Steve Coogan sued alongside filmmakers over ‘The Lost King’
The 2022 film The Lost King, starring and co-written by Steve Coogan, has attracted a legal battle over the portrayal of a University of Leicester academic.
Richard Taylor, the former deputy registrar of the University of Leicester, is suing the team behind the film, claiming that his character within the film was “dismissive, patronising and misogynistic.”
The Lost King depicts the discovery of Richard III’s remains underneath a carpark in Leicester, which Taylor was involved with.
On Thursday, at a hearing in London, William Bennett KC – Taylor’s barrister – claimed that the academic was portrayed as “weasel-like” and “devious” within the film. According to the prosecution, Taylor’s image and reputation have been damaged by the film, and so he is seeking damages.
Taylor’s character was portrayed on-screen by Lee Ingleby and was generally antagonistic towards the amateur historian Philippa Langley, played by Sally Hawkins, and her husband, played by Steve Coogan. Langley spearheaded the discovery but was soon sidelined by academics like Taylor, who sought to take credit for finding Richard III’s body.
The Lost King was directed by Stephen Frears and featured a script co-written by Coogan and Jeff Pope. The trio had previously collaborated on the 2013 film Philomena – though that project attracted considerably fewer legal battles. Taylor is suing the filmmakers, in addition to distributors Pathe and Coogan’s production company, Baby Cow.
Talking to the BBC in October 2022, Taylor said of his depiction within the film, “I’m portrayed as kind of a bullying, cynical, double-crossing, devious manipulator which is bad, but then when you add to that I behave in a sexist way and a way that seems to mock Richard III’s disabilities, you start to get into the realm of defamation.”
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