The last time Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope teamed up with director Stephen Frears for a film, the result was the Oscar-nominated Philomena – which told the true story of how journalist Martin Sixsmith helped a woman find her son years after he’d been given up for adoption.
Now, the trio have reunited to tell another remarkable true story in their new film The Lost King. The subject matter this time around is the well-documented discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park, with the film primarily focusing on Philippa Langley – the historian who had led the search.
In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, Coogan explained that he was inspired to put pen to paper after feeling that Langley had not been given enough credit for her invaluable role in finding the remains.
“I watched the documentary The King in the Carpark and I was fascinated,” he said. “And although it’s about the search for Richard, I was fascinated by Philippa – she seemed troubled, as it were, in the documentary and that piqued my interest.
“Simon Farnaby is a big champion of Philippa’s, so I spoke to him. And he said, ‘Why don’t you meet her?’ So I got in touch with Philippa’s people and we went and had lunch, and I asked her story.”
He continued: “I mean, the remarkable discovery I knew about, but I wanted to know the sort of story behind the headlines. And I remember Leciester University doing this big announcement and thinking at the time, ‘Hang on what about the woman in the documentary? Where’s she?’
“So I wanted to get her story and then when Philippa told me about her experience, this solo project that she embarked on by herself many years ago to go on a search for Richard III and eventually having that – in my opinion – wrested from her, that made me think ‘Now there’s a story there.’
“So then we were just off to the races and I had to convince Philippa that she’d let me and Jeff and Pathé write the screenplay.”
For her part, Langley was more than happy to take a backseat during the adaptation process – even though she was on hand to provide extra details whenever they were needed.
“Steve and Jeff are the creative geniuses behind this, I had to let them just do what they needed to do,” she explained. “Whatever information they needed from me, or from my books, or from my original materials, and sometimes eyewitness testimony and things like that, I would bring all of that to the table, so that everything that you can see on screen is supported. So I was in the background, doing all of that.”
She also explained that although she wasn’t able to meet Sally Hawkins – who plays her in the film – due to COVID restrictions, the Paddington star was given plenty of resources to help with her portrayal.
“They gave Sally all of the videos that they could find me on,” Langley explained. “And so she went into all of those. And I think there was one particular one, where I was talking about my father who’s sadly passed away, and she really liked this particular video, because I think it was more of my personal situation.
“So she really honed into that, and then read my books and did all of that. And I think that was how she started to get into it. And then obviously, she started working with Steve.”
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Given Langley’s involvement, much of the film is very accurate – but naturally, there were also a couple of liberties taken. Some of these are rather obvious: Langley didn’t really have conversations with an apparition of Richard III, for example, while others are more technical, such as condensing the time the search took (in real life, Langley spent seven and a half years researching).
It’s also worth noting that Leicester University has itself released a statement disputing some of the claims made by the film, saying that some of the lead archaeologists’ contributions had been underrepresented.
“We worked closely with Philippa Langley throughout the project, and she was not sidelined by the University,” the statement read. “Indeed, she formed part of the team interview panel for every single press conference connected to the King.
“The suggested whereabouts of the King’s remains were public knowledge prior to Philippa’s intervention, however, we recognise she was the positive driving force behind the decision to dig for Richard III.”
Largely, the film appears to be fairly faithful to the true story. Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Frears explained that when he met Langley after the film was complete, he asked her if they’d got it right and she said yes.
“And nothing has turned up yet which makes me think we got something wrong,” he added. “Although actually, I was told that Philippa wasn’t there when they broke the ground [during the dig] – she was five minutes late. And I thought, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that? It’s very funny!’”
The Lost King will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 7th October 2022. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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