Steve Coogan along with his production company Baby Cow and Pathé Productions have settled a libel claim over their 2022 film “The Lost King,” with the university employee who sued over his depiction in the film being awarded “substantial damages.”
The film told the story of the discovery of Richard III’s bones underneath a car park in Leicester in 2012 and followed the perspective of Philippa Langley, an amateur historian, and featured Richard Taylor, the former Deputy Registrar at the University of Leicester.
In an ongoing legal battle, Taylor sued the Middleton born Coogan for his depiction in the film, claiming that he was portrayed in a defamatory light
The Lost King will be changed and defamatory comments “not repeated.”
In a statement Richard Taylor said
Today the producers of ’The Lost King’, including Steve Coogan, have finally accepted that their film is an untrue and defamatory portrayal of me and the search for Richard III. It is a reckless hit job on my reputation and that of my academic colleagues. The producers will pay substantial damages to me and cover the very significant costs of my legal team, and have agreed to make key changes to the film. The Statement in Open Court made today (Monday 27 October 2025) in front of Her Honour Mrs Justice Collins Rice represents success and vindication.
“Whilst it is clear to me that the Defendants were misled as to the events of the discovery, they made a deliberate choice to accept those accounts, failing to speak or check basic facts.
“This irresponsible failure erased the critical contribution that my academic colleagues made in leading the archaeological search and conducting the scientific analysis that led to the discovery of Richard III. Our work is twisted into a false caricature of university elitism, ivory-towers and self-interest.
“That Steve Coogan, a man who has publicly condemned the media for misrepresentation and intrusion including, stridently, at the Leveson Inquiry, should be at the centre of broadcasting defamatory misrepresentations about others, in my opinion is hypocrisy of the highest order.
