Will court settlement finally lay Richard III saga to rest?

Former Leicester administrator who sued Steve Coogan says ‘we need more trust in expertise’ after actor backs inquiry into university’s actions during ‘tumultuous period’

Published on
November 5, 2025
Last updated
November 5, 2025
Sally Hawkins in The Lost King (2022), directed by Stephen Frears.
Source: BBC Films/Album/Alamy

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Reader's comments (7)

Rather hypocritical of Coogan who has whined about how his rights were infringed by the sections of press and how he was misrepresented by them, then to do the same thing to Richard Taylor from his position of power in the media. It's clear this film peddles the familiar narrative of academic pomposity and professional exclusivity v. the virtuous enthusiastic outsider for dramatic effect. He does takes himself so seriously. Yes he's a very gifted impressionist and comic actor but he's rather out of his depth as a moralist.
I dson;t know why, but there is something about Richard III that seems to bring out the most ludicrous, pompous, sentemental and sententious moralisings in people and Coogan is only the latest of them. RIII was a rather nasty brutal warlord in a time of nasty brutal warlords and, personally, I never cared much where he was buried. Shakespoeare wrote a wonderful drama which, among other things, is a powerful study of the "machiavellian" ruler as the term was understood then, based on Tudor propaganda (by that dreadful torturer Thomas More). But all this subsequent starry-eyed hagiography and attempt to reclaim his allegedly sainted memory, a ludicrous and whimsical project furthered by rather dotty individuals in the main, which this film buys into is simply ridiculous. A more serious focused psychological vcase history of these people and their weird obsessions, which require a villainous establishment out to get them and ridicule them, would be very valuable in my view. The French did this a lot better than us. During the Revolution, revolutionaries broke up the royal tombs at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, removing the remains of kings and queens and dumping them into large pits with quicklime to speed their decomposition. RIII was lucky to end up under the car park!!!
The man only lasted 26 months in power (or 26 Liz Trusses), a minor figure in English history from a not very interesting period. In my view, the reason that time was refreed to as the Dark Ages was a very good reason indeed. Much more important things were happening globally in other cultures than in this benighted backwater. I don't know why people obsess about these things and write those silly romantic novels. If we spent a bit more time worrying about the plight of those alive now living in difficult circumstances and less about dead medeival gangsters the world woulds be a happier place in my new.
He died 640 years ago, or some 234,000 days ago. Assuming a long stay 24 hour parking rate of £8 a day, with interest and penalties for non payment, that has to be quite a few million pounds that the British Royal Family owes to Leicester.
Pity that a fascinating tale of archaeological discovery has been marred by a) a mediocre film and b) peurile bickering in the law courts.
It's odd that a person who is so brilliantly funny in character, is, in real life, so humourless, thin-skinned, tetchy and mean-spirited.
A real David v.Goliath story indeed! Richard Taylor is the little guy (David) who brings down the arrogant, pompous, media/celebrity giant bully Goliath of Coogan and his expensive team of legal experts!!

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