A ROMAN FOUND REVIEW: THE LOST KING
Directed by: Stephen Frears Written by: Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope Cast: Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan & Harry Lloyd
Sally Hawkins and Harry Lloyd in The Lost King Credit: Pathé UK
THE RATINGS:
Overall Rating : 7/10 (a great enjoyable watch but could have involved more drama to really emphasis the importance and incredible nature of the events)
Digging Action on Screen : 5/10 (the dig itself was a small part of the film however the actual sequence for the excavation of the skeleton was suspenseful and well shot, a good amount of dirt and scraping)
Accuracy: 8/10 (for Philippa’s story (not the whole story!) it is still a movie after all, creative license and all that)
THE REVIEW:
It was an evening that began with the culinary delights of Nandos. No seriously they’ve got a new spice flavour and a butterfly burger that proved to be the new favourite.
Turning up maybe just a little bit too early to the screen and armed with our film scran (sweet and salted popcorn: official dig scran rating of 9/10) we startled an Odeon employee still sweeping kernels out of our row. The popcorn didn’t quite make it to the film screening despite the Nando’s starter, main and two sides scranned beforehand. (Since when did the adverts last 40 mins!)
Turning up maybe just a little bit too early to the screen and armed with our film scran (sweet and salted popcorn: official dig scran rating of 9/10) we startled an Odeon employee still sweeping kernels out of our row.
Finally, the opening titles rolled, setting the scene to the latest watch in the digging film portfolio, The Lost King. A film that had already gained much controversy in the headlines, news that we purposefully stayed clear of wanting a fresh mind and clear perspective.
Based around the main character Philippa Langley, the film follows her story as she begins an amateur obsession with Richard III that soon leads to an academic battle for the hunt of his skeletal remains. You might remember the story from the headlines: The King Under the Carpark. Quite the 21st Century digging tale. Philippa, played by Sally Hawkins struggles with ME, a chronic fatigue condition which is causing her to not be taken seriously in her workplace and she often takes a stance when she feels there is an injustice towards others. This is partly the reason she connects with the story of Richard III as much of his history has been tainted by Tudor Propaganda published after his death.
The Lost King presents itself as a comedy drama, aiming to show the true story behind the hunt for Richard III through the eyes of Philippa Langley. Steve Coogan plays her ex-husband John who is rather reluctantly the support behind Philippa’s search; the two make a delightful on screen pairing and there is much humour and light to be found in their relationship.
Whilst we found ourselves chuckling at several points through the film (metaphors are wonderfully woven into the writing with Coogan exclaiming ‘You’ve got a gun to my head’ at the same time a ceremonial cannon sounds across Edinburgh) it wasn’t quite a fall out of your seat with laughter comedy drama.
You might remember the story from the headlines: The King Under the Carpark. Quite the 21st Century digging tale.
Sally Hawkins in The Lost King Credit: Pathé UK
Richard III himself was present throughout the film as an apparition of Philippas, which was meant to be a literal way of physically showing her obsession and feelings. However at some points this almost detracted from Philippa's portrayal, especially as on screen she was struggling with being taken seriously by the academics and then the next moment having a chat with Richard III’s ‘ghost’.
Regardless, the film entertained and left us wanting more, with a desire to research and learn about Richard III. Some of Philippa’s obsession had stayed with us off screen.
As metal detectorists (a hobby viewed as amateur within the archaeological world) we felt a strong connection to Philippa and her story, feeling there were several parallels that anybody with a strong passion into history can appreciate.
The amateur versus the ‘professionals’ is a strong plot for many dramas and indeed a successful one for films on similar themes, such as ‘The Dig’ which followed the excavations of Sutton Hoo by amateur archaeologist Basil Brown and the struggles he had against the professionals who chose to get involved after the discovery of a lifetime.
However one thing that ‘The Lost King’ doesn’t quite get across is the seriousness of Philippa Langley’s research and that the dig for Richard’s remains followed a seven and a half year enquiry. An enquiry, that in the film seems to be a recent obsession that rapidly escalates into a council meeting with the University of Leicester and potential funding candidates. This element of dramatisation makes Philippa appear more amateur than she really was, almost undermining the years of research that went behind the search as if all it took was just the right person to stumble onto Richard III’s grave site and have a ‘feeling’ (or ghostly apparition).
Despite this we do feel that you can’t knock the feelings, or ‘vibes’ as we like to call them here at Roman Found, as intuition and following the vibes has been a strong element to several of our major finds wandering the Lincolnshire landscape. Just wait until you hear the story behind our Gold Henry VII Half Angel find (one for a future article perhaps?) and everyone from our TikTok lives knows all about ‘Nigel’ our Roman Soldier who likes to lead us towards silver, so maybe the ghostly apparition of Richard III wasn’t too ridiculous after all!
The narrative is based on, as the film emphasises in the opening titles: HER story, which obviously will present a one sided version of the actual events. This has led to much controversy since the films release with even a lawsuit threatened by certain characters who feel they have been ‘villianised’ as part of the dramatisation of the film. Indeed the University of Leicester isn’t shown in the best light as part of the emphasis of Philippa’s struggle to be taken seriously in the stuffy academic world. This ‘villianisation’ is almost ironic of Richard III’s own villainisation after his death by the tudors, a metaphor perhaps, or history repeating itself? Giving us that underdog that we often crave. It does make a dramatic and relatable watch after all.
All in all it was a very enjoyable evening out to the big screen and whilst we felt Philippa’s story herself could have been portrayed with just a bit more oomph and recognition of how incredible it really was that a mother of two led a 500 year search for Richard III’s remains and actually found him under a social services car park, like c’mon what a story! We were deeply engaged and invested leaving us wanting more, more knowledge, more story, more history.
This ‘villianisation’ is almost ironic of Richard III’s own villainisation after his death by the tudors, a metaphor perhaps, or history repeating itself?
So we went searching for some… discovering local connections to Richard III and Langley’s latest historic search.
Thousands lined the streets of Leicester for Richard III’s reinterment but all eyes were on the 8 Lincoln soldiers who lowered his coffin into his newly commissioned tomb, complete with the Royal Coat of Arms inlaid onto the base in the traditional 16th century pietra - dura technique. A touch that wouldn’t have been possible without Philippa Langley’s battles to remove Richard III’s title as a usurper and reinstate him as a true monarch.
Following the successful search for Richard III Philippa Langley is now spearheading a new research mission into the ‘missing Princes’ : the sons of Edward IV who disappeared presumed dead, an act Richard III has long been portrayed to be behind. Evidence for this new search has been gathered from around the country with an important letter by Henry VII being discovered in the Grimsby local archives, a Lincolnshire town that at the time was a small fishing port with important trading connections.
Richard III himself stayed in Lincoln for 6 days in 1483 and it was there that he found out about the Buckingham Rebellion, a rather significant uprising against him. With such connection to Richard III here in Lincolnshire could the missing piece of Langley’s latest historic investigation be hidden here?
Maybe there’s all the makings of a new film with Lincolnshire roots debunking the 500 year old mystery of the missing princes. The next step in putting Richard III to rest…
