The Lost King is a 2022 British comedy drama film directed by Stephenm Frears and written by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, based on the 2013 book The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones. It is a dramatisation of the story of Philippa Langley, the woman who initiated the search to find King Richard III’s remains under a car park in Leicester. The film stars Sally Hawkins, Coogan, and Harry Lloyd.
Philippa Langley of Edinburgh fails to get a promotion at her long-time sales job because she has “issues”. She claims her ME is a real medical condition that has never affected her work. Her ex-husband John Langley regularly helps with their two teenage boys, and tells her to keep her job because they need the money. Philippa sees the play Richard III, and feels that the king is unfairly maligned as a hunchback, child killer, and usurper. At work, Philippa sees an apparition of the same Richard III actor in full costume staring at her; she leaves early with an anxiety attack. She sees Richard III again outside her window. She orders eight books about him, finding a card for the Richard III Society. She joins at her first meeting in Edinburgh when they agree he has been unfairly villified for over five hundred years.
Phillippa stops going to work, manages her ME with medication, and continually sees Richard III apparitions, and even starts talking to him. She obsessively researches Richard; sources say he was buried in 1485 in the Leicester Greyfriars Franciscan Priory choir area, with some saying his body was thrown into the River Soar. After Greyfriars was demolished during the 1530s Reformation, Leicester mayor Robert Herrick in about 1600 had built a shrine to Richard III in his garden over the grave.
Philippa attends a Leicester lecture on Richard, lying to her ex-husband about it being a work trip. She meets Dr. Ashdown-Hill, who is publishing a genetic genealogy study on a Canadian direct ancestor of Richard III’s sister. He tells her to look for Richard in open spaces in Leicester, because people for centuries have avoided building over old abbeys. While walking around Leicester looking for the ancient site of Greyfriars, and still seeing Richard III apparitions, she gets a strong feeling an “R” painted on a car park is the site of Richard’s grave. Philippa confesses to John she’s been researching Richard III’s grave instead of working because it energises her. John thinks she’s irresponsible and going mad. Later she convinces him to move in full-time for the kids so she can research Richard III full-time.
Philippa contacts University of Leicester archaeologist Richard Buckley about her feeling that Richard III is under the car park. Buckley thinks Philippa is a waste of time, but when the university cuts his archaeology projects, he gets back to her. Buckley finds an old map of Leicester marking Robert Herrick’s property, showing a possible public shrine in his garden. They overlay a modern map of Leicester and find that the shrine may be in the middle of the Social Services car park that Philippa had felt strongly about. Philippa and Buckley team up, with her pitching the Leicester City Council and potential funders. Richard Taylor of the Univeristy of Leicester thinks she lacks funding, and her amateur “feeling” that Richard III is under a car park is too risky. The City Council approves her plan anyway, but when the initial ground-radar survey finds no structures under the pavement, several funders drop out. Philippa turns to the Richard III Society to help crowd-fund her “Looking For Richard” project online, and the money pours in from around the world. They secure funding for three archaeological trenches.
On day one of the dig, Philippa gets Buckley to start trench one at the painted R spot, and they immediately find the legs of a skeleton. Buckley thinks it’s an outside graveyard for monks, not the choir graves for important individuals. Philippa confronts Richard Taylor for falsely claiming credit for leading the project. With three trenches underway, the archaeology staff focuses on expanding trench three, but Philippa wants to expose the complete skeleton in trench one. Buckley angrily relents and goes home while the crew digs her skeleton. The osteologist soon realizes it’s Richard III, with the correct kind of death-blow to the skull, a 30-year-old male, and a badly-curved spine.
As word spreads of the discovery, university leaders rush in to lead the project. They re-hire Richard Buckley, all the evidence confirms it’s Richard III, and Richard Taylor ignores Philippa’s emails desiring a royal coat of arms on the Richard III tomb, saying nothing shows Shakespeare was wrong. Richard III appears to Philippa one last time at Bosworth Field, where he thanks her and rides off. Richard gets a funeral fit for a king in Leicester Cathedral, where Philippa meets Pete, the actor who played Richard III in the Shakespeare play, and the same face that has been appearing to her. The closing credits say the Royal Family’s website has reinstated Richard as the rightful King of England 1483-1485, so he’s no longer a usurper. A shot of his tomb in Leicester Cathedral shows a Royal Coat of Arms. Philippa Langley is awarded an MBE in 2015.
