The Lost King: Steve Coogan defends Richard III film in university row

Steve Coogan has defended a new film about the discovery of Richard III's skeleton, in a row over how it portrays some University of Leicester academics.

The university said claims that it took credit for her work and sidelined her are "far removed" from the truth.

But Coogan said: "The university are responsible for their own undoing."

"Had they at the start been generous towards Philippa, and elevated her to the front and centre position, which is where she deserves to be, this film wouldn't have been necessary.

"But at every turn they marginalised her, edged her out, because she wasn't cut from the right cloth."

Mrs Langley, played by Sally Hawkins, is presented as being instrumental in the discovery of the skeleton; the driving force behind identifying the burial site and securing funding for the dig.

But several academics and university staff are shown to be dismissive of and patronising towards her, before attempting to claim the credit when her research is found to be correct.

Richard Taylor, former deputy registrar at Leicester University, told the Daily Mail the film was "horrendous".

"I was completely shell-shocked," he said. "They have portrayed me as a patronising misogynist who makes fun of Richard III's curvature of the spine. They have presented the university as being sexist, male‑dominated and dismissive of women."

He added: "My relationship with Philippa was a good one... To see myself portrayed as undermining her, being a sexist, patronising bully and mocking disability is horrendous and utterly false."

Mr Taylor is reportedly so upset by his portrayal that he has threatened to take legal action to get one scene cut and a note added to the credits that the character is not based on him.

While several university staff members are portrayed in the film as not altogether bad people, they often speak patronisingly towards Langley, or are seen trying to put themselves at the centre of media coverage.

Another real-life figure, Dr Richard Buckley, is presented as being dismissive of Mrs Langley, only agreeing to become involved when his department is threatened with closure and he faces losing his job.

However, Dr Buckley told the Mail: "There is no truth to our department being under threat of closure or my job being on the line or anything like that. That was just nonsense."

He added: "The film is billed as being the true story when clearly a lot of it just isn't true."

The paper said it had seen correspondence from the time between Mrs Langley and Mr Buckley, which is "full of ideas, suggestions, co-operation and positivity".

Coogan, who co-write the film and plays Mrs Langley's husband, told the Today programme he had been "incensed" by how she had been treated, and that there had been a "central inaccuracy" in the media reporting at the time.

"The search for Richard III was not led by Leicester University," he said.

Asked whether the film portrayed university staff as "patronising glory hunters", co-writer Jeff Pope replied: "Well, I think it's slightly overstated, but I think there is something in those... words.

"I think, yes... What happened was, Philippa led the search for the king. She paid for the dig. She hired the University of Leicester archaeologists to dig.

"There's no doubt that once the remains had been found, the university academics performed the DNA analysis. But they then used that to leverage credit for the whole thing, and that's the problem. That's what the film seeks to address."

"I was hugely vulnerable because I'm not a doctor, I'm not a professor. But in the end, I came to find my voice," she said.

A spokesperson for the university said: "We do feel the portrayal of the University of Leicester's role in the project is far removed from the accurate work that took place.

"We worked closely with Philippa Langley throughout the project, and she was not sidelined by the university. Indeed, she formed part of the team interview panel for every single press conference connected to the king."