Steve Coogan is reportedly being sued for defamation by a university academic over claims he was portrayed as a ‘sexist bully’ in the film The Lost King.
The Sun reports that Richard Taylor from the Leicester University team has complained he was made out to look ‘cynical and devious’ in the production.
The Lost King was released in 2022 and follows the story of ambitious writer and amateur historian Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins) who defies the academic establishment to unearth Richard III’s long-missing remains in a Leicester car park.
Steve, 57, co-wrote and starred in the film as John Langley – a member of the team from the university and Philippa’s husband.
Richard told the publication of the film: ‘I’m portrayed as a bullying, cynical, double-crossing, devious manipulator which is bad.
Difficult: Steve Coogan is reportedly being sued for defamation by a university academic over claims he was portrayed as a ‘sexist bully’ in the film The Lost King
Claims: The Sun reports that Richard Taylor from the Leicester University team has complained he was made out to look ‘cynical and devious’ in the production (Steve seen in the film as John Langley with wife Philippa)
‘But when you add I behave in a sexist way and a way that seems to mock Richard III’s disabilities, you get into the realm of defamation.’
Mr Taylor also claims that he tried to get changes made to the film but producers refused.
The University of Leicester said in a statement given to The Sun: ‘We understand the portrayal of Richard Taylor does not resemble the reality during this period.’
Mr Taylor is also suing Pathé Productions and Baby Cow Productions for High Court damages, the publication claims.
MailOnline has contacted representatives for Mr Coogan, Pathé Productions and Baby Cow for comment.
The discovery of the body of Richard III in a Leicester council car park in 2012 made headline news around the world.
It was in 2004 that Langley, who had come to Leicester to research a screenplay on Richard III, felt an urge to walk into the adult social services car park.
‘It was a funny feeling. Like something coming up through my legs and my feet. It got stronger and stronger so I felt almost faint,’ she said at the time.
Plot: The Lost King was released in 2022 and follows the story of ambitious writer and amateur historian Philippa Langley who defies the academic establishment to unearth Richard III’s long-missing remains in a Leicester car park
‘There, beneath my feet, was the letter ‘R’. It was obviously for ‘Reserved’, but I felt I was standing on Richard’s grave.’
Richard III’s final resting place had been a mystery.
After he was slain at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, his naked body was slung on to a horse, taken to Leicester and said to have either been thrown into the River Soar or buried hastily in Greyfriars Church.
But Greyfriars had been destroyed in the Reformation and long vanished beneath the modern streets of the city.
Langley had tracked down ancient maps of the Greyfriars complex – a large area with a church, cloisters and orchards.
She sleuthed in libraries, and reached out to fellow members of the Richard III Society, an international organisation devoted to rehabilitating the reputation of England’s last Plantagenet king.
She discovered that a 17th-century mayor of Leicester, Robert Herrick, had been rumoured to have Richard III’s grave in his garden.
With this information – and her funny feeling ‒ she approached Richard Buckley, head of the archaeology department at Leicester University.
Role: Steve, 57, co-wrote and starred in the film as John Langley – a member of the team from the university and Philippa’s husband
Shock: The discovery of the body of Richard III in a Leicester council car park in 2012 made headline news around the world
Buckley tracked down an old map of Herrick’s garden ‒ slap bang on top of the same social services car park.
After initial misgivings – ‘we don’t go looking for dead kings’ ‒ Buckley agreed to head a two-week dig to look, not for the king himself – ‘a million-to-one chance’– but for the Greyfriars complex.
On 25 August 2012 the excavation began and when, at Langley’s insistence, the archaeologists dug directly beneath that letter R, they came across a pair of legs.
And at that very moment, the heavens opened; thunder and forked lightning rattled across the sky. ‘It felt like Richard wanted to be found,’ said Langley previously.
