I won’t apologise for The Lost King – Leicester University’s treatment of Philippa Langley is a profound injustice | Steve Coogan

I was sued over my film that gave a voice to the committed ‘amateur’ whose pivotal role in the search for the remains of Richard III was drowned out by louder voices in academia

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bout 15 years ago, Philippa Langley set out on a mission to find the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. Almost everyone regarded this as an impossible task. His remains had gone undiscovered for more than 500 years. It was a folly, a fool’s errand. She was out of her depth, an amateur. No letters after her name.

But Philippa diligently did the work and did her research. She had an inner conviction that she would find him, and she did. It was a staggering achievement, and yet when the news broke of this startling discovery, and it was beamed round the world, there was little to no mention of her.

I saw the Channel 4 documentary The King in the Car Park, which featured this woman I hadn’t even heard of. She was a little eccentric, odd even, 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’d read months before.