"The Lost King"

Movie Review

Based on Philippa Langley and Michael Jones' 2013 book The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III, Stephen Frears' 2022 British comedy-drama The Lost King was written by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope. This play dramatizes Philippa Langley's quest for King Richard III's remains under a parking lot in Leicester and how the University of Leicester treated her when it sought to take credit for the find. Sally Hawkins, Coogan, and Harry Lloyd are the movie's main actors. The movie had its world premiere on September 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Critics gave the movie largely favorable reviews.

Philippa Langley, an Edinburgh resident, is passed over for a job promotion by a less qualified but more attractive woman. She attempts to convince her male supervisor that her ME has never interfered with her work but fails. Her ex-husband John, who assists in raising their two teenage boys, is distraught and advises her to stay her employment because they need the money.

Philippa watches the play Richard III because she feels Richard was wrongly portrayed as a child killer, a hunchback, and a usurper. Richard starts to show up in her dreams, appearing to her. She joins the local Richard III Society, which holds the opinion that Tudor propagandists unfairly demonized him.

Philippa quits working, takes medication for her ME, and starts conversing with an image of Richard III. Her study reveals that while some records claim he was thrown into the River Soar, others claim he was buried in the Leicester Greyfriars priory choir area in 1485. Robert Herrick, the mayor of Leicester, had a shrine built in his garden around 1600 after Greyfriars was destroyed during the Reformation in the 1530s, with the inscription, "Here lays the body of Richard III, sometime king of England."

Philippa goes to a lecture on Richard in Leicester while pretending to her ex-husband that she is on business. A genetic genealogy study on a Canadian direct descendant of Richard III's sister is being published by Dr. Ashdown-Hill, whom she meets. He advises her to search for Richard in Leicester's green spaces because old abbeys haven't been built for generations. She experiences apparitions of Richard while searching for the historic Greyfriars site in Leicester, and she has a strong intuition that Richard's grave is marked by a "R" painted on a parking lot. As she gets back home, she tells John about her actions.

Richard Buckley, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester, is contacted by Philippa. He initially rejects her ideas, but after the institution cuts his funding, he calls Philippa again. An antique map of Leicester that shows Robert Herrick's property and possibly a public shrine in his garden is discovered by Buckley. They place a modern map of Leicester over it and discover that Philippa had strong feelings about the shrine being in the center of the parking lot.

Together, Buckley and Philippa. She makes a proposal to the City of Leicester. Her amateur "feeling," according to Richard Taylor of the University of Leicester, is too dangerous. The Council nevertheless approves her proposal for the publicity, but funding is lost when the ground radar turns up nothing. To crowdfund her "Search for Richard," she turns to the Richard III Society, and donations pour in from all around the world to pay for three trenches.

Buckley informs Langley that the dig certificate has been signed on the first day of the dig, but she is not informed that her name has been left out. They discover a skeleton's legs right away after Philippa instructs Buckley to begin trench one at the indicated "R" location. According to Buckley, it is a monks' extramural cemetery. Taylor is also confronted by Philippa on the project site for now pretending to be in charge. Then, she insists on suspending all work so that she can concentrate on uncovering the entire skeleton in trench 1. While the team excavates the skeleton, Buckley bitterly concedes and departs for home. The osteologist quickly determines that the body is undoubtedly that of Richard III since it has the proper type of fatal blow to the skull, a 30-year-old male, and a spine that is significantly curved. All were located on the first day.

The project is quickly taken up by the University of Leicester administrators. Buckley is hired again. At a press conference held by Taylor at the University of Leicester in February 2013, Phillippa is entirely ignored, not even by Buckley. Taylor then shares their findings with the globe. Afterward, the institution confers an honorary degree on Buckley.

At Bosworth Field, Richard sees Philippa for the last time; he thanks her and rides away. In Leicester Cathedral, Richard is portrayed receiving a funeral befitting a monarch. In the end credits, it is mentioned that Richard has been recognized as the legitimate King of England from 1483 to 1485 and is no longer viewed as a usurper thanks to the royal family's website. Langley received an MBE for her contributions.

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