Steve Coogan‘s 2022 film about the search for King Richard III’s remains was defamatory to a man portrayed by actor Lee Ingleby, a UK High Court judge has ruled.
Richard Taylor, a former employee at the University of Leicester, is suing the producers of The Lost King, including Coogan, his production company Baby Cow, and distributor Pathe.
Taylor was awarded a preliminary judgment in his favor on Friday, meaning his case can proceed to a full trial, during which Coogan, BBC Studios-owned Baby Cow, and Pathe will defend the portrayal.
Written by Coogan and Jeff Pope, The Lost King depicted Phillipa Langley’s (Sally Hawkins) search to find the controversial king’s skeleton under a car park in Leicester.
Taylor argued that he was painted as being “devious” in “manipulating the public presentation of information about the find, so as unjustly to conceal Philippa Langley’s true role, and to take credit that was rightfully hers.”
In a ruling, His Honour Judge Lewis agreed: “Mr Taylor was portrayed throughout the film in a negative light. At no point was he shown in a way that could be described as positive, or even neutral.
“Whilst an individual scene may not in itself cross the threshold of seriousness, taken together the Film makes a powerful comment about the claimant and the way he conducted himself when undertaking a senior professional role for a university.
“The poor way in which he was depicted as behaving towards Ms Langley was contrary to common shared values of our society and would have been recognised as such by the hypothetical reasonable viewer.”
Lewis rejected Taylor’s argument that a “hypothetical reasonable viewer” would have come away from the film thinking he was misogynist or sexist.
A Baby Cow spokesperson said: “We are proud to have represented Philippa Langley’s voice in The Lost King and we are pleased that the judge agrees that the film doesn’t portray Richard Taylor as misogynistic, or sexist, or disablist, as he claimed. We believe we will succeed in defending The Lost King and Baby Cow’s position.”
The ruling is notable amid an ongoing controversy over Netflix series Baby Reindeer, which told the “true story” of Richard Gadd’s experience with a stalker. Fiona Harvey, the woman alleged to be the stalker, is now suing Netflix in the U.S for defamation.