{"id":232816,"date":"2025-10-29T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/232816\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T22:00:07","slug":"steve-coogan-defiant-after-settling-court-battle-over-the-lost-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/232816\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Coogan Defiant After Settling Court Battle Over ‘The Lost King’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSteve Coogan<\/a> has written a defiant op-ed defending the creative decisions on The Lost King<\/a> after paying \u201csubstantial damages\u201d to settle a defamation complaint<\/a> against the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a piece for The Guardian newspaper<\/a>, Coogan said the 2022 film, chronicling the extraordinary discovery of King Richard III\u2019s remains under a car park, would remain intact following the legal battle with Richard Taylor, a former employee at the University of Leicester.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor claimed that the Baby Cow and Path\u00e9 Production film portrayed him in an unflattering light. In June 2024, a UK High Court judge determined that actor Lee Ingleby\u2019s depiction was defamatory in a preliminary judgment, meaning the claim could be heard as a full trial. This week\u2019s settlement ended the case before it officially began, with Taylor\u2019s lawyers claiming victory.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the settlement, a title card will be added to the film in England and Wales, which reads: \u201cWhilst in this film there is a character called Richard Taylor who is shown to be an employee of the University of Leicester, the portrayal of him is fictional and does not represent the actions of the real Mr Taylor, who was employed by the University of Leicester as its Deputy Registrar, and acted with integrity during the events portrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCoogan said he was pleased the story would remain untouched: \u201cRichard Taylor wanted to have the film altered or withdrawn. He didn\u2019t get that. I\u2019m pleased to say not one frame of the film has changed bar a clarification in the pre-title sequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa star added that producers were forced to settle due to the ill health of Philippa Langley, whose recollection of events around the finding of King Richard III\u2019s remains was the basis for the film. Written by Coogan and Jeff Pope,\u00a0The Lost King\u00a0starred Sally Hawkins as Langley.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was looking forward to our day in court together, a chance for a judge to look at all the evidence and come to a fair conclusion,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut Philippa\u2019s absence meant we had lost our star witness and would have gone to trial with one hand tied behind our backs. No one wants to pressurise a woman who is unwell into doing something which could well make matters worse. Sometimes you have to fall on the sword.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCoogan continued: \u201cOur intention with The Lost King was only ever to give a voice to Philippa and her crowning achievement. That is something to celebrate \u2026 The Lost King is available for all to see. I\u2019m sure people will watch it and draw their own conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor, who now works for Loughborough University, was critical of Coogan\u2019s actions during the making of the feature, saying filmmakers were \u201cdismissive\u201d of his representations. \u201cSteve Coogan\u2019s never anything other than certain of his own righteousness, and I think he still thinks he was right in doing this,\u201d Taylor said. He added that he has yet to receive an apology.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoogan\u2019s Guardian op-ed was headlined: \u201cI won\u2019t apologise for The Lost King \u2013 Leicester University\u2019s treatment of Philippa Langley is a profound injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Coogan has written a defiant op-ed defending the creative decisions on The Lost King after paying \u201csubstantial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,55728,98666,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-232816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-steve-coogan","11":"tag-the-lost-king","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}