up a firewall between the university and Philippa. That’s why I give him full marks. At the press conference to announce that the discovered remains were those of the king, Philippa was the 13th of 13 speakers to speak.

One thing is for sure, if Philippa had been on the University of Leicester’s payroll, you can bet your bottom dollar that she would have been front and center in all the university’s advertisements. Not Richard Taylor. But as the University of Leicester liked to remind us yesterday: “It’s an amateur.” Let’s face it, it’s always embarrassing when a collector finds the remains of a 500-year-old dead king on your doorstep.

Richard Taylor suggested that an investigation should be held. I would welcome any inquiry that provides the opportunity to consider in detail his behavior and that of the University of Leicester during that turbulent period.

In the meantime, I will gladly discuss with Richard Taylor in a public forum all the issues surrounding this saga. Our goal with The Lost King was to give voice to Philippa and crown her achievement. This is something worth celebrating.

Richard Taylor is right that this was a battle between David and Goliath, except that in our version, he and Leicester are Goliath, and David is Philippa.

The Lost King is available for all to see. I’m sure people will watch it and draw their own conclusions.