The Lost King (Richard III)

TV & Film TV & Film: Chat / Discussions
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I watched that, too:

23 January 2013

Richard III’s claims to infamy are many: he was the last king to die in battle - his death at the Battle of Bosworth, where he was said to be dragged from his horse and struck on the head with a poleaxe - effectively ended the Wars of the Roses. Thus resulting in a Tudor dynasty lasting more than a century. He has long been connected to the disappearance of his young nephews - the ‘Princes in the Tower’ - and his repulsive depiction as a hunchback villain in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Richard III’ is probably his most recognisable representation.

This film, presented by actor and writer Simon Farnaby, charts the remarkable detective story that led to the dig. Screenwriter and member of the Richard III Society Philippa Langley has spent the last three years on a personal quest to uncover the remains of the Franciscan friary of Greyfriars where she believes he was hastily buried after the battle. Driven by a burning sense of injustice on behalf of his widely-accepted negative portrayal as one of the most reviled Kings of England and a desire to reclaim his reputation, for Philippa, finding his body could disprove he was a hunchback and expose Shakespeare’s play as Tudor spin and propaganda.

With the support of historians, the University of Leicester’s archaeologists identified a possible location of the monastery as the car park for Leicester City Council’s Social Services department. However as Richard Buckley, Head of the University of Leicester’s Archaeology Services tells the programme: “…the chance of finding Richard was, I don’t know, a million to one.” Yet the dig commenced and on the very first day a male skeleton was discovered - which careful examination would later reveal to have curvature of the spine and battle injuries including a head wound.

Riveting stuff … not least, IIRC, because, coincidentally, a medieval fight re-enactor, of Richard’s build AND with scoliosis of the spine, was located.

Philippa’s role in the discovery was subsequently and deliberately undermined by “professionals” who “hijacked” the glory.

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Because history reported his body had been taken to a nearby abbey
/
Monastery and the car park was on the site of this abbey.
Finding him almost straight away was sheer luck
.

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Let’s go back to the beginning. In 1992, Langley reads a biography of Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall and discovers the disconnect between the actual man and what we generally think of him – warlike, manipulative, murderous, not to mention “Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time / Into this breathing world, scarce half made up”. She thinks of writing a screenplay to rehabilitate him.

Langley was, at that time, having a phenomenally hard time. She’d been diagnosed with ME, was unable to work, had two small boys, her marriage had broken down, and she was making trips to Leicester for which she had to “sleep-bank” for two or three days beforehand. “I could never tell any of them [the academics and, later, archeologists], because it was one of those illnesses then: if people knew you had it, you were a bit odd. I couldn’t risk them thinking, ‘Who is this person?’”

Then, in 2004, an event which I had assumed was artistic licence when it appears on the screen actually happened. She was in Leicester, trying to piece together from her research the whereabouts of a long-gone church, and she walked across the fabled car park. “I felt that I was walking on his grave. I got this intuitive experience. I was covered in goosebumps and freezing cold, on this lovely warm, spring day.” Astonishingly, she shared this experience with friends and family and, even more astonishingly, they took her seriously, or at least, didn’t laugh. “So the next year, in the spring, I went back, to test if it was real. I had the exact same experience in the exact same place. But this time, I saw a hand-painted letter R on the tarmac. Well, it clearly stands for ‘reserved’. But that’s what changed my focus.”

From there - still skint, still with a chronic illness – Langley moves heaven and earth, or at least Leicester council, to get the car park dug up. It’s like something from a Fay Weldon novel (except her husband is lovely). She needs a lot of things: money for the dig, archeologists to believe her, more money for ground-penetrating radar pre-excavation – and above all, she needs to keep her nerve. “I was sidelined and marginalised. 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.”

It’s a bit of a Joan of Arc story, in the sense that you can’t help worrying that, had you been there, you’d have been on the side of the sniggering soldiers, not on the side of the solitary firebrand. I mean, seriously, would you dig a spot because it had given someone goosebumps (twice)?

So, if the movie restores much of the credit to Philippa then I shall make the effort to watch it … :thinking:

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Fancy holding the Battle of Bosworth in a car park, the parking fees alone must have been phenomenal…

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Luck or not, Philippa found Richard … the “clever-clogs” hadn’t … :man_shrugging:

In fact, IIRC, one of the “clever-clogs” - an archeologist - “accidentally” smashed the skull of Richard before it could be retrieved … :roll_eyes:

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What a plonker

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I’ve dug out three documentaries from my archives to watch again:

  • RICHARD III - THE KING IN THE CAR PARK (C4)|PRESENTED BY SIMON FARNABY WITH PHILIPPA LANGLEY||2013|
  • RICHARD III - THE NEW EVIDENCE (C4) |||2014|
  • RICHARD III - THE UNSEEN STORY (C4)|||2013|

Seemingly, I haven’t watched them since their transmission dates … :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Love Josephine Tey! One of her books is my favorite mystery. That title looks familiar so I might have read it. Thanks for the background. Fascinating stuff.

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Controversy

Based on the trailer, some of the lead archaeologists involved in the story did not feel that the film’s presentation as “the true story” was correct, and that it had under-represented their involvement, and over-represented Langley’s financial input to the project. Langley contends that the archaeologists took undue credit for finding the remains of Richard III given that she had led the search, raised the funding for the dig and commissioned the archaeologists. Following the UK première of the film the University of Leicester issued a press release, including the following abstract:

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.

The suggested whereabouts of the King’s remains was public knowledge prior to Philippa’s intervention, however [sic], we recognise she was the positive driving force behind the decision to dig for Richard III.

Langley issued a rebuttal, calling the University’s statement “misleading”:

Contrary to the misleading media statement issued by the University, I did feel side-lined (and continue to feel side-lined) by the University wrongly taking my credit for leading the search for the King’s remains. The only press conference that mattered was the one on 4 February 2013 to confirm that the remains were those of Richard III. That conference was the one attended by the world’s media. I was not invited by the University to sit on the panel that faced the journalists and the University wrongly presented themselves as leading the search that I had commissioned and paid for. It is true the University invited me to address the conference but as the 13th of 13 speakers, long after the live TV news feed had ended.

As for the general whereabouts of the extensive Greyfriars precinct – where some (not all) believed Richard III might be buried – yes this was known, but no one knew the layout of the buildings and therefore where the Greyfriars Church itself (and therefore the body of the King) might be (if he wasn’t in the River Soar as most leading historians then believed). Only through my intuition and research was the precise area identified where the dig should take place. In a matter of hours of starting to dig, the King’s remains were revealed. If the University (and everyone else) knew exactly where to dig, why hadn’t they done so before?

Richard Taylor said to the BBC:

I’m portrayed as kind of a bullying, cynical, double-crossing, devious manipulator which is bad, but then when you add to that I behave in a sexist way and a way that seems to mock Richard III’s disabilities, you start to get into the realm of defamation.

The filmmakers responded to Taylor by saying:

The university’s version of events has been extensively documented over the past 10 years. Philippa’s recollection of events, as corroborated by the filmmakers’ research, is very different.

Taylor has stated that he is “likely” to take legal action against the filmmakers over its inaccuracies.

Blimey … the academic takes umbrage … :scream_cat:

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I’ve just finished watching “RICHARD III - THE KING IN THE CAR PARK” and it’s as good as I remember it (although there’s no re-enactor - he must be in one of the other documentaries).

The university representatives on the “dig” all seem friendly with Philippa, except for the archeologist, Jo Appleby, who, after smashing Richards skull, first of all claimed that, because it was on a different level, it didn’t belong to the legs. Then she said it did and had pre-burial wounds. Then she gloated over the fact that the skeleton had a curved spine (which Philippa had not been expecting) with an “arrowhead” (1) in it. Finally, despite possibility and coincidence, she refused to let Philippa drape Richard’s standard over the cardboard “coffin” as it was being removed and had to be overridden by a professor.

As soon as it became clear that the skeleton was Richard III then Appleby began emphasising “I, me, mine”

As for Taylor, I think he was just an administrator - he didn’t seem to be part of the “dig” - as Philippa says, the university administrators (literally) sidelined her at press conferences and took all the credit.

(1) Later identified as a Roman nail that just happened to be in the soil.

I shall view the other documentaries later.

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The Lost King is available for download from places like Buccaneers Cove if you know how.

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Very pleased this has inspired some of you to watch this film. I lived in the county of Leics and worked in Leicester itself for many years and know the area where the body was found really well. I was temping back then and tramped all those narrow streets that criss cross that area.

At the end it says that the Royal family website had been updated which really pleased me.

PS. The actor who played the “imagined” Richard III is incredibly handsome and just right for the part. :wink:

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What Richard III probably looked like (the facial reconstruction):

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I’ve just finished watching “RICHARD III - THE UNSEEN STORY” (C4) (2013)

This documentary covers the “scientific” aspects of the investigation but, as Simon Farnaby remains the producer of this follow-up documentary, everyone gets their due acknowlegement, including Philippa. My impressions of the team remain the same - all are on Philippa’s side except Jo Appleby, who admits that she’s at the start of her career (not only does she smash Richard’s head, she also digs out the curves spine with what looks like a lump of wood and suspects that the skeleton is female … :scream_cat:) Again, it’s noticeable how quickly “Admin” jumps on the bandwagon for the press conference … :roll_eyes:

Among the scientists, Turi King (geneticist) and Caroline Wilkinson (facial reconstruction) were favourably inclined towards Philippa and less greedy than “Admin” for ‘possession’

One awful thing that was revealed was that not only was Richard’s ‘backside’ assaulted but there were multiple, but not significant, injuries to other parts of the skeleton which probably meant that there were even more to the flesh … :scream:

Still no re-enactor … he must be in the next documentary.

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Fascinating .

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Diane Abbott’s hairdo is often likened to Richard III!

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I’ve just finished watching "RICHARD III - THE NEW EVIDENCE (C4) (2014)

This is the documentary which attempts to establish whether a slender young man with scoliosis could ever be a “warrior-king”.

By sheer coincidence, a young man called Dominic Smee lives in Leicestershire, has exactly the same scoliosis as Richard II and is a medieval re-enactor on Bosworth field - he is not, however, a knight.

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The producers subject Dominic to all sorts of tests and train him in horsemanship and fighting - he even gets a custom-built suit of armour.

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Without giving too much away, I can say that the results of the tests and training defy expectations but the results of the skeletal analysis, which ran alongside, were surprising and significant.

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I have seen this it was wonderful how he learned to fight and ride .

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Thanks Omah I’ll watch on catch up . I love history especially when we have such evidence

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will he replace the current charles III then?