Richard Taylor, a former University of Leicester deputy registrar, is suing Coogan over what he calls a “devious” and “weasel-like” performance in the 2022 movie The Lost King.
The film, which tells the tale of how the missing remains of the Plantagenet king were discovered in a parking lot in Leicester in 2012—more than 500 years after his death—was written and directed by Steve Coogan. Lee Ingleby, a British actor, played Mr. Taylor on screen.
The main character of the movie is Sally Hawkins’s amateur historian Philippa Langley, who defies the academic establishment in her search for King Richard III’s remains.
Along with Pathe Productions, Coogan’s production business Baby Cow is also included in the complaint.
William Bennett KC stated that his client Mr. Taylor was described as being “dismissive, patronising and misogynistic” towards Ms. Langley during a hearing on Thursday, which Coogan did not attend.
